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

56 E. LIPI&SKI
to these mountains, when it identifies Mount Zion with «the recesses
of the north » 2U, transferring to Zion the religious significance of the
divine Mount of the Assembly 212. To the same mountain seems even
to allude I Enoch 25,3 : « This high mountain which thou hast seen,
whose summit is like the throne of the Lord, is His throne ». It results
from I Enoch 25,5 that this mountain is in the north.
In the light of these mythological allusions to the abode of the gods
in the mountains of Armenia, the only explicit mention of El's abode
at the sources of the Euphrates acquires new dimensions.
A Late Hittite version of a Canaanite myth found in Bogazkoy 21S
tells us that the Storm-god, who must be in this context Ba'ai-Hadad,
visited his father El-ku-ne-er-sa, i.e., « El-owner-of-the-earth » 214, who
was living in a tent at the sources of the Mala river 215, which is the
Upper Euphrates 216. We are not concerned here with the myth as
such, but only with the tradition according to which El's abode was
at the sources of the Euphrates, i.e., precisely in the region where
other traditions localised Paradise and the Mount of the divine Assembly,
the mountain of darkness and the entrance to the nether
world. The use of the word « tent >>, which is employed in West Semitic
211 So J. MORGENSTERN, Psalm 48, in Hebrew Union College Annual, 16, 1941, p. 1-95
(see p. 47 ff.).
212 Cf. JR. DE LANGHE, Les textes de Mas Shamra - Ugarit et leurs rapports avec le
milieu de VAncien Testament, Gembloux-Paris, 1945, vol.11, p. 242; E. PODECHARD,
Le Psautier. Traduction litterale et explication historiqne, I, Psaumes 1-75 (Bibliotheque
de la Faculte Catholique de Theologie de Lyon, 3), Lyon, 1949, p. 214; M. DAHOOD,
Psalms / : 1-50 (The Anchor Bible, 16), New York, 1966, p. 289; A.R. JOHNSON, Sacral
Kingship in Ancient Israel, 2nd ed., Cardiff, 1967, p. 75, n. 2.
213 Cf. H. OTTEN, Kanaandische Mythen aus Hattusa-Bogazkoy, in Mitteilungen der
Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, 85, 1953, p. 27-38 (see p. 30 ff.); IB., Ein kanaanaischer
Mythus aus Bogazkoy, in Mitteilungen des Institute fur Orientforschung, 1, 1953, p. 125-
150; E. VON SCHTTLER, in H.W. HAUSSIG (ed.), Go'tter und Mythen im Vorderen Orient
(Worterbuch der Mythologie, I Abt., 1), Stuttgart, 1965, p. 159; M.A. HOFFNEB, The
Elkunirsa Myth reconsidered, in Revue Hittite et Asianique, 23, 1965, p. 5-16; A. GOETZE,
in JiB. PRITCHARD (ed.), ANET, 3rd ed., p. 519.
214 For this translation and the questions connected with it, ef. E. LIPIJSSKI, La
Royaide de Yahwe dans la poesie et le cidte de Vancien Israel, p. 418-420, where further
references are given.
215 Line 6 of the text.
216 M.H. POPE, El in the Ugaritic Texts, p. 66, quotes the myth from Bogazkoy, but
adds immediately : « It is clear, however, that this is not his regular abode, but that he
is living away from his spouse and house ».
*'