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

EL'S ABODE
* and originally even paludal region, the black buffalo, Bos bubalus,
f eajoyed living from prehistorical times19. This area situated near
r? Mount Hermon and the Jordan's sources belonged thus to the geor"1
graphical horizon of the Ugaritic myths. As for Mount Hermon itself,
p5 it is also mentioned in these texts under its ancient name of Sarydn 20.
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Now, Mount Hermon was a sacred mountain, as shown by the name
itself of hermon, which means something like «taboo» or « sacred
precinct», just as the Arabic karam. Its saeredness may be compared
with the inviolability of Mount Sinai as described in Ex. 19,12 and 23.
The geographical name of the Hermon range was Sarydnf^iryon Zl,
22
Sirdva or Sird 23, which all occur in parallelism with
>19 Cf. F.-M. ABEL, Geographic de la Palestine (Etudes Bibliques), I, Paris, 1933,
p. 221; J. PERROT, art. Prehistoire palestinienne, in Supplement au Dictionnaire de la
Bible, fasc. 43, Paris, 1968, col. 286-446 (see eol. 411-412). — A. CAQUOT and M. SZNYCEB,
_ in Les Religions du Proche-Orient asiatique, Paris, 1970, p. 437, n. 1, suggest to localize
Smk in the paludal regions of the Orontes, the Nahr el-'Asi. But no positive argument
favours this location.
20 OTA 4 (n AB), vi, 19 and 21; UT 51, vi, 19 and 21. The vocalization is supplied
by the syllabic spelling Sa-ri-ia-na of various texts from Bpgazkoy (see below, p. 25).
An older pronunciation Saryanu may be attested by the Egyptian execration texts
;^* edited by G. POSENER, Princes et pays d'Asie et de Nubie. Textes hieratiques sur des
figurines d'envoutement du Moyen Umpire, Bruxellcs, 1940, E 30 : $( ?)/^( t)nw, where
A. ALT, Herren und Herrensitze Palastinas im Anfang des Zweiten Jahrtausends v. Chr.,
in Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins, 64, 1941, p. 21-39 (see p. 33), has suggested
to recognize the biblical fiiryon. This article has been reprinted in A. ALT, Kleine Schriften
zur Geschichte des Volkes Israel, III, Miinchen, 1959, p. 57-71 (see p. 67). Cf. also L.-
H. VINCENT, Les pays bibliques et VMgypte a la fin de la XIIe dynastie egyptienne, in
Vivre et Penser, 2, 1942, p. 187-212 (voir p. 198); B. MAISLER (MAZAR), in Eretz-Israel, 3,
1954, p. 25, quoted by A. MALAMAT, Campaigns to the Mediterranean by lahdunlim and
Other Early Mesopotamian Rulers, in Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger (Assyriological
Studies, 16), Chicago, 1965, p. 365-373 (see p. 373, n. 41).
21 This name occurs in Hebrew (Deut. 3,9; Ps. 29,6), in Aramaic (Siryon), in texts
from Bogazkoy (see below, p. 25), in Ugaritic (see the note above), and, with the apheresis
of the final n, in Old Babylonian (Sa-ri-a; see below).
.. 22 This form of the name is found in Hebrew (Deut. 3,9; Ez. 27,5; Cant. 4,8; I Chron.
5,23), in the original of I Enoch 13,9 (see below, p. 32), in Assyrian texts, and in Arabic.
The cuneiform spelling Sarni-ru occurs in the annalistie reports of the Syrian campaign
of Shalmaneser III in 841 B.C. The most known of these texts has been published in
H.C. RAWLQfsojiT, The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, III, London, 1870,
pi. 5, No. 6, line 6. The best recent transliteration is that of E. MICHEL, Die Assur-Texte
Salmanassars III. (858-824), § 22, in Die Welt des Orients, I, 1947-1952, p. 265-268.
Translations can be found in D.D. LTTCKESTBILL, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia,
I, Chicago, 1926, § 672, and in J.B. PEITOHABD (ed.), ANET, 3rd ed., Princeton,
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