Texts in Conversation
The Ugaritic text KTU and Lamentations both describe the liver as a source of emotion. In KTU, Anat follows “what is in her liver,” or her deepest desire, while Lamentations describes grief as the liver poured out on the ground.
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KTU 1.18
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
“Let not the sons of your house, O El, let not the daughters of your house rejoice, let not the children of your palace rejoice! I shall surely seize them in my right hand; I shall smite them by the strength of my long arm! I shall smite you on your skull; I shall make your gray hair run with blood, the gray hair of your beard with gore! Then let Aqhat come to you, and let the son of Danel deliver you, and let him save you from the hand of Virgin Anat!” But the Wise One, the perceptive god, replied: “I know you, daughter, that you are pitiless, and that among goddesses there is no contempt like yours! Depart, daughter! Ruthless is your heart: You take what is in your liver, you take what is in your heart! Let him be trampled who hinders you!” Virgin Anat departed. Then indeed she set her face towards Aqhat the hero, over a thousand miles, ten thousand leagues, and Virgin Anat laughed.
Date: 2300 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Lamentations 2:11
Hebrew Bible
10 י (Yod) The elders of Daughter Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dirt on their heads; they have dressed in sackcloth. Jerusalem’s young women stare down at the ground. 11 כ (Kaf) My eyes are worn out from weeping; my stomach is in knots. My liver59 is poured out on the ground due to the destruction of my helpless people; children and infants faint in the town squares. 12 ל (Lamed) Children say to their mothers, “Where are food and drink?” They faint like a wounded warrior in the city squares. They die slowly in their mothers’ arms.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... ‘What is in your liver’ is a literal translation of a phrase meaning ‘whatever you desire’ ... By allowing Anat whatever she wanted, in spite of the fact that she obviously needed to have his permission to attain it, El allowed basic rules of morality to be suspended in order to fulfill her whims. Her status, being exempt from moral rectitude, was made possible by malfunctioning at the highest level of authority. Anat behaved in a manner consistent with that of a spoiled child, a motif that appears in other literature from the ancient Near East. Particularly relevant is the portrait of Ishtar in the Gilgamesh Epic, where, in her desire for revenge upon Gilgamesh, Ishtar sought permission to take violent action against him ..."
Handy, Lowell K.
Among the Host of Heaven: The Syro-Palestinian Pantheon as Bureaucracy
(p. 125) Eisenbrauns, 1994
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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