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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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El's Feast

KTU 1.114

In his house El gave a feast of game, the produce of the hunt in the midst of his palace.
He cried: To the carving, gods! Eat, O gods, and drink!⁠
Drink wine until satiety, foaming wine until intoxication!
Yarih arched his back like a dog; he gathered up crumbs beneath the tables.
Any god who recognized him threw him meat from the joint.
But any god who did not recognize him hit him with a stick beneath the table.
At the call of Athtart and Anat he approached.
Athtart threw him a haunch, and Anat a shoulder of meat.
The porter of El’s house shouted: cLook!
Why have you thrown a haunch to the dog, to the cur have you thrown a shoulder?”
He shouted at El his father. El summoned his drinking-companions;
El took his seat in his feasting house.
He drank wine to satiety, new wine until intoxication.
El went off to his house; he stumbled off towards his dwelling;
Thukamun and Shanim supported him.
A creeping monster approached him, with horns and tail!
He floundered in his own faeces and urine:
El fell down as though dead; El was like those who go down into the underworld.
Anat and Athtart went out hunting.
[…] Baal […]
[…]
Athtart and Anat returned and they brought back meat.
When they had cured him, he awoke.
This is what needs to be put on his forehead: dog-hair and the knot of a vine and its juice.
and the head of a […] and its juice.
They should be applied together with virgin olive oil.

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.114:2 and Proverbs 9:5

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In the Ugaritic text KTU, the god El hosts a feast and commands the gods to eat and drink until satisfied. Proverbs 9 follows this pattern, with personified Wisdom preparing a banquet and inviting guests to come eat and drink.

Passages

KTU 1.114:2

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
In his house El gave a feast of game, the produce of the hunt in the midst of his palace. He cried: To the carving, gods! Eat, O gods, and drink! Drink wine until satiety, foaming wine until intoxication! Yarih arched his back like a dog; he gathered up crumbs beneath the tables. Any god who recognized him threw him meat from the joint.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Proverbs 9:5

Hebrew Bible
3 She has sent out her female servants; she calls out on the highest places of the city. 4 “Whoever is naive, let him turn in here.” To those who lack understanding, she has said, 5 “Come, eat some of my food, and drink some of the wine I have mixed. 6 Abandon your foolish ways so that you may live, and proceed in the way of understanding.” 7 Whoever corrects a mocker is asking for insult; whoever reproves a wicked person receives abuse.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Proverbs

References

“… the welcome to eat and drink rich foods, wine, and milk, can be seen as an inclusio with paradise imagery at the end of the pericope. God’s salvation brings fullness and plenty. But if one reads more widely in the Deutero-Isaiah tradition and in the Israelite tradition as a whole, 55:12 can be perceived to invoke the banquet motif of the victory-enthronement pattern. A similar invitation to eat and drink is offered by Woman Wisdom in Proverbs 9:5. A figure closely associated with creation in Proverbs 8, God’s “master-builder,” a virtual divine consort, Woman Wisdom existed before there were depths, before mountains were dug out. She builds her house (9:1) and prepares a feast in another biblical example of the victory-enthronement pattern. …”
Susan Niditch, Oral World and Written Word: Ancient Israelite Literature, LAI (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996), 60.

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

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KTU 1.114:2 and Proverbs 9:5

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