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Tale of Aqhat
The Tale of Aqhat or Epic of Aqhat is a Canaanite myth from Ugarit, an ancient city in what is now Syria. It is one of the three longest texts to have been found at Ugarit, the other two being the Legend of Keret and the Baal Cycle. It dates to approximately 1350 BCE.
While the complete tale has not been preserved, there remain of it, according to David Wright, "approximately 650 poetic lines", with the bulk of its content concerning "ritual performances or their contexts". The remains of the story are found on three clay tablets, missing the beginning and end of the story. These tablets were discovered in 1930 and 1931.
The Tale of Aqhat was recorded at Ugarit by the high priest Ilmilku, who was also the author of the Legend of Keret and the Baal Cycle. The three primary characters of the Tale are a man named Danel, his son Aqhat, and his daughter Pugat.
Danel is described as a "righteous ruler" (Davies) or "probably a king" (Curtis), providing justice to widows and orphans. Danel is a man of Rpʼu, which could be interpreted as a deity, who is a patron god of Danel and sits and judges with Hadad and Astarte and was likely considered to be the equivalent of El, or a clan, which might be linked to Rephah, the Ephraimite clan. Danel begins the story without a son, although missing material from the beginning of the story makes it unclear whether Danel has lost children, or whether he simply has not had a son yet. On six successive days, Danel makes offerings at a temple, requesting a son. On the seventh, the god Baal asks the high god El to provide Danel a son, to which El agrees.
Danel's prayers to the gods are answered with the birth of Aqhat. The grateful Danel holds a feast to which he invited the Kotharat, female divinities associated with childbearing.
A gap appears in the text. After it, Danel is given a bow by the god Kothar-wa-Khasis, who is grateful to Danel for providing him hospitality. According to Fontenrose, the bow is given to Danel when Aqhat is still an "infant", while as Wright reads the tale after Aqhat has "grown up".
After a missing portion of text, the story resumes as Aqhat, described by Louden as "now a young man", is celebrating a feast at which various deities are in attendance.
Aqhat, who now has the bow, is offered a reward by the goddess Anat if he will give it to her. Anat offers Aqhat first gold and silver, but he refuses. She then offers him immortality, but he refuses again. As she makes her offers, she uses language that likely implies an offer of a sexual nature as well. His refusal is disrespectful: he tells her to go get a bow of her own from Kothar-wa-Hasis, and says that women have no business with such weapons. He insists that immortality is impossible: all humans must die. Anat, outraged, leaves to speak to the high god El.
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Tale of Aqhat
The Tale of Aqhat or Epic of Aqhat is a Canaanite myth from Ugarit, an ancient city in what is now Syria. It is one of the three longest texts to have been found at Ugarit, the other two being the Legend of Keret and the Baal Cycle. It dates to approximately 1350 BCE.
While the complete tale has not been preserved, there remain of it, according to David Wright, "approximately 650 poetic lines", with the bulk of its content concerning "ritual performances or their contexts". The remains of the story are found on three clay tablets, missing the beginning and end of the story. These tablets were discovered in 1930 and 1931.
The Tale of Aqhat was recorded at Ugarit by the high priest Ilmilku, who was also the author of the Legend of Keret and the Baal Cycle. The three primary characters of the Tale are a man named Danel, his son Aqhat, and his daughter Pugat.
Danel is described as a "righteous ruler" (Davies) or "probably a king" (Curtis), providing justice to widows and orphans. Danel is a man of Rpʼu, which could be interpreted as a deity, who is a patron god of Danel and sits and judges with Hadad and Astarte and was likely considered to be the equivalent of El, or a clan, which might be linked to Rephah, the Ephraimite clan. Danel begins the story without a son, although missing material from the beginning of the story makes it unclear whether Danel has lost children, or whether he simply has not had a son yet. On six successive days, Danel makes offerings at a temple, requesting a son. On the seventh, the god Baal asks the high god El to provide Danel a son, to which El agrees.
Danel's prayers to the gods are answered with the birth of Aqhat. The grateful Danel holds a feast to which he invited the Kotharat, female divinities associated with childbearing.
A gap appears in the text. After it, Danel is given a bow by the god Kothar-wa-Khasis, who is grateful to Danel for providing him hospitality. According to Fontenrose, the bow is given to Danel when Aqhat is still an "infant", while as Wright reads the tale after Aqhat has "grown up".
After a missing portion of text, the story resumes as Aqhat, described by Louden as "now a young man", is celebrating a feast at which various deities are in attendance.
Aqhat, who now has the bow, is offered a reward by the goddess Anat if he will give it to her. Anat offers Aqhat first gold and silver, but he refuses. She then offers him immortality, but he refuses again. As she makes her offers, she uses language that likely implies an offer of a sexual nature as well. His refusal is disrespectful: he tells her to go get a bow of her own from Kothar-wa-Hasis, and says that women have no business with such weapons. He insists that immortality is impossible: all humans must die. Anat, outraged, leaves to speak to the high god El.