Ritual and Cult at Ugarit

by Dennis Pardee

Overview

The Ugaritic ritual texts provide the only extensive documentary data for Late Bronze cultic practice in the greater Syro-Palestinian region. These texts, in a West-Semitic language that belongs to the same family as Hebrew and Aramaic, reflect the actual practice of a sacrificial cult in the city of Ugarit in the late twelfth-early eleventh centuries B.C.E. Based on new collations of the tablets, these texts and translations provide ready access to this direct witness to the form taken by one of the predecessors of the biblical sacrificial cult. In addition to the narrowly ritual texts, which were composed in prose and in a very laconic form of expression, a number of poetic texts are presented that reveal the ideological link that existed between cultic practice and the concept of royalty. While the prose ritual texts document a regular system of offerings to the great deities of the pantheon, related directly to the lunar cycle and less directly to the solar year, some of the poetic texts reveal the desire on the part of the kings of Ugarit to maintain ties with their departed ancestors. The kings saw their effective power as consisting of a continuum from the royal ancestors through to the reigning king and the passage of this power as being effected by ritual practice. More mundane concerns were also addressed ritually, such as protecting horses or other equids from snakebite, finding a cure for a sick child, or defending people from attack by sorcerers. The practice of divination at Ugarit is documented by other texts, both in the form of “manuals,” collections of omens from past practice, and in the form of accounts of real-world consultations of a divinatory priest by someone seeking guidance.

Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589830264
Publisher:	Society of Biblical Literature
Publication date:	07/01/2002
Series:	Writings from the Ancient World , #10
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	316
Sales rank:	697,040
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Dennis Pardee, Ph.D. (1974), University of Chicago, is Professor of Northwest Semitic Philology at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Table of Contents

	Series Editor's Foreword	ix
	Abbreviations	xi
	Explanation of Signs	xiii
	Introduction	1
	The Texts	9
Part 1	The Sacrificial Cult
I.	Deity Lists	11
1.	RS 1.017/RS 24.264[superscript +]/RS 20.024/RS 24.643: 1-9	12
2.	RS 6.138	16
3.	RS 92.2004/RS 24.643	17
4.	RS 24.246	19
5.	RS 4.474	21
II.	Prescriptive Sacrificial Rituals	25
	Rituals for a Single Month	26
6.	RS 1.009/RS 24.253/RS 24.284 (month name lost or never indicated)	26
7.	RS 24.248 (month name lost or never indicated)	34
8.	RS 24.256 (month name lost)	36
9.	RS 24.276 (month name lost or never indicated)	39
10.	RS 24.298 (month name lost)	40
	Rituals for Two Months	40
11.	RS 24.249 (Ibalatu?-Hiyyaru)	41
12.	RS 24.643 (Ibalatu?-Hiyyaru?)	44
13.	RS 24.266 (Ibalatu-Hiyyaru?)	50
14.	RS 24.250[superscript +] (Hallatu?-Gannu)	53
15.	RS 1.003 (Rasu-yeni-nql?)/RS 18.056 (Ra'su-yeni-s[...])	56
	Ritual for a Single Day: A Royal Ritual
16.	RS 24.260	66
	Ritual for a Day and a Night
17.	RS 1.001	67
	An Entry Ritual Extending Over Two Days
18.	RS 1.005	69
	Contemplation Rituals	72
19.	RS 19.013	73
20.	RIH 77/2B[superscript +]	74
21.	RIH 77/10B[superscript +]	76
	Texts with No Stated Time Frame: Ritual for National Unity	77
22.	RS 1.002	77
	A Ritual for the Gods of the Land
23.	RS [Varia 20]	84
	A Funerary Ritual in Poetic Form
24.	RS 34.126	85
	Hurro-Ugaritic Bilinguals	88
25.	RS 24.254: Sacrifices	89
26.	RS 24.255: A Three-Day Sacrificial Rite Followed by a Divine Betrothal Rite	90
27.	RS 24.261: Sacrificial Ritual of 'Attartu	93
28.	RS 24.291: Three-Day Sacrificial Ritual for the Bed of Pidray	96
III.	Descriptions of Sacrificial Rituals	117
29.	RS 1.019: A Ritual Characterized by Bird-Offerings	117
30.	RS 13.006: Rural Sacrifices	119
31.	RS 15.072: Ritual Slaughter of Animals in a Rural Context	120
IV.	Memorials of a Sacrificial Rite	123
32.	RS 6.021: The Mortuary Offering of Tarriyelli	124
33.	RS 6.028: The Mortuary Offering of Uzzinu	124
V.	An Ex Voto Inscription
34.	RS 25.318	126
VI.	Divination	127
A.	Practice	127
	Liver Models	128
35.	RS 24.312	128
36.	RS 24.323	128
37.	RS 24.326	128
38.	RS 24.327	129
39.	RS 24.654	129
	A Lung Model
40.	RS 24.277	129
	An Astrological Report
41.	RS 12.061	131
B.	Manuals	134
42.	RS 24.247[superscript +]: Malformed Animal Fetuses	135
43.	RS 24.302: Malformed Human Fetuses	141
44.	RIH 78/14: Lunar Omens	142
45.	RS 18.041: Dream Omens	144
VII.	Prayers	149
46.	RS 24.266:26'-36': A Prayer Appended to a Sacrificial Ritual	149
47.	RS 24.271: A Prayer for Well-Being	150
Part 2	Ritual Activity Outside the Sacrificial Cult	155
VIII.	Incantations	157
48.	RS 92.2014: An Incantation against Snakes and Scorpions	158
49.	RIH 78/20: An Incantation against Male Sexual Dysfunction	159
50.	RS 22.225: The Attack of the Evil Eye and a Counterattack	161
IX.	Historiolae	167
51.	RS 24.258: 'Ilu's Marzihu and a Recipe for Hangover	167
52.	RS 24.272: Consultation of Ditanu with a View to Healing	170
53.	RS 24.244: Horanu and the Mare: Ridding the Land of Serpents	172
54.	RS 24.251: Sapsu, with Horanu's Help, Rids the Land of Serpents	179
X.	Rites Including Divine Participation	192
55.	RS 24.252: A Divine Drinking Rite and a Blessing	192
56.	RS 24.257/RS 94.2518: Rites Involving the Royal Shades of the Dead	195
XI.	A Myth That Explains a Ritual Practice	211
57.	RS 24.293	212
XII.	Administrative Texts	214
58.	RS 19.015: Wine for Royal Sacrificial Rites	214
59.	RS 24.292: An Oil-Tax for Ba'lu of Aleppo	216
60.	RS [Varia 14]: A Contract for a Marzihu Meeting Place	217
	Summary and Conclusions	221
	Concordance of Text Numbers	244
	Bibliography	252
	Glossary	267
1.	Cultic Terms	267
2.	Deities	273
	Indexes	286
1.	Deities and Other Extraordinary Beings	286
2.	Personal Names	290
3.	Place Names, Including Gentilics	291
4.	Subjects	291
5.	References to the Hebrew Bible	299

Editorial Reviews

Translating texts written in a Late Bronze Era Semitic language, Pardee (Northwest Semitic philology, U. of Chicago) reveals the sacrificial rituals practiced by a religious sect in the city of Ugarit. He presents texts and their translations that tell how the rituals were directly practiced in the various sanctuaries of the group and also show the infusion of ritual practice into life outside the sanctuary. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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