Hymn to Rapiu, the Eternal King

KTU 1.108

[…] Rapiu, the eternal king, drinks; and drinks
[the god] Gathar and Yaqar, the god who dwells in Athtartu,
the god who rules in Edrei, who sings and makes music⁠
on lyre and pipe, on drum and cymbals,
with castanets of ivory, in the good company of Kothar.
And Anat the mighty drinks, lady of kingship, lady
of dominion, lady of the high heavens,
[la]dy of the crown; and Anat flies, soars
[in] the high [heav]ens […]
[…] and El drinks
[…]
[…] king
[…] his god drinks
[…]
[…] Rashap
[…] arrives
[…]
[…] for Baal
[…] Rapiu, the eternal king, comes to you
[…]
[…] Rapiu, the eternal king, with strength,
[Rapiu], the eternal king, with his might, with
[his power], with his rule, with his splendor, for the Rephaim⁠
of the earth: your strength, your might, your power,
your rule, your splendor, in the midst of
Ugarit, […] the days of Shapshu and Yarih
and the pleasant years of El.

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.108:3 and Joshua 12:4

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

Summary

Joshua places Og in the same towns that Ugaritic texts assign to a god of the dead, giving the defeated king's homeland an older religious significance.

Passages

KTU 1.108:3

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

[…] Rapiu, the eternal king, drinks; and drinks [the god] Gathar and Yaqar, the god who dwells in Athtartu, the god who rules in Edrei, who sings and makes music on lyre and pipe, on drum and cymbals, with castanets of ivory, in the good company of Kothar. And Anat the mighty drinks, lady of kingship, lady of dominion, lady of the high heavens, [la]dy of the crown; and Anat flies, soars [in] the high [heav]ens […] […] and El drinks […] […] king […] his god drinks […] […] Rashap […] arrives […] […] for Baal […] Rapiu, the eternal king, comes to you […] […] Rapiu, the eternal king, with strength, [Rapiu], the eternal king, with his might, with [his power], with his rule, with his splendor, for the Rephaim of the earth: your strength, your might, your power,

1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Joshua 12:4

Hebrew Bible

3 His kingdom included the eastern rift valley from the Sea of Kinnereth to the sea of the rift valley (the Salt Sea), including the route to Beth Jeshimoth and the area southward below the slopes of Pisgah. 4 The territory of King Og of Bashan, one of the few remaining Rephaites, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei 5 and ruled over Mount Hermon, Salecah, all Bashan to the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and half of Gilead as far as the border of King Sihon of Heshbon. 6 Moses the Lord’s servant and the Israelites defeated them, and Moses the Lord’s servant assigned their land to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Joshua

References

“... II. Biblical geographical tradition agrees with the mythological and cultic data of the Ugaritic texts. According to KTU 1.108:1-3. the abode of the mlk 11m, the dead and deified king (DEL OutO LETE 1987:49-53), and his place of enthronement as rpll was in cJtrt-lzdry, in amazing correspondence with the Biblical tradition about the seat of king Og of Bashan, "one of the survivors of the Rephaim, who lived in Ashtarot and Edrei" (Josh 12:4 [NEB». This place Ism is also treated in KTU 1.100:41; 1.1 07: 17: and RS 86:2'235: 17 as the abode of the god mlk, the eponym of the mJkm, the deified kings, synonym of the rpllm. For the 'Canaanites' of Ugarit, the Bashan region, or a part of it, clearly represented 'HeU', the celestial and infernal abode of their deified dead kings, -Olympus and -Hades at the same time. It is possible that this localization of the Canaanite Hell is linked to the ancient tradi- tion of the place as the ancestral home of their dynasty, the rpllm. The Biblical text also recalls that "all Bashan used to be called the land/earth of the Rephaim" (Deut 3:13 [NEB]), an ambiguous wording that could equally be translated as "the 'hell' of the Rephaim". In any case, the link between Bnshan and the rpllInlRephaim in both tradi- tions speaks in favour of a very old usc of the two meanings of this last denomination: ancient dwellers of Northern Transjordan I inhabitants of 'Hell'. ...”

Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and and Pieter W. van der Horst, eds., Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd extensively rev. ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 161–162.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Hymn to Rapiu, the Eternal King

KTU347 chapters

Compare KTU 1.108:3 and Joshua 12:4

Summary

Passages

KTU 1.108:3

Joshua 12:4

References

Your feedback

Leave a comment

Glossary

Search the Library