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Yarikh

Yarikh (Ugaritic: 𐎊𐎗𐎃, YRḪ, "moon"[2]), or Yaraḫum,[3]: 118–119  was a moon god worshiped in the Ancient Near East. He is best attested in sources from the Amorite[4] city of Ugarit in the north of modern Syria, where he was one of the principal deities. His primary cult center was most likely Larugadu, located further east in the proximity of Ebla. His mythic cult center is Abiluma.[5] He is also attested in other areas inhabited by Amorites, for example in Mari, but also in Mesopotamia as far east as Eshnunna. In the Ugaritic texts, Yarikh appears both in strictly religious context, in rituals and offering lists, and in narrative compositions. He is the main character in The Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh, a myth possibly based on an earlier Hurrian composition. The eponymous goddess was regarded as his wife in Ugarit, but she is not attested in documents from most other Syrian cities, and most likely only entered the Ugaritic pantheon due to the influence of Hurrian religion.

Yarikh
Member of Gaṯarāma/Gaṯarūma[1]
Other namesArakh, Erakh
Major cult centerLarugadu, Ugarit, Jericho, Beth Yerach
PlanetMoon
Personal information
SpouseNikkal (in Ugarit)
Equivalents
Mesopotamian equivalentSin
Hurrian equivalentKušuḫ

Ugarit ceased to exist during the Bronze Age collapse, and while Yarikh continued to be worshiped in the Levant and Transjordan, attestations from the first millennium BCE are relatively rare. He played a small role in Phoenician, Punic, Ammonite and Moabite religions, and appears only in a small number of theophoric names from these areas. It is also presumed that he was worshiped by the Israelites and that the cities of Jericho and Beth Yerach were named after him. While the Hebrew Bible contains multiple polemics against the worship of the moon, it is not certain if they necessarily refer to Yarikh.

Name edit

The name Yarikh (Yariḫ; 𐎊𐎗𐎃 YRḪ[2]) is an ordinary Ugaritic word which can refer not only to the lunar god, but also to the moon as a celestial body.[2] A further meaning attested for it is "month."[2] Earlier forms of the name, (Y)arakh and (Y)erakh, are attested as elements of Amorite theophoric names.[6]

The name is grammatically masculine,[7] which is the norm for lunar deities across the Ancient Near East, in contrast with Greece, where the moon corresponded to a female deity, Selene.[8]

Cognates of Yarikh's name are present in many Semitic languages.[9] As a name for the celestial body and the ordinary word "month" they are attested in Hebrew: ירח YRḤ, Phoenician: 𐤉𐤓𐤇 YRḤ, Old Aramaic: 𐡉𐡓𐡇 YRḤ (however, the name of the Aramaic moon god, Śahr, is not a cognate[6]); Palmyrene Aramaic: 𐡩𐡴𐡧 YRḤ; and Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢌𐢛𐢊 YRḤ).[2] The Akkadian word warḫum, "month" or rarely "moon," is a cognate as well,[6] as are Old South Arabian wrḫ, "month," and the word warḫ, "moon" or "month," present in Ethiopian Semitic languages.[2]

In early Amorite tradition edit

It is presumed that the moon god was one of the major deities of the early Amorite pantheon.[10] Daniel Schwemer outright states that next to Hadad he was the main deity of the entire area inhabited by the Amorites.[11] He was commonly worshiped as a family deity.[12] His presumed main cult center, attested in the Ugaritic texts,[13] but located further inland in central Syria,[14] presumably in the proximity of Ebla, was Larugadu (lrgt), identified with Arugadu from the earlier Eblaite sources.[15] No references to this location from outside the Ugarit and Ebla corpora of texts are known.[13] Since Yarikh himself is not attested in the sources from the latter city, it is presumed that he was only introduced to northern Syria by the Amorites.[16] The Eblaites instead referred to their moon god as Suinu, similar as their contemporaries in Kish, and in addition to phonetic writing Zu-i-nu adopted the Mesopotamian convention of using dEN.ZU to represent the name of the moon deity in cuneiform.[17] While Suinu's name is a cognate of Akkadian Sin, it is presumed that his cult developed locally and was not introduced from Mesopotamia.[16] His cult center was apparently NI-ra-arki, a city located close to Ebla.[18] A second possible lunar deity worshiped in Ebla was Šanugaru.[17] Due to Yarikh's association with Larugardu, it has additionally been argued that the god Hadabal (dNI.DA.KUL), who was worshiped there in the third millennium BCE, had lunar character,[9] but this conclusion is not universally accepted.[16] Alfonso Archi assumes that the diffusion of Hadabal's cult, whose territorial extent is well documented in Eblaite texts, does not appear to match his presumed astral character.[16]

