Ras Shamra Notes IV

IN SYRIA XVI. 29-45, M. Virolleaud has published a fresh Hebrew text from Ras Shamra. Of the tablet, which is incomplete, he presents but one face containing a single column of text, and in deferring the publication of the reverse states that the subjects it treats are very different from those on the published face. The editor expresses the gist of this new epical fragment, as he interprets it, by the title La revolte de Ko'ser contre Baal. The text may be divided into three acts on both literary and dramatic account. Lines 1-10 present a dialogue between the divine hero and Kuthar; 11. 11-27 pictures in Homeric fashion the combat between the hero and his opponents; 11. 28if3. constitute an epilogue in which, after a couplet describing the victor's triumph, Athtart takes the role. The accompanying plate presents, in Hebrew transliteration, parts one and three in running form. But part two is a specimen of highly developed poetic, perhaps choric, art the most remarkable that has yet appeared in these texts.' And accordingly I have attempted to present the at once metrical and dramatic style in tabular form of lines and columns. This exhibit will, T trust, explain itself; the lines are to be read one after the other, the columnar lines being applied to collate the parallel recurrent phrases.2

Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Geology

• Bibliography of James Alan Montgomery

  E A Speiser•Bulletin of the American Schools…•1950

  Add to list