Ugarit, Ugaritic mythology

Ugarit
Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit
Shown within Syria
Location	Latakia Governorate, Syria
Region	Fertile Crescent
Coordinates	35.602°N 35.782°E
Type	settlement
History
Founded	ca. 6000 BC
Abandoned	ca. 1190 BC
Periods	Neolithic–Late Bronze Age
Cultures	Canaanite
Events	Bronze Age Collapse
Site notes
Excavation dates	1928–present
Archaeologists	Claude F. A. Schaeffer
Condition	ruins
Ownership	Public
Public access	Yes

Excavated ruins at Ras Shamra

Ugarit (/ˌuːɡəˈriːt, ˌjuː-/; Ugaritic: 𐎜𐎂𐎗𐎚, ʼUgrt; Arabic: أوغاريت‎) was an ancient port city, the ruins of which are located at what is now called Ras Shamra (sometimes written "Ras Shamrah"; Arabic: رأس شمرة‎, literally "Cape Fennel"),^[1] a headland in northernSyria. Ugarit had close connections to the Hittite Empire, sent tribute to Egypt at times, and maintained trade and diplomatic connections with Cyprus (then called Alashiya), documented in the archives recovered from the site and corroborated by Mycenaeanand Cypriot pottery found there. The polity was at its height from ca. 1450 BC until 1200 BC.

History[edit]

Ras Shamra lies on the Mediterranean coast, some 11 kilometres (7 mi) north ofLatakia, near modern Burj al-Qasab.

Though the site is thought to have been inhabited earlier, Neolithic Ugarit was already important enough to be fortified with a wall early on, perhaps by 6000 BC. Ugarit was important perhaps because it was both a port and at the entrance of the inland trade route to the Euphrates and Tigris lands.^{[citation needed]}. The city reached its heyday between 1800 and 1200 BC, when it ruled a trade-based coastal kingdom, trading with Egypt, Cyprus, the Aegean, Syria, the Hittites, and much of the eastern Mediterranean.^[2]

The first written evidence mentioning the city comes from the nearby city of Ebla, ca. 1800 BC. Ugarit passed into the sphere of influence of Egypt, which deeply influenced its art. Evidence of the earliest Ugaritic contact with Egypt (and the first exact dating of Ugaritic civilization) comes from a carnelian bead identified with the Middle Kingdom pharaoh Senusret I, 1971 BC – 1926 BC. A stela and a statuette from the Egyptian pharaohs Senusret III and Amenemhet III have also been found. However, it is unclear at what time these monuments were brought to Ugarit. Amarna letters from Ugarit ca. 1350 BC record one letter each from Ammittamru I, Niqmaddu II, and his queen.^{[citation needed]}

Boar rhyton, Mycenaean ceramic imported to Ugarit, 14th–13th century BC (Louvre)

From the 16th to the 13th century BC, Ugarit remained in regular contact with Egypt and Alashiya (Cyprus).^{[citation needed]}

In the second millennium BC, Ugarit's population was Amorite, and the Ugaritic language probably has a direct Amoritic origin.^[3] The kingdom of Ugarit may have controlled about 2,000 km² on average.^[3]

During some of its history it would have been in close proximity to, if not directly within theHittite Empire.^[4]

Destruction[edit]

Kings of Ugarit[edit]

Ruler	Reigned	Comments
Ammittamru I	ca. 1350 BC
Niqmaddu II	ca. 1350–1315 BC	Contemporary of Suppiluliuma I of the Hittites
Arhalba	ca. 1315–1313 BC
Niqmepa	ca. 1313–1260 BC	Treaty with Mursili II of the Hittites, Son of Niqmadu II,
Ammittamru II	ca. 1260–1235 BC	Contemporary of Bentisina of Amurru, Son of Niqmepa
Ibiranu	ca. 1235–1225/20 BC	addressee of the letter of Piha-walwi
Niqmaddu III	ca. 1225/20 – 1215 BC
Ammurapi	ca. 1200 BC	Contemporary of Chancellor Bay of Egypt, Ugarit is destroyed

Language and literature[edit]

Ugarit
Salhi • Minet el-Beida Ras Ibn Hani • Royal Palace

Kings
Ammittamru I • Niqmaddu II Arhalba • Niqmepa Ammittamru II • Ibiranu Niqmaddu III • Ammurapi

Culture
Language • Alphabet • Grammar Baal Cycle • Legend of Keret Danel • Hurrian songs Baal with Thunderbolt

Alphabet[edit]