Yarikh (Erakh) is well attested in Amorite theophoric names.[6] In Old Babylonian Mari, he appears in thirty nine individual types of names.[19] Examples include Abdu-Erakh, "servant of Yarikh," Uri-Erakh, "light of Yarikh," Yantin-Erakh, "Yarikh has given" and Zimri-Erakh, "protection of Yarikh."[10] Individuals bearing them came from various areas in the kingdom and near it, including the city of Mari itself, Terqa, Saggartum, the Khabur Triangle (where particularly many are attested), the area around the Balikh, Suhum and Zalmaqum.[20] A certain Yantin-Erakh served as a troop commander under Zimri-Lim.[21] Similar theophoric names are also known from Eshnunna.[22] A document excavated there indicates that at one point in the Old Babylonian period a certain Abdi-Erakh was a king of an unspecified city in Mesopotamia.[23] After its initial discovery, Thorkild Jacobsen proposed that he ruled Eshnunna itself, but this view has since been disproved.[23] Another Abdi-Erakh, a contemporary of Ipiq-Adad of Eshnunna, apparently ruled over Ilip and Kish.[24]

It is sometimes argued that in Mesopotamia Erakh/Yarikh and Sin might have been understood as, respectively, Amorite and Akkadian names of the same deity, rather than two separate moon gods.[10][12] However, Ichiro Nakata lists them separately from each other in his overview of deities attested in Mari, unlike the various variants of the names of the weather or solar gods.[19] The deity Sin-Amurrum, attested in the incantation series Maqlû (tablet VI, verse 4)[12] according to Karel van der Toorn might be the Mesopotamian name of the Amorite moon god.[12]

In Ugarit edit

Yarikh was regarded as one of the primary deities of the Ugaritic pantheon.[25][26] His role as a lunar deity was qualified by the epithet nyr šmm, "luminary of the heavens" or "lamp of the heavens," which has been compared to a similar Akkadian title of the Mesopotamian moon god Sin, munawwir šamê u ersetim, "illuminator of the heavens and earth."[27] He could also be referred to as a "prince" (zbl), which is also attested in the case of multiple other deities, including the weather god Baal and the underworld god Resheph,[28] and is meant to signify high status.[29] Furthermore, a single passage refers to him as "the most pleasant of the gods" (n’mn ‘ilm), which was apparently meant to highlight his physical attractiveness.[30] According to Dennis Pardee, it is possible he was believed to spend the day in the underworld.[31] It has also been suggested that he could function as its gatekeeper, a role which is otherwise well attested for the god Resheph.[29] These two gods are paired in an incantation against snakebite.[32]

In the standard Ugaritic deity lists, Yarikh follows the Kotharat and precedes Mount Saphon.[33] In another similar text, he follows the sea god Yam and Baal, whose names are written in a single line, and precedes the craftsman god Kothar.[34] He is also attested in ritual texts. During celebrations which took place during the full moon in an unknown month, two bulls had to be sacrificed for him.[35] Subsequently in an offering list included in the same prescriptive text it is stated he also receives a ram after Baal of Ugarit and Baal of Aleppo, and before a ram and a bull were offered to Anat of Saphon.[36] Another offering list places him between the Kotharat and Attar as a recipient of a ram.[37] He could also receive offerings alongside Nikkal.[38] Additionally, the terms Gaṯarāma and Gatarūma, designations of a group of god which are etymologically, respectively, dual and plural forms of the name Gaṯaru,[39] might in some cases refer to Yarikh, grouped with Gaṯaru, the sun goddess Shapash or both of these deities.[1]

Thirty individuals bearing theophoric names invoking Yarikh have been identified with certainty in the Ugaritic texts.[40] A particularly commonly occurring name, Abdi-Yarikh, written as ‘bdyrḫ in the Ugaritic alphabetic script meant "servant of Yarikh."[41] Additionally, a single name known from a text written in the standard cuneiform script uses the logogram d30 as the theophoric element, but it is not certain if it refers to Yarikh or another lunar deity.[40] Kušuḫ is also attested in Ugaritic names, appearing in a total of six, one of them belonging to a person from outside the city, while the Mesopotamian Sin - in a single one, belonging to a Babylonian rather than a local resident.[42] While the total number of the names invoking Yarikh and adjacent deities is smaller than that of these invoking Baal, Resheph or Shapash, he is nonetheless better attested in this capacity than multiple deities who appear frequently in myths, such as Athirat, Attar, Yam or Ashtart.[40]

