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1. For a listing of the cunciform tcxts r"'hich constitute tl.ris rnyth, see
Otten in M.I.O. 1 (1953). pp. 121 ff., and Lrroche, Catalogue, entry 231.
2. Otten noted in M.I.O. 1 (19t1), p. f45: "Dennoch gestattet auch
, J'.,
die Ungunst der Ub:rlieferungdas Urtcil, dassvom semitischen parallelismus
membrorum sich keine Spur finclet."
3. Compare the convenient Erglish translations in Pritchard, Ancient
Near EasrernTexts, on pages129-155 (translationsby H. L. Ginsberg).
4. The Hurro-Hittite spelling clf West Semitic 'l qn 'r1, "El, creator of
. e eO t t e n ' sr e n a r k si n M . I . O .1 , p p . 3 8 - 3 9 ,a n d M . D . O . C . 8 5 ,p p . 3 l - 3 2 .
e a r t h "S
The name-alsooccursin the abbreviatecl fonn dKrrniria.For further occurrences
of the \7est Semitic title seeDonner & Rolling, Kanaaniiische und Aramiiiscbe
lnscltrit'ten,Band II, p.43. Most recentlysce also M. Astor.rr,Llellenosenitica,
ii
tl
i'
t".
god Baal6, and a young goddesswho helps Baal and who probably of
representsa fusion of the goddessesAnat and Astarte (name written shot
dISTAR) 7. To be sure, as ProfessorOtten has observedto me in a and
private communication, because of the fragmentary nature of our na
present texts, the sequenceof events as reconstructedhere and in his SA
ME
own articles is nothing more than an assumption. But then some "If
order must be assumed,and the sequenceas presentedin 19fi by
insi
Otten will be retained here arbitrarily. (pl
'Get the
[" behind me, a]nd [I'll get behin]d you !8 \Xrith [my]
ruir
word [I] wlll press' lyoo !] I7ith [my] spindlelo I will piercet'
GIS
[you !] [\fith...] Iwill stiryo:uap !r2'Baalheard(this) [and ? ar]ose. pfe
aff
dor
pp. 206 f[., who adds most intercsting comparative data from the Cadmus sol'
cycle.
5. In this myth spelled either dA-ie-er-d.u-ui with Hittite declensional thi
endings or in one of several Akkadianized forms, dA-ie-er-tttn. or SA aA-je- Ior
er-ti. sP
6. Here always wrirten dU with Hitrite phonetic complements.SeeOtten, hal
M.I.O. 1, p. I44 and M.D.O.G. 85, p. 34. In this article it has been decided Mr
to refer to him by his Canaanite name Baal despite the fact that it is never Ac
representedin the orthography of this version. The same procedure has been ou
followed for Asherah (insteadof Asherdu) and Anat-Astarte (insteadof Ishtar). inr
7. tbid. sP
8. One is faced in interpreting any of the following difficult phrases (c
with the choice of understandingthem as erotic propositions or violent threats.
In the Ugaritic myths there are examples of both approaches.In the Aqhat tr(
tale Anat first wheedles (2 AQHT vi l7-I9 : "Hearken, I pray thee, [Aqhat to
the Youth ! AJsk for silver, and I'll give ir thee; [For gold, and I'll beJstow't te
on thee" ; A.N.E.T., p. 151 b) and then, when refused, resofts to threats
(2 AQHT vi 42-45: "Give heed to me, Aqhat the Youth, Give heed to me
for thine own good. t...] fil meet thee in the path of arrogance, [Encounter
theel in the path of presumption, Hud thee down at [my feet and. tram.ple) ta
thee, My dading great big he-man!", A.N.E.T., p. l52 a). I have chosen
the latter as the more probable, since the words of Asherah are spoken
II
after Baal has rejected her proposition. vi
9. GAM+a ta-ma-ai-fmi1. The verb d.anzai-,when associatedwith the d
preverb katta, has the meaning "nied.erd.rilcken"according to HWb, p. 207. P
'rlu')
RHA 76 H. A. HOFFNER
to have haunted the steppes and deserted places in the ancient Near East
(compare for example Psalm 102 : 7, where it is called nll]! D1:). Hittite
nouns ending in -pt- are rare (kupti-, tunnaptu-), whereas nouns ending in
consonantalclustersof which r is the secondmember are common in Akkadian.
the I in such casesrepresenting the feminine singular morpheme.
35. See footnote 2 above.
36. M.I.O. L, pp. L45-6; the use of UMMA..,-MA, the spelling dA.NUN.-
NA.GE, and the use of the ideogram giSBAL.TUR for "spindle".
37. M.I.O. l, p. 146.
38. Other possibleexamplesare:
KUB XXXVI 35 i 1.3:
["Get behind me,J
lAnld I'll ge[t behindJ you !
\7ith [my wordJ I will prer[r] you !
With [my sp]indle I will pierce you!"
KUB XXXVI 3J i 20-2r:
"Go, sleep with her !
llie withl my [wi]fe,
and humble her !"
KUB XXXVI 35 i 24:
"I have killed seventy-sevenof you[r children !]
(Yea) Eighry-eight have I slain !"
I2 H. A. HOFFNER RHA 76 RH1
it "Eule" in view of the possibility that the bird was a dove and in
view of the considerationthat an owl would have'been consDicuours
inside a house,whereasa dove would not.
My approach to the passage, though profiting greatly from
Professor Otten's remarks, is slightly different : 1) No matter hon'
long the Uberlieferungsgeschichte ltas been, one must ever be alert
for traces of the parallelisrnus membroranz of the original Canaanite
version. 2) Sincethe myth has passedthrough the hands of Hurrians
and Hittites, who were not famrliar with this stylistic device, it is
likely that such passageswere distorted. 3) The passagebefore us
exhibits (even in its presentform) unmistakabletracesof suchparalle-
listic structure.If we be permitted to assumea scribalerror of kuttani-ti
for kutti-ti, as argued in foot-note 33 (granted that such an assumption
is preferring the lectio facilior, as Laroche has pointed out to me),
a neat parallelism emergeswhich we can almost reconstructin its
original Canaaniteform as 'l ydh...rl tkrnhn'. One would look, then,
for some originally parallel sensefor the clausesdealing with Anat's
metamorphosis.After all, Otten has correctly observedthat a double
transformation would defeat the purpose of the goddess- namely,
to escapenotice ! And since there is no reason to suspect confusion
in the hapupi- clause, whereas the GAL-IJ Di-at rvas admittedly
obscure,it is preciselyhere that we should seek a distortion in trans-
mission. Norv it happens that a very common Sflest Semitic noun
(Akkadian too !43) denoting a goblet is As, vocalized khsa or kfisu
in cuneiform *, and pronounced *kns(u/i/a) or *k6s(u/ifa), depen-
ding upon the specific \7est Semitic language in which the term
List I : KUB XXIX 8II 6ff.;List II: KUB X)O( 31 + XXXII 114 Vs
IV 1 7f r . ; List III - IBoT II 1i3 f ABoT 29 tI 2fi.; List Iy :87/e K1
RHA 76 H, A. HOFFNER 1i
ADDENDUM
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