A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture, and Literature - enenuru

Ancient Ugarit 19
cosmos, and he Figures prominently in the Keret and Aqhat epics
(see exercises §6.4–6.6). El is given the title “father of the gods,”
although in the Baal Cycle he seems passive and relegates the
mundane affairs of the world to his children. El is nevertheless the
patron deity of the king. His wife Athirat might be compared with
the Canaanite and Israelite Asherah. In the well-known Hebrew
inscriptions from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud and Khirbet el-Qom, Asherah
seems to be the consort of the Israelite patron deity, Yahweh. The
El names in early Israelite literature (e.g., El {Olam, “God
Everlasting” or El {Elyon, “God Most High”) led Frank Moore
Cross to argue that Yahweh was originally an El Figure who then
developed a separate identity, 15 perhaps in conjunction with the
rise of the Israelite monarchy. Athirat’s role in Ugaritic ideology is
suggested by her title, “the Great Lady.”
A second tier of deities might be described as the “divine
children.” 16 These gods can be associated with natural phenomena.
Baal is the storm god and the young vigorous son of Dagan. Baal
also calls El, who was the patron of the gods (see exercise §6.3), his
“father,” although this may be understood in a more generic sense.
Yamm was associated with the sea, Shapsh with the sun, and Yarih
with the moon. Other deities are associated with crafts or
existential realities such as Mot with death, Anat with hunting and
warfare, Kothar with technology, Kinnar with the lyre, and Reshef
with pestilence. Another tier of minor gods were servants of the
other deities.
The temples of Baal and Dagan overshadowed the physical
space of the city of Ugarit with their size and location. Only the
palace was larger. These large temples would have required
considerable support staff including priests, scribes, musicians,
singers, and maintenance personnel. We know of at least twelve
15 See Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge, MA, 1974),
44–75, and Cross, “’el,” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament,
volume 1, 242–61.
16 For the tiers of the Ugaritic Pantheon see M. Smith, The Origins of Biblical
Monotheism (Oxford/New York, 1999), 46–50.