In addition to his presence in theophoric names, the Hurrian moon god Kušuḫ is also well attested in other documents from Ugarit.[41] It has been argued that he was identified with Yarikh due to his analogous role.[43][44] However, in one ritual text, KTU3 1.111, Kušuḫ and Yarikh, accompanied by Nikkal, who is placed between them, receive offerings together as separate deities.[45] Since accompanying instructions are a combination of Ugaritic (when referring to Yarikh) and Hurrian (when referring to Kušuḫ and Nikkal), it is possible that the scribe responsible for the preparation of the tablet was bilingual.[45] Both this text and other sources from Ugarit indicate that Ugaritic and Hurrian deities could be worshiped side by side.[45] Further lunar deities known from Ugarit include Saggar, a god presumed to be analogous to Eblaite Šanugaru, who was worshiped in association with Ishara,[46] hll (reading uncertain, sometimes assumed to be analogous to the god Hulelu from Emar), the father of the Kotharat, whose name might be a cognate of the Arabic word hilālun, which lead to the proposal that he was the god of the lunar crescent,[47] and Kas’a, only attested in association of Yarikh and based on presumed cognates in other Semitic languages, for example Habrew, presumed to represent a presently unidentified lunar phase.[48] Dennis Pardee additionally suggests that yrḫ kṯy, a hypostasis of Yarikh, might be a lunar deity of Kassite origin.[13] The presence of the "Kassite Yarikh" in Ugaritic texts is also accepted by Mark Smith.[49] He is attested in a prayer for well-being[50] and in an offering list.[51]

Yarikh appears in a number of Ugaritic myths, but his role in them does not necessarily reflect his nature as a lunar deity.[52]

Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh edit

Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh (KTU 1.24) is the Ugaritic narrative composition which is focused on the moon god to the greatest degree.[53] It is agreed that it describes the circumstances which lead to the marriage of the eponymous deities, though its genre continues to be a topic of ongoing scholarly debate.[54] Steve A. Wiggins suggests that it is possible individual sections of the text do not necessarily belong to the same genre, making it possible to classify both as a myth and as a hymn.[54]

After a proemium, which mentions some of the deities involved in the plot, and a number of verses dealing with the Kotharat, Yarikh is introduced bargaining with the god Ḫiriḫibi (who is not attested in any other sources[55]) to be granted the permission to marry Nikkal.[56] This most likely indicates that the latter is either her father or at least mediates on behalf of her family.[55] Yarikh offers to pay a high bride price, including large amounts of gold, silver and lapis lazuli, and additionally states that he will "make her [Nikkal's] fields orchards," which is most likely an euphemistic way to refer to his ability to sire an heir.[57] Ḫiriḫibi is reluctant at first, and suggests alternate brides to him: Pidray and ybrdmy.[58] The former is known to be a daughter of Baal, while the latter is variously interpreted as a daughter of Attar,[55] his sister,[59] another daughter of Baal[60][61] or an epithet of Pidray.[62] Ḫiriḫibi in his speech refers to Yarikh as "son-in-law of Baal" (ḫtnm b’l), which might either refer to his prospective future after choosing Pidray, indicate that he was already married to another of the weather god's daughters, or simply serve as a courtesy title.[63] Yarikh ultimately rejects both proposals, and states that he is only interested in Nikkal.[64] He finally succeeds, and subsequently marries her.[64]

It is sometimes assumed that in addition to the scenes described above, Yarikh also appears in the heavily damaged section of the myth occupying lines 5-15 of the tablet, which according to this theory describe a sexual encounter between him and Nikkal, but this is far from certain.[65] Steve A. Wiggins points out that even if it is accepted that sex is described, neither deity is mentioned by name, which makes it difficult to evaluate this proposal.[65]

The background of the entire myth is most likely Hurrian.[64][66] It might be either a direct Ugaritic translation of a Hurrian original,[67] or a less direct adaptation only relying on motifs from Hurrian mythology.[68] It is agreed that Ḫiriḫibi is a god of Hurrian origin.[55][69] Nikkal, presented as Yarikh's spouse in this context, but absent from other Ugaritic narratives, was a derivative of the Mesopotamian goddess Ningal, who was the wife of Sin/Nanna, the Mesopotamian moon god,[70] and was also worshiped by Hurrians as the wife of Kušuḫ.[71] Most likely the marital relationship between the corresponding Mesopotamian deities is also the reason behind portraying her as Yarikh's wife.[72] It is not certain if Nikkal entered the Ugaritic pantheon directly from one of the Upper Mesopotamian cities or through a Hurrian cultural intermediary.[73] The fact that most Ugaritic attestations of her are entries in Hurrian offering lists most likely supports the latter theory.[73] She is otherwise almost entirely absent from western Syrian sources from the second and first millennia BCE.[74]

Other Ugaritic narrative texts edit

In addition to Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh, the moon god also appears in the text KTU 1.114.[75] While relatively well preserved, it is considered difficult to translate, and many details remain unclear.[76] Apparently during a banquet organized by El, Yarikh for unknown reasons acts as a dog and crawls under the tables.[76] Deities stated to be familiar with him, including Ashtart and Anat, offer him choice cuts of meat, while those who do