Edward Lipinski's "El's Abode: Mythological Traditions Related to ...

40 E.
According to another legend, Moses would have intended to enter
Canaan through this secret way, but God did not accept his request127.
One might suppose that the name (PtaA?? was the translation of an
old Semitic name ks, and that the gr ks, «the mountain of the Cup »5
where • El dwells 1285 is precisely Mount Hermon. But the connexion
between that name and the Birket er-Ran is not otherwise justified.
There exists instead another tradition concerning the cavern of
Banias itself, which could suggest to localize El's abode in the recesses
of Mount Hermon. According to the Midrash Rabba on Genesis, S3
(67a), this cavern was one of the outlets of the Deep or Ocean from
which came the waters of the Flood 129. A rabbinical tradition identified
thus that source of the Jordan with one of the « fountains of the great
Ocean» (tehom rabba), mentioned in Gen. 7,11 and 8,2 13°. In accordance
with ancient cosmographical ideas, the outburst of water from
the cavern of Banias has thus been conceived as an eruption of the
subterranean ocean on which the earth was believed to rest. On the
other.hand, the Testament of Levi 2,7 locates above Mount Hermon
«a great sea hanging»131, which is the celestial ocean. These cosmological
ideas proceed in fact.from an old tradition, as can be seen
from Ps. 42 : 7-8 :
« Upon me my soul is east down,
therefore I remember thee
from the land of Jordan and of Hermonl32,
from the mountain of Mis'ar133.
Ocean calls to Ocean
in the roar of thy water-tunnels;
all thy breakers and thy waves
passed over me ».
127 Mekhilta on Exodus 17,14, ed. M. Friedmann, p. 55b. Cf. also 8iphre on Numbers,
135 (51a).
128 CTA 1 (vi AB), 111,12; UT