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The Battle of the Rain and the Sea an Ancient Semitic Nature-Myth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Theodor H. Gaster
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Extract

The poem describes a battle waged, at the instigation of some unnamed goddess, by Ba'al, the god of the Rains, and his twin henchmen Kašir (‘Sir Adroit’) and Ḫasis (‘Sir Cunning’) against the gods of the sea and the rivers. The battle ends in the defeat and capture of the latter.

The interpretation of this text is really very simple. It mythologizes the natural rivalry between rain on the one hand and sea and river on the other as sources of irrigation at the end of the dry season.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , Spring 1937 , pp. 21 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1937 

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References

page 21 note 1 Note on transliteration: represents the Ugaritic Ṣade II which corresponds to Arabic .

š represents Ugaritic Shin II which corresponds to Arabic , but was pronounced sh.

š represents the pure Semitic Shin, and s represents Samekh.

page 21 note 2 yṣly ‘rpt bḥm un

yr ‘rpt tmtr bq

ṭl yṭll lḡnbm

……… yṣrk B'l

bl ṭl bl rd

bl śr' thmtm

bl ṭbn ql B'l.

rd is the Arabic ‘fine rain’, whilst śr' connects with Ar. ś-r-', as used of the inrush of the sea. thmtm (dual) refers to the heavenly and earthly oceans.

page 22 note 1 kn npl bmśmś … an

pnm yḩrr

bmtnm yśḫn

qrnh km śb

hw km ḩrr

śn mtm dbḩ(yt?)

tr' tr'n a(r)

bnt śdm ṣḥrrt

śb' śnt El mla, wšmn nqpt'd.

mśmś connects with Ar. m-ś-ś and Eth. m-ś-w ‘liquefy, ooze’; ḥrr and śḫn are terms used of fever in Deut. xxviii. 27. ḡb is the Arabic ḡ-w-b used in the specific sense of ‘to have recurrent (tertian) fever’. qrnh is lit. ‘horn’. A statue of Ba'al found at Ras Shamra shows him with horns (Syria, XVII, pl. xxi). śn mtm is Heb. śinnuy+mawet with enclitic -ma. Cp. Phoen. ḥ-l-p m-w-t (CIS. 11. 212, 6). bnt śdm: lit. ‘daughters of the fields’. Cp. Ar. banât al arḏ (Virolleaud) = ‘rivers’, ṣḥrrt. cp. Ar. ş-h-r and As. şêru ‘desert’; cf. the name Sahara! nqpt: cp. Heb. tequphah. ‘d, which recurs elsewhere, may be derived from the root ‘-w-d ‘to revolve, go in a circle’, as in Arabic ‘-w-d and Ethiopie ‘-d. It is thus semantically parallel to Hebrew dor (from rt. d-w-r) and gil ‘age’ (from rt. g-w-l) &c, whilst for the specific sense ‘cycle of time’, we may aptly compare the Ethiopie ‘udat ( Dillmann, , Lex. Aeth. 1001)Google Scholar. The seven and eight years recur elsewhere and mean merely ‘a long time’.

page 23 note 1 Barton, v., Sketch of Semitic Origins, 86 ffGoogle Scholar.; Langdon, , Tammuz and Ishtar, 43–4Google Scholar; Barton, , Hebraica, X. 73 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 23 note 2 v. my essay, The Ritual Pattern of a Ras-Shamra Epic (Archiv Orientální, v (1933), 118–23)Google Scholar.

page 24 note 1 Ginsberg has pointed out (The Ugarit Texts, 129) that Ps. 29 is really an ancient hymn to Ba'al transformed. But I anticipated this in Folklore, 1933, 382, n. 13Google Scholar, where I wrote: ‘several of the Old Testament Psalms (notably Ps. xxix) which were originally “Adad-hymns” were retained in the Israelitic cultus long after the god had become spiritualized’. Further, in the Journal of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society,. 1935 I tried to show that fragments of an ancient Hymn of Creation are embedded in the prophecies of Amos.

page 24 note 2 Cp. lebuś, of a royal robe, in Esther vi. 8-11; viii. 15. Note also that in Jeremiah x. 9 the word is actually used of the robe covering a divine image.

page 24 note 3 hith'azzar may convey the idea of being accoutred specifically for combat, for cp. Job xxxviii. 3, xl. 7; Isaiah viii. 9, &c.

page 24 note 4 So the Versions; the Massoretic text has tikkon ‘is fixed’. The change is confirmed by Ps. lxxv. 4.

page 24 note 5 Metre requires something more at the end of this verse. Some scholars read: ‘From eternity art thou and unto eternity’.

page 25 note 1 Reading with many moderns, ‘addir mimmišbere yam for MT: ‘addirim mišbere yam.

page 25 note 2 But this is difficult, because na'awah is feminine and qodeś masculine. I therefore suggest that the original reading was lebeythekha neweh qodeś, ‘Verily, Thy house is a dwelling of holiness.’ The prefix l- is the Assyr. lu and Arabic la. It is frequent in Ras Shamra texts and may be detected in several passages of O.T.; v. Haupt, , Johns Hopkins Circulars, XIII, No. 114 Google Scholar. The phrase neweh qodeś actually occurs in Exod. xv. 13.

page 26 note 1 For the reader's convenience, I here give my text of Ps. xciii italicizing ‘motif-words’:

YHWH malak!

ge'uth labeś!

