Baal and the Politics of Poetry “Aaron Tugendhaft’s book comes as a very welcome contribution. For he means to overturn the standard interpretation of the well-known ancient Ugaritic poem about the god Baal, which sees it as a myth establishing the kingship of Baal in heaven, bringing cosmic order by defeating the enemy deities who would disrupt it. For Tugendhaft, rather, the poem is a meditation on kingship, divine as well as human, and its limitations; it has an open ending, leaving the establishment of a firm sovereignty, whether of Baal or another deity, up in the air. Tugendhaft makes a compelling case, which should provoke serious discussion. Based on an insightful scrutiny of the ancient evidence, it is a case that, as he shows, is relevant on a much wider scale as well: indeed, for the very nature of myth in modern as well as ancient culture.” Peter Machinist, Harvard University, USA Baal and the Politics of Poetry provides a thoroughly new interpretation of the Ugaritic Baal Cycle that simultaneously inaugurates an innovative approach to studying ancient Near Eastern literature within the political context of its produc- tion. The book argues that the poem, written in the last decades of the Bronze Age, takes aim at the reigning political-theological norms of its day and uses the depic- tion of a divine world to educate its audience about the nature of human politics. By attuning ourselves to the specific historical context of this one poem, we can develop a more nuanced appreciation of how poetry, politics, and religion have interacted – in antiquity and beyond. Aaron Tugendhaft is Collegiate Assistant Professor of the Humanities and Harper Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at the University of Chicago, Illinois, USA. The Ancient Word Series editor: Seth Sanders Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Davis, USA For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/classicalstudies/ series/ANCWORD “The Ancient Word” is dedicated to publishing exciting, broadly relevant new research in ancient Near Eastern and biblical studies. Each book represents an advance both philologically, in our understanding of ancient sources, and intellec- tually, in providing fresh ways to think about what the remote past means. Herder once imagined an “archive of paradise” containing the first writing in the world from its oldest civilization: primordial texts holding the keys to understanding our formation. In unearthing the remains of the ancient Near East, we have something like this archive – but it remains mostly unread. Herder’s bold search has been replaced with safer techniques, from sweeping theories of oral vs. literate societ- ies to reductive legitimation theories that boil culture down to power. This series showcases fresh work that helps unlock this archive’s potential. Forthcoming titles: Baal and the Politics of Poetry Aaron Tugendhaft Beyond Orality Performance and the Composition of Biblical Poetry Jacqueline Vayntrub Cuneiform Culture and the Ancestors of Hebrew Alice Mandell Baal and the Politics of Poetry Aaron Tugendhaft First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Aaron Tugendhaft The right of Aaron Tugendhaft to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Tugendhaft, Aaron, author. Title: Baal and the politics of poetry / Aaron Tugendhaft. Description: Abingdon, Oxon : New York, NY, 2018. | Series: The ancient word | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017023855 | ISBN 9781138063624 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315160894 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Baal cycle. | Baal (Canaanite deity) | Inscriptions, Semitic—Ugarit (Extinct city) | Ugaritic language—Texts. | Ugarit (Extinct city)—Religion. | Politics in literature. Classification: LCC BL1671 .T84 2018 | DDC 892/.67—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017023855 ISBN: 978-1-138-06362-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-16089-4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of illustrations vii Series editor’s preface ix Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations xiii Late Bronze Age Kings xv Introduction 1 1 Baal and the modern study of myth 11 2 The Baal Cycle and Bronze Age politics 27 3 Divine combat as political discourse at Mari 47 4 The politics of time 63 5 Unsettling sovereignty 79 6 Kinship contested 101 Conclusion 125 Appendix: The Envoy Scene (K TU 1.2 I 11–46) 135 Bibliography 137 Index 159 Illustrations 0.1 Engraving of the open-air sanctuary at Yazılıkaya from Charles Texier, D escription de l’Asie mineure faite par l’ordre du gouvernement français, de 1833 à 1837 2 0.2 Rock relief of Tudhaliya IV at Yazılıkaya 3 0.3 Royal seal of king Muwattali II 4 0.4 Edict of Tudhaliya IV (RS 17.159) 9 2.1 Map of Tell Ras Shamra showing archaeological finds related to Ilimilku 32 2.2 “Ilimilku’s network” 35 5.1 Second tablet of the Baal Cycle (RS 3.367 recto) 80 6.1 The Middle Assyrian Kingdom 104 6.2 Treaty stele from Ugarit (RS 7.116) 118 Series editor’s preface Aaron Tugenfhaft’s Baal and the Politics of Poetry asks no less a question than why ancient Near Eastern literature is worth reading, beyond its interest as “back- ground” to the Bible or history. He first places the Ugaritic Baal Epic in the his- tory of scholarship to show how it was mistakenly consigned, alongside most other ancient Near Eastern art, to the far side of a radical break with myth that supposedly brought us Western civilization. But as we are constantly forced to relearn, there has been no radical break: our politics is still driven by imagination. And the Baal epic addresses the relationship between the two: both in its artistic techniques and contents, it was critically engaged with the politics of its time. Like Francesca Rochberg, who shows the profound significance of Babylonian science for understanding science more broadly precisely by setting it in its radi- cally non-western context, Tugendhaft’s careful historical study reveals the Baal epic’s broader political relevance by demonstrating its intense engagement with the Late Bronze Age. The book’s lesson is that politics is often in a vital way conducted mythologi- cally and poetically; beyond simply a political discourse (“ideology in narrative form” in Bruce Lincoln’s reduction), myth has often been the deployment of poetry in contests over power: definitions of order and who participates in it. As philoso- phers like Martha Nussbaum have argued that rational thought must take profound cues from emotion, Tugendhaft shows that political critique must be conducted mythologically and poetically, as well as practically and theoretically, to be most effective. Professor Seth Sanders University of California Davis, USA