"Is IL a Proper Noun in the Phrase BT IL and in the Ugaritic Pantheon Lists?" (original) (raw)

God (Ilu) and King in KTU 1.23

“Like ʾIlu Are You Wise”: Studies in Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures in Honor of Dennis G. Pardee, edited by H. H. Hardy II, Joseph Lam, and Eric D. Reymond. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 73 (Chicago: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) , 2022

Ritual theorists (e.g., Clifford Geertz, Catherine Bell, Jonathan Z. Smith, Bruce Lincoln, David Kertzer) have articulated the many ways in which political rituals and mythologies serve as mediums to construct and reinforce the very nature of power and by so doing to promote the interests (and vital necessity) of god, king, and state. KTU 1.23 is a text known for both its ritual elements and its myth about ʾIlu’s procreation. Though set against the backdrop of viticulture, the hypothesis here argues that KTU 1.23 is essentially about God and king. It promotes ʾIlu’s life-giving sovereignty (against that of the deadly ruler Môtu) as it buttresses the royal power of the Late Bronze Age kingdom of Ugarit.

The Name of God L: B’olon Yokte K’uh?

Wayeb Notes, no. 30, 2009. Publication of the European Association of Mayanists., 2009

Paul Schellhas (1904) labeled the various Maya deities with letters because the Mayan names of these deities were unknown to him. Some of the names have been identified in the intervening years, while others have remained untranslated. The aged God L is a prominent figure in the iconography of the Classic period, with and his jaguar markings and cape, his characteristic cigar, and his broad-brimmed owl feather hat, often labeled ’13-Sky’, ’12-Sky’ or ‘9-Sky’. He has been identified as the Merchant Lord of the Underworld (Taube 1992:90–92), but his original name has thus far remained elusive. However, several ceramic texts, coupled with iconographic representations from Palenque and Cacaxtla, suggest that he is associated with the deity B’olon Yokte’ K’uh, known both from Postclassic Yucatecan sources as well as the inscriptions from the Classic period.

Five "New" Deities in the Roman Pantheon at Gebel el-Silsila

Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections , 2017

The list of Egyptian deities attested in Greek and demotic inscriptions in the sandstone quarries of Gebel el-Silsila comprises Amun, Horus, Hathor, Isis, Khnum, Montu, Pachimesen, and Shaï. Several new inscriptions and divine names are here added to previous records: the Egyptian gods Min, Bes, Tutu, and the Greek goddesses Athena and Tyche.

Naming the Gods in Roman Sicily: The Case of Enguium

C. BONNET, T. GALOPPIN, E. GUILLON, M. LUACES, A. LÄTZER-LASAR, S. LEBRETON, F. PORZIA, J. RÜPKE, E. URCIUOLI (dir.), Naming and Mapping the Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean: Spaces, Mobilities, Imaginaries, Acte du colloque (Toulouse, 10-12 Février 2021), Berlin, Boston : De Gruyter, 2022, 2022

While studying the archaeological record, scholars are often left puzzled by the attribution of cult places to the divine powers they were dedicated to. The question can be difficult to answer, sometimes even impossible, especially in the absence of written sources. But it is not entirely a modern one. Ancient worshippers could in fact have faced very similar struggles when having to identify a divine power associated with a given place to address it in cult. This was especially true in mixed cultural contexts, when said divine power could already have received a name in a different language. Sometimes, a widely recognized interpretatio provided an easy solution. That was the case, for instance, for the major deities of the Greek and Roman pantheon. But when dealing with less renowned powers, a more creative approach was needed. 1 To illustrate this process, I will analyse a case study from Roman Sicily during the Republic: a place of wide cultural interactions, too often dismissed by scholars due to the widespread misconception that the Roman conquest could only have brought decline in a world of Greek cities. On the contrary, I hope to show that the Romans played an active role in the religious life of the island, putting themselves in a direct relationship with its gods in a way that was specific to their culture and independent from the patterns already established by local worshippers. Thus, far from causing the decline of an immovable Greek culture, they added their own contribution to an already rich mix of various cultural influences. The sanctuary I will focus on belonged to a small inland city, called Enguium, and seems to have been fairly important, at least at a local level, in late Hellenistic times. There is no archaeological record for it, and the city itself has not yet been identified clearly: it could have been modern Troina, as most scholars agree, but definitive proof has yet to be found (Fig. 1). 2 On the other hand, the sanctuary is well known from three literary sources, two in Greek and one in Latin, all originating from the late Republic: Plutarch, who wrote in the 1 st Century AD but derives here explicitly from Posidonius of Apamea (2 nd-1 st Centuries BC); Diodorus of Sicily (1 st Century BC), and Cicero in his speeches against Verres (70 BC).

The Deity in the Definite Article: lassaw' and related terms for Ba'al in Jeremiah

Old Testament Essays

The general consensus is that the abstract noun saw ' (ו א )in the HB/OT, with the basic meaning of worthlessness, inefficacy, deceit, emptiness, falsehood, lie, could refer either to these qualities in general (typically translated in the English as "in vain"), or could refer to anti-Yahweh idolatry. The choice has been rather arbitrary and inconsistent, relying on the reader's view of what the text would want to convey. This study builds on the assumption that the definiteness of the noun determines its semantic value, and should be a major factor in determining the general versus polemic meaning of saw' (שׁו), although this grammatico-semantic distinction is unaccounted for in standard lexicons and most commentaries. The study limits itself to the book of Jeremiah, where saw ' only appears in its definite form, as lassãw'. Remarkably three other similarly defined nouns are located in the same text blocks in Jeremiah, namely hasseqer, habboset and hah...