YHWH ‘oz hith’azzar!

Aph tikken tebel bal-timmoṭ.

Nakhon kisakha me'az

me'olam ‘attah …..

nas'u neharoth, YHWH,

nas'u neharoth qolam!

Yis'u neharoth dokyam!

Miqqoloth mayim rabbim

‘Addir mimmišbere yam

‘Addir bammarom YHWH!

‘edotheykha ne'emenu me’od!

lebeythekha neweh qodeś,

YHWH, le'orek yamim!

page 27 note 1 Bibliography: Virolleaud, Charles, La Révolte de Košer contre Ba'al (Syria, XVI. 29–45)Google Scholar; Dussaud, René, Les Éléments déchainés, &c. (Syria, XVI. 196–204)Google Scholar; Montgomery, James A., Ras Shamra Notes IV: The Conflict of Ba'al and the Waters (Journal of the American Oriental Society, LV. 268–77)Google Scholar; Ginsberg, H. L., The Victory of the Land-God over the Sea-God (Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society, 1935, 327–33)Google Scholar; Albright, W. F., Zabil- Yam and Thapiṭ-Nahar in the Combat between Ba'al and the Sea (Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society, 1936, 17–21)Google Scholar; Montgomery, J. A. and Harris, Z. S., The Ras Shamra Mythological Texts, 131–4 (transliterated text and brief glossary only)Google Scholar.

page 27 note 2 ḫftt: cf. Arabic, Hebrew ḫ-t-t, Assyr. ḫatû. The idiom recurs in Hebrew; cf. 1 Sam. ii. 31; Pss. x. 15; xxxvii. 17; Job xxii. 9. It is also common in Arabic. Cp. also Thamudean (Euting, 591): h Brd aṣrm ydh = ‘O B-r-d, cut off his hand!’ in this sense.

page 27 note 3 mnn: cf. Arabic m-n-n ‘enfeeble, cut’.

page 27 note 4 (ś)ḥy: restored from Death of Ba'al, ii. 23-5:

(š)kp lḥmy …. (bmak)lt qb …… śmḥy ‘overthrown is he who would wage war against me, as with a butcher's (kni)fe (I cut down) him who would wax arrogant against me’. śmḥ is the Assyrian šamâḫu.

page 27 note 5 abd: cp. Heb. ’obed ‘wanderer’.

page 27 note 6 ertm: cp. Ar. r-t-m ‘break’, as syn. of ets which is from n-t-s. Cp. Ethiopie n-ś-t in this sense.

page 27 note 7 tl'm: cp. Arabic , ‘a stream which runs from hill to valley’.

page 27 note 8 anśq: for the sense cf. Hebrew kley neśeq ‘weapons of attack’.

page 27 note 9 (p)etm: cf. Arabic and v. Yahuda, ZA. xvi. 271.

page 28 note 1 ulny: elsewhere syn. of rephaim ‘the shades’. A formation from ‘-l-l ‘be weak, defunct’. As a name for the dead, cp. rephaim>raphah and Greek οί καμόντεδ. Alternatively, from rt. ‘-w-l ‘be strong’; then syn. of ‘ mny, in a euphemistic sense. I regard the words k'geber ‘eyn ‘ayal par. to yor'dey bor in Ps. lxxxviii. 6 as a fanciful interpretation of the name ulny.

page 28 note 2 b: = m ‘from’, as often in Phoenician.

page 28 note 3 rgm: cp. Assyr. rigmu.

page 28 note 4 hwth: usually connected with Assyr. aw/matu ‘word’, but uncertain, for this may rather be ḥ-w-t (from rt. ḥ-w-y ‘declare’).

page 28 note 5 yḡr:: cf. Arabic ḡ-w-r and South Arabian ḡ-w-r (Cih. cccL. 2) ‘make an attack’.

page 28 note 6 w'n: the root ‘-n-y in Ugaritic often means ‘attend, hear’, as in Syriac and in Sabean.

page 28 note 7 Kšr-w-ḫss: this compound deity figures again in the Second Tablet of the Aleyan-Mot Epic. The name may mean ‘Adroit (As. kešêru) and Cunning (As. ḫasisu, Sec.)’.

page 28 note 8 šnt: I derive this from rt. w-š-n; cf. Ar. w-ṯ-n ‘abound, luxuriate, &c’. The title B'l šnt will then answer to the As. bêl ḫegalli, a common epithet of Adad, counterpart of Ba'al.

page 28 note 9 ‘rpt: cp. Assyr. urpatu and Hebrew ’araphel. The title is applied to Yah, in the form rokeb ‘araboth in Ps. lxviii. 6.

page 28 note 10 ht: demonstrative h (Heb. hu, &c.) with demonstr.suffix -t, as in Phoenician (pl.) h-m-t, Eth. and Assyrian šu-tu.

