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From Two Ugaritic Texts - Harris Lenowitz
Original pgs 1-6. Alcheringa 1-2
Overview
This text is from Harris Lenowitz's original translations from Cyrus Gordon's Ugaritic Textbook, specifically lines 30-53 from Text 52 and lines 2-41 from 'nt II. The original language was in Ugarit. It was commonly spoken in Canaan.
Commentary
The poem is divided into two parts, and according to the Note at the end, it is from the “Poem of the Gracious Gods.” It has been described as a “descent into burlesque, ” but might be better seen as a pure spiritual manifestation of the protagonist character EL as God. He is the Creator of the universe and somewhat of a prankster as as well.
The first line after the Roman numeral gives the reader a one sentence summary, or abstract of the entire section. In this case, it describes how EL hunts a bird, makes it into soup, then has a threesome with two women who sing his praises and it ends with a strange birth.
The text is divided into two columns, but the verses on the left seem to have more weight.
It is apparent to the reader, that there is an implicit sexual metaphor in which El's penis is described by the first woman as being “as long as the Ocean and Rivers.” It is interesting that the original translation has the two bodies of water ( or anything that has to do with water, such as the Deep) are capitalized, while the other natural setting such as the seashore is not.