Main article: Ugaritic alphabet

Scribes in Ugarit appear to have originated the "Ugaritic alphabet" around 1400 BC: 30 letters, corresponding to sounds, were inscribed on clay tablets; although they are cuneiform in appearance, that is, impressed in clay with the end of a stylus, they bear no relation to Mesopotamian cuneiform signs. A debate exists as to whether the Phoenician or Ugaritic "alphabet" was first. While the letters show little or no formal similarity, the standard letter order (preserved in the Latin alphabet as A, B, C, D, etc.) shows strong similarities between the two, suggesting that the Phoenician and Ugaritic systems were not wholly independent inventions.^[8]

Ugaritic language[edit]

Main articles: Ugaritic language and Ugaritic grammar

The existence of the Ugaritic language is attested to in texts from the 14th through the 12th century BC. Ugaritic is usually classified as a Northwest Semitic language and therefore related to Hebrew, Aramaic, andPhoenician, among others. Its grammatical features are highly similar to those found in Classical Arabic andAkkadian. It possesses two genders (masculine and feminine), three cases for nouns and adjectives(nominative, accusative, and genitive); three numbers: (singular, dual, and plural); and verb aspects similar to those found in other Northwest Semitic languages. The word order in Ugaritic is verb–subject–object (VSO); possessed–possessor (NG) (first element dependent on the function and second always in genitive case); and noun–adjective (NA) (both in the same case (i.e. congruent)).^[9]

Ugaritic literature[edit]

Apart from royal correspondence with neighboring Bronze Age monarchs, Ugaritic literature from tablets found in the city's libraries include mythological texts written in a poetic narrative, letters, legal documents such as land transfers, a few international treaties, and a number of administrative lists. Fragments of several poetic works have been identified: the "Legend of Keret," the "Legend of Danel", theBa'al tales that detail Baal-Hadad's conflicts with Yam and Mot, among other fragments.^[10]

The discovery of the Ugaritic archives in 1929 has been of great significance to biblical scholarship, as these archives for the first time provided a detailed description of Canaanite religious beliefs, during the period directly preceding the Israelite settlement. These texts show significant parallels to Hebrew biblical literature, particularly in the areas of divine imagery and poetic form. Ugaritic poetry has many elements later found in Hebrew poetry: parallelisms, metres, and rhythms. The discoveries at Ugarit have led to a new appraisal of the Hebrew Bible as literature.

Ugaritic religion[edit]

The important textual finds from the site shed a great deal of light upon the cultic life of the city.^[11]

The foundations of the Bronze Age city Ugarit were divided into quarters. In the north-east quarter of the walled enclosure, the remains of three significant religious buildings were discovered, including two temples (of the gods Baal and Dagon) and a building referred to a the library or the high priest's house. Within these structures atop the acropolis numerous invaluable mythological texts were found. These texts have provided the basis for understanding of the Canaanite mythological world and religion. The Baal cycle represents Baal's destruction of Yam (the chaos sea monster), demonstrating the relationship of Canaanite chaoskampf with those of Mesopotamia and the Aegean: a warrior god rises up as the hero of the new pantheon to defeat chaos and bring order.

Archaeology[edit]

A Baal statuette from Ugarit

After its destruction in the early 12th century BC, Ugarit's location was forgotten until 1928 when a peasant accidentally opened an old tomb while ploughing a field. The discovered area was the necropolis of Ugarit located in the nearby seaport of Minet el-Beida. Excavations have since revealed a city with a prehistory reaching back to ca. 6000 BC.^{[citation needed]}

The site is a sixty-five foot high mound. A brief investigation of a tomb at Minet el-Beida being ransacked by locals was conducted by Léon Albanèse in 1928, who also examined the main mound of Ras Shamra.^[12] The first scientific excavations of Ugarit were undertaken by archaeologist Claude Schaeffer from the Musée archéologique in Strasbourg in 1929.^[13] Work continued under Schaeffer until 1970, with a break from 1940 to 1947 because of World War II.^[14]^[15]

The excavations uncovered a royal palace of ninety rooms laid out around eight enclosed courtyards, and many ambitious private dwellings. Crowning the hill where the city was built were two main temples: one to Baal the "king", son of El, and one to Dagon, the chthonic god of fertility and wheat. 23 stelae were unearthed during excavations at Ugarit. Nine of the stelae, including the famous Baal with Thunderbolt, were unearthed near theTemple of Baal, four in the Temple of Dagon and further ten around the city.^[16]

On excavation of the site, several deposits of cuneiform clay tablets were found; all dating from the last phase of Ugarit, around 1200 BC. These represented a palace library, a temple library and—apparently unique in the world at the time—two private libraries, one belonging to a diplomat named Rapanu. The libraries at Ugarit contained diplomatic, legal, economic, administrative, scholastic, literary and religious texts. The tablets are written in Sumerian, Hurrian, Akkadian (the language of diplomacy at this time in the ancient Near East), and Ugaritic (a previously unknown language). No less than seven different scripts were in use at Ugarit: Egyptian and Luwianhieroglyphs, and Cypro-Minoan, Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian, and Ugaritic cuneiform.

