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February 10, 2006

Systematic Theology by the Numbers

My short cuneiform alphabet project is in a holding pattern while I patiently wait (hurry up, HURRY UP, HURRY UP) for interlibrary loan to work its magic. So, I've been entertaining myself with other things. One of these is Gregorio del Olma Lete's book, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts at Ugarit. I mentioned it the other day with reference to the problem of month names at Ugarit. It reminded me of an amusing, at least to me, Akkadian text from Ugarit that lists the pantheon, RS 20.24. Olma Lete refers to it in his discussion of the "Gods of the Official Pantheon" (71-78).

Below is what more or less represents a translation of the first several lines of RS 20.24. A list of names and epithets just doesn't translate very smoothly. Start questioning or laughing at line five.

1) El the father
2) El
3) Dagan
4) Ba'al, lord of Mount Hazi
5) Ba'al 2
6) Ba'al 3
7) Ba'al 4
8) Ba'al 5
9) Ba'al 6
10) Ba'al 7
11) Earth and Heaven

"Earth and Heaven," in line 11 may be a caption as well as a divine epitaph introducing the following list of 6 prominent male gods. Line 18 reads "Mountains and Valleys" and is followed by a list of 6 prominent goddesses. Line 25 reads "Gods (who) help Ba'al" followed by the names of two gods. Line 28 reads "The assembly of the gods" and is followed by the names of five additional gods. We know of many more gods in the total pantheon but, with one exception, these are the most prominent in Ugaritic mythology. That missing exception is Mot, "Death." He does not appear on this clearly official list. There is likely a reason for his absence. See below.

Olma Lete thinks that the seven namings of Ba'al all refer to as single god, you know Ba'al. Two lines of argument lead him to this conclusion. First, despite various epithets, Ba'al of the mythological and ritual texts appears to be a single god. Second, Olma Lete's detailed structural analysis of this list, particularly with regard to El in the first two lines, leads him to think that we should see only a single god mentioned seven times. If I understand correctly, he sees this list as an invocation list given the order in which the various gods are invoked on some ritual occasion. Ba'al is the most important god, although not the head of the pantheon, and is therefore invoked seven (six is you think "Ba'al, lord of mount Hazi" is a caption) times. Mot is missing from this list because no one in his or her right mind would ever invoke Death.

I find the argument from the mythological text fairly compelling if not quite conclusive. But it appears to me that the argument from the structure of the list would lead one to believe that there were seven different Ba'als. The issue with El in line 1 and 2 may seem a problem. But I'm not so sure it is. The two of the three Ugaritic exemplars of this list have an additional opening line, "El Şaphon." That could be a caption for the whole list. Then El has his own caption, "God the father" followed by his "given name." Then Dagan's name is listed without a caption but this may well reference El. Then comes "Ba'al, lord of Mount Hazi" which serves as both a caption for the Ba'al section and as one of the Ba'als. Then comes "Earth and Heaven," which is a divine epithet itself, followed by the six male gods and so on.

So does this list reflect a single Ba'al or multiple ba'als. I don't think it is all that clear. It is possible that when challenged an Ugaritic "theologian" would say that there was only one Ba'al but in popular religion Ba'al was viewed as a multiplicity, each personification having separate and well understood functions. There is a somewhat similar problem with the Christian doctrine of the trinity.

The numbering of the Ba'als in lines 5 through 10 has always struck me as amusing. There are three other texts (KTU 1.47, 1.118, 1.148) in the Ugaritic alphabet that contain almost exactly the same list in the same order and these also repeat the name Ba'al six times after its first mention (b'l şpn in the Ugaritic texts) but they don't have the numbers.

For those who question the numbers after the name(s) Ba'al here is a picture of the first ten lines of Nougayrol's transcription. I have circled the signs for the numbers 2 through 7. You don't need to be an Assyriologist to understand these numbers.

It's also hard to keep from smiling about the divine epithet/caption that proceeds the sub-list of goddesses, "Mountains and Valleys." Most interpreters think this means that the goddesses are earthy types. Well, that could be, but there is still enough of a male chauvinist in me to have a somewhat different reading.

References:

Posted by Duane Smith at February 10, 2006 1:34 PM | Read more on Ugarit |

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