Ritual and Cult at Ugarit: 10 (Writings from the Ancient World) - Softcover

Pardee, Dennis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1589830261 ISBN 13: 9781589830264

Publisher: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002

Synopsis

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 12th to early 11th century BCE. 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.

About this title

Synopsis

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

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Society of Biblical Literature
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1589830261
• ISBN 13: 9781589830264
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 316