During excavations in 1958, yet another library of tablets was uncovered. These were, however, sold on the black market and not immediately recovered. The "Claremont Ras Shamra Tablets" are now housed at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, School of Religion, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California. They were edited by Loren R. Fisher in 1971.^[17]

After 1970, the excavations were led by Henri de Contenson followed by Jean Margueron, Marguerite Yon, and then Yves Calvet and Bassam Jamous in succession ending in 2000.^[18]

In 1973, an archive containing around 120 tablets was discovered during rescue excavations; in 1994 more than 300 further tablets were discovered on this site in a large ashlar building, covering the final years of the Bronze Age city's existence.

The most important piece of literature recovered from Ugarit is arguably the Baal cycle, describing the basis for the religion and cult of theCanaanite Baal.

Also found on tablets were the Hurrian songs, including the famous hymn to the moon goddess Nikkal, the oldest surviving substantialmusical notation in the world. It offers both words and music, which were a series of 2-toned intervals played up a 9-string lyre.^[19]

Documents unearthed have revealed many parallels between ancient Canaanite and Israelite practices. Levirate marriage, giving the eldest son a larger share of the inheritance or redeeming the first-born son were practices common to the people of Ugarit.^{[citation needed]}

Beliefs[edit]

Pantheon[edit]

Ba'al with raised arm, 14th-12th century BC, found at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), Louvre

A great number of deities were worshiped by the followers of the Canaanite religion; this is a partial listing:

Anat, virgin goddess of war and strife, sister and putative mate of Ba'al Hadad
Athirat, "walker of the sea", Mother Goddess, wife of El (also known as Elat and after the Bronze Age as Asherah)
Athtart, better known by her Greek name Astarte, assists Anat in The Myth of Ba'al
Attar, god of the morning star ("son of the morning") who tried to take the place of the dead Baal and failed. Male counterpart of Athtart.
Baalat or Baalit, the wife or female counterpart of Baal (also Belili)
Ba'al Hadad (lit. master of thunder), storm god.
Baal Hammon, god of fertility and renewer of all energies in the Phoenician colonies of the Western Mediterranean
Dagon, god of crop fertility and grain, father of Ba'al Hadad
El Elyon (lit. God Most High) and El; also transliterated as Ilu
Eshmun, god, or as Baalat Asclepius, goddess, of healing
Ishat, goddess of fire. She was slain by Anat.^[1]^[2]^[3]
Kotharat, goddesses of marriage and pregnancy
Kothar-wa-Khasis, the skilled, god of craftsmanship
Lotan, the twisting, seven-headed serpent ally of Yam
Marqod, God of Dance
Melqart, king of the city, the underworld and cycle of vegetation in Tyre
Molech or Moloch, putative god of fire^[4]
Mot or Mawat, god of death (not worshiped or given offerings)
Nikkal-wa-Ib, goddess of orchards and fruit
Qadeshtu, lit. "Holy One", putative goddess of love.
Resheph, god of plague and of healing
Shachar and Shalim, twin gods of dawn and dusk, respectively. Shalim was linked to the netherworld via the evening star and associated with peace^[5]
Shamayim, (lit. skies) the god of the heavens
Shapash, also transliterated Shapshu, goddess of the sun; sometimes equated with the Mesopotamian sun god Shemesh^[6] whose gender is disputed^[7]
Yam (lit. sea-river) the god of the sea and the river,^[8] also called Judge Nahar (judge of the river).^[9]^[10]^[11]
Sydyk, the god of righteousness or justice, sometimes twinned with Misor, and linked to the planet Jupiter^[12]^[13]
Yahweh may exist as an ending of some Amorite male names,^[14] though the only Canaanite mention of Yahweh, found on theMesha Stele, refers to the god of Israel contrasted with Chemosh.^[15]
Yarikh, god of the moon and husband of Nikkal

Afterlife; Cult of the Dead[edit]

According to Canaanite beliefs, when the physical body dies, the npš (usually translated as "soul") departs from the body to the land ofMot. Bodies were buried with grave goods, and offerings of food and drink were made to the dead to ensure that they would not bother the living. Dead relatives were venerated and sometimes asked for help.^[16]^[17]

Cosmology[edit]

So far, none of the inscribed tablets found in 1929 in the Canaanite city of Ugarit (destroyed ca. 1200 BC) has revealed a cosmology. Any idea of one is often reconstructed from the much later Phoenician text by Philo of Byblos (c. 64–141 AD), after much Greek and Roman influence in the region.

According to the pantheon, known in Ugarit as 'ilhm (=Elohim) or the children of El, supposedly obtained by Philo of Byblos fromSanchuniathon of Berythus (Beirut) the creator was known as Elion, who was the father of the divinities, and in the Greek sources he was married to Beruth (Beirut = the city). This marriage of the divinity with the city would seem to have Biblical parallels too with the stories of the link between Melkart and Tyre; Chemosh and Moab; Tanit and Baal Hammon in Carthage.

From the union of El Elyon and his consort were born Uranus (Pronounced Oo(as in room)-ran-aws) and Ge (Pronounced Yee), Greek names for the "Heaven" and the "Earth".

In Canaanite mythology there were twin mountains Targhizizi and Tharumagi which hold the firmament up above the earth-circling ocean, thereby bounding the earth. W. F. Albright, for example, says that El Shaddai is a derivation of a Semitic stem that appears in the Akkadian shadû ("mountain") and shaddā`û or shaddû`a ("mountain-dweller"), one of the names of Amurru. Philo of Byblos states that Atlas was one of the Elohim, which would clearly fit into the story of El Shaddai as "God of the Mountain(s)." Harriet Lutzky has presented evidence that Shaddai was an attribute of a Semitic goddess, linking the epithet with Hebrew šad "breast" as "the one of the Breast". The idea of two mountains being associated here as the breasts of the Earth, fits into the Canaanite mythology quite well. The ideas of pairs of mountains seem to be quite common in Canaanite mythology (similar to Horeb and Sinai in the Bible). The late period of this cosmology makes it difficult to tell what influences (Roman, Greek, or Hebrew) may have informed Philo's writings.

Mythology[edit]

In the Baal cycle, Ba'al Hadad is challenged by and defeats Yam, using two magical weapons (called "Driver" and "Chaser") made for him by Kothar-wa-Khasis. Afterward, with the help of Athirat and Anat, Ba'al persuades El to allow him a palace. El approves, and the palace is built by Kothar-wa-Khasis. After the palace is constructed, Ba'al gives forth a thunderous roar out of the palace window and challenges Mot. Mot enters through the window and swallows Ba'al, sending him to the Underworld. With no one to give rain, there is a terrible drought in Ba'al's absence. The other deities, especially El and Anat, are distraught that Ba'al has been taken to the Underworld. Anat goes to the Underworld, attacks Mot with a knife, grinds him up into pieces, and scatters him far and wide. With Mot defeated, Ba'al is able to return and refresh the Earth with rain.^[18]

History[edit]

The Canaanites[edit]

Main article: Canaanites

The Levant region was inhabited by people who themselves referred to the land as 'ca-na-na-um' as early as the mid-third millennium BCE.^[19] There are a number of possible etymologies for the word.

Some^[who?] suggest the name comes from the Semitic word "cana'ani", meaning merchant, for which the Phoenicians became justly famous.

The Akkadian word "kinahhu", however, referred to the purple-colored wool, dyed from the Murex molluscs of the coast, which was throughout history a key export of the region. When the Greeks later traded with the Canaanites, this meaning of the word seems to have predominated as they called the Canaanites the Phoenikes or "Phoenicians", which may derive from the Greek word "Phoenix" meaning crimson or purple, and again described the cloth for which the Greeks also traded. The Romans transcribed "phoenix" to "poenus", thus calling the descendants of the Canaanite settlers in Carthage "Punic".

Thus while "Phoenician" and "Canaanite" refer to the same culture, archaeologists and historians commonly refer to the Bronze Age, pre-1200 BC Levantines as Canaanites and their Iron Age descendants, particularly those living on the coast, as Phoenicians. More recently, the term Canaanite has been used for the secondary Iron Age states of the interior, that were not ruled by Aramaean peoples, a separate and closely related ethnic group which included the Philistines and the states of Israel and Judah.^[20]

Influences[edit]

Canaanite religion was strongly influenced by their more powerful and populous neighbors, and shows clear influence of Mesopotamianand Egyptian religious practices. Like other people of the Ancient Near East Canaanite religious beliefs were polytheistic, with families typically focusing worship on ancestral household gods and goddesses, the Elohim, while acknowledging the existence of other deitiessuch as Baal and El. Kings also played an important religious role and in certain ceremonies, such as the sacred marriage of the New Year Festival may have been revered as gods. "At the center of Canaanite religion was royal concern for religious and political legitimacy and the imposition of a divinely ordained legal structure, as well as peasant emphasis on fertility of the crops, flocks, and humans."^[21]

Contact with other areas[edit]

Canaanite religion was influenced by its peripheral position, intermediary between Egypt and Mesopotamia, whose religions had a growing impact upon Canaanite religion. For example during the Hyksos period, when chariot-mounted maryannu ruled in Egypt, at their capital city of Avaris, Baal became associated with the Egyptian god Set, and was considered identical – particularly with Set in his form as Sutekh. Iconographically henceforth Baal was shown wearing the crown of Lower Egypt and shown in the Egyptian-like stance, one foot set before the other. Similarly Athirat (known by her later Hebrew name Asherah), Athtart (known by her later Greek name Astarte), and Anath henceforth were portrayed wearing Hathor-like Egyptian wigs.

From the other direction, Jean Bottero has suggested that Yah of Ebla (a possible precursor of Yam) was equated with theMesopotamian god Ea during the Akkadian period. In the Middle and Late Bronze Age, there are also strong Hurrian and Mitanniteinfluences upon the Canaanite religion. The Hurrian goddess Hebat was worshiped in Jerusalem, and Baal was closely considered equivalent to the Hurrian storm god Teshub and the Hittite storm god Tarhunt. Canaanite divinities seem to have been almost identical in form and function to the neighboring Aramaeans to the east, and Baal Hadad and El can be distinguished amongst earlier Amorites, who at the end of the Early Bronze Age invaded Mesopotamia.

Carried west by Phoenician sailors, Canaanite religious influences can be seen in Greek mythology, particularly in the tripartite division between the Olympians Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, mirroring the division between Baal, Yam and Mot, and in the story of the Labours of Hercules, mirroring the stories of the Tyrian Melkart, who was often equated with Heracles.

Hebrew Bible[edit]

El Elyon also appears in Baalam's story in Numbers and in Moses song in Deuteronomy 32:8. The Masoretic Texts suggest:

When the Most High (`Elyōn) divided to the nations their inheritance, he separated the sons of man (Ādām); he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the sons of Israel"

Sources[edit]

The sources for Canaanite religion are literary sources, mainly from Late Bronze Age Ugarit^[22] and supplemented by biblical sources, and from archaeological discoveries.

Literary sources[edit]

Until the excavation of Ras Shamra in Northern Syria (the site historically known as Ugarit), and the discovery of its Bronze Age archive of clay tablet alphabetic cuneiform texts, little was known of Canaanite religion, as papyrus seems to have been the preferred writing medium. Unlike in Egypt, where papyrus may survive centuries in the extremely dry climate, these have simply decayed in the humidMediterranean climate.^[23] As a result, the accounts contained within the Bible were almost the only sources of information on ancient Canaanite religion. This was supplemented by a few secondary and tertiary Greek sources (Lucian of Samosata's De Dea Syria (The Syrian Goddess), fragments of the Phoenician History of Philo of Byblos, and the writings of Damascius). More recently detailed study of the Ugaritic material, other inscriptions from the Levant and also of the Ebla archive from Tel Mardikh, excavated in 1960 by a joint Italo-Syrian team, have cast more light on the early Canaanite religion.^[23]^[24]

The ruins of the excavated city of Ras Shamra, or Ugarit.

According to The Encyclopedia of Religion, the Ugarit texts were one part of a larger religion, that was based on the religious teachings of Babylon. The Canaanite scribes that produced theBaal texts were also trained to write in Babylonian cuniform, including Sumerian and Akkadian texts of every genre.^[25]

Archaeological sources[edit]

Archaeological excavations in the last few decades have unearthed more about the religion of the ancient Canaanites.^[20] The excavation of the city of Ras Shamra and the discovery of its Bronze Age archive of clay tablet alphabetic cuneiform texts, helped provide a wealth of new information. More recently, detailed study of the Ugaritic material, other inscriptions from the Levant and also of the Ebla archive from Tel Mardikh, excavated in 1960 by a joint Italo-Syrian team, have cast more light on the early Canaanite religion.

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