page 28 note 11 b'lm: Hebrew me'olam, but in the sense of ‘inveterate’. Cp. Neo-Hebrew use of l'olant. Praetorius (Z.D.M.G. LX. 402) detects the sense of ‘schon immer’ in the of Mesha, line 10. I cannot agree with Ginsberg, (J.P.O.S., 1935, 331 n. 10)Google Scholar that b'lm is Ba'al+enclitic -ma ‘O Ba'lu’, because evidence is lacking to show that the enclitic was added to vocatives.

page 28 note 12 ṣrtk: abstractum pro concreto; r is so used in S. Arab. v. Lidzbarski, Ephemeris 11. 358.

page 28 note 13 ynḥt: the vb. n-ḥ-t has a military sense ‘launch into the fray’. Cp. joel iv. 11; hanḥath YHWH gibboreyka, which now becomes clear.

page 28 note 14 wyp'r: cp. Arabic p'r ‘articulate’ (Virolleaud).

page 28 note 15 Ygrś: a proper-name, from the rt.g-r-ś ‘thrust away’. The poet plays on the name in the next line.

page 28 note 16 Ikseh: the prefix l- here means ‘from’, as often in the Ras Shamra texts. A similar usage occurs in the S. Arab, inscription, Glaser 1000 A. 15.

page 28 note 17 trtqṣ: cf. Arabic r-q-ṣ and Hebrew r-q-d ‘leap, dart’.

page 28 note 18 bd: meaning obscure; Ginsberg takes the word closely with trtqṣ ‘thou shalt swoop in the hand’, whilst Montgomery combines with Phoen. bd Ṣdnm ( Cooke, , North Semitic Inscriptions, 33)Google Scholar which some think means ‘congregation’. Both are doubtful conjectures. Perhaps bd means ‘proceed’, somewhat like Ar. b-d-a.

page 29 note 1 Zbl-Ym: cp. in O.T. the div. n. Zebul, which connects with As. zabâlu ‘lift up’, on the analogy of Hebrew naśi’ ‘prince’ from rt. n-ś-a. The noun zbl ‘noble’ actually occurs in I Keret xcviii: zbl ‘rśm yśu, ‘the noble shoulders the palanquin’.

page 29 note 2 lymk: cp. Hebrew m-w-k and m-k-k.

page 29 note 3 ltnśṣn. Cp. Arabic n-ś-ṣ ‘oscillare, vacillare’.

page 29 note 4 pnth: cp. Assyr. panâte, Phoen. pnt and Hebrew p'ney mayim ‘surface’.

page 29 note 5 lydlp: cp. Heb. and Ar. d-l-p ‘trickle’, i.e. flow with a mere trickle.

page 29 note 6 tmnh: cp. As. temênti ‘founuation, bottom’. So, independently, Montgomery-Harris. The reference is to ground-swells.

page 29 note 7 yprśh: cp. As. pulasuhu ‘fall prostrate’. The word is a crossing of the roots p-l-š and p-ś-ḥ (As. pašâḫu), as shown independently by Torczyner, , Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1936, 16 Google Scholar. The two notions of subsiding and falling prone in submission are here combined.

page 29 note 8 wyql: cp. Assyrian qâlu ii, which in an Asshur glossary is given as a syn. of sakâtu ‘be silent’.

page 29 note 9 yqš: meaning uncertain. Virolleaud combines with Heb. q-ś-h ‘be harsh’, and Dussaud with Aram. n-q-ś ‘strike’, but neither view accounts for the sibilant š. Ginsberg tentatively compares Ar. q-ṯ-ṯ ‘draw’ and renders ‘pulled’. Montgomery ( J.A.O.S. 1935, P. 276, n. 27)Google Scholar compares Ar. k-y-ṯ ‘collect’.

page 29 note 10 wyśt. I explain from Job xxxviii. 11: ‘and I said: thus far shalt thou come and no farther u-phô yaśyth big'on galleyka, where there is no need for emendation. It is not improbable, however, that Montgomery is right in associating yšt rather with Heb. n-ś-t ‘dry up’.

page 30 note 1 wyṣa: cf. supra aśṣehm which means ‘I will annihilate them’, as in Assyrian. Hence, wyṣa must signify ‘and hath gone to his doom’.

page 30 note 2 lmt b'lm: ‘to one long dead’. Cp. Hebrew methey ‘olam, Ps. cxliii. 3: Lamentations iii. 6, and cf. supra ebk b'lm with which cp. specifically Heb. ‘eybath ‘olam ‘inveterate hostility’, Ezekiel xxv. 15; XXXV. 5. The lost verb must have had the sense of Hebrew yidmeh ‘he is likened’.

page 30 note 3 These lines are too fragmentary for useful comment.

page 31 note 1 lit. fingers.

page 32 note 1 lit. Aleyan-Ba'al, but Aleyan (from rt. l-e-y) means ‘Puissant’. Cp. the regular epithet qarradu (valiant) applied to the analogous figure of Ninurta in the Assyro-Babylonian myth.