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Ugaritic Narrative Poetry

More than 500 years before the Odyssey and the Iliad, before the biblical books of Genesis or Job, Canaanite Phoenician masters of the epic lived and wrote on the Mediterranean coast.

Following are minor excerpts from some of the Ugaritic Narrative Poetry translated into English and edited by Simon B. Parker.

From The Rapiuma, translated by Theodore J. Lewis

Behold your son, behold...
Your grandson, your shrine;

Behold ... your hand.
The small one will kiss your lips.

There, shoulder to shoulder.
Brothers, attendants of El...

There mortals .. the name of El,
... heroes bless the name of El.

There the shades of Baal ...
Warriors of Baal
Warriors of Anat.

There armed forces encircle
The eternal royal princes

As when Anat hastens to the hunt
Sets to flight the birds of the heavens.

They slaughtered oxen; sheep as well;
They felled bulls, fatlings too,

Also rams and year old calves,
They butchered lambs ad even kids.

Olive oil -- like silver to travelers,
... -- like gold to travelers.

... a table set with fruit,
Laid with fruit fit for kings,

Day long they pour the wine,
... must-wine, fit for rulers.

Wine, sweet and abundant,
Select wine...

The choice wine of Lebanon,
Must nurtured by El.

One day passes, then a second,
The shades eat, the drink;

A third day, then a fourth;
A fifth day, then a sixth;
The shades eat, they drink.

To the banquet house on the summit,
... in the heart of Lebanon.

From The Epic of Kirta, translated by Edward L. Greenstein

"What too me is silver, or even yellow gold,
Together with its land and slaves forever mine?

A Triad of chariot horses
From the stables of a slave woman's son?

What is not in my house you must give me:
You must give me Lady Huraya,
The Fair One, your firstborn child!

Who is as fair as the goddess Anath,
Who is as comely as Astarte;

Whose eyes are lapis lazuli
Eyeballs, gleaming alabaster;

Whom El has given in my dream,
The Father of Man in my vision;

Who will bear a child for Kirta
A lad for the Servant of El."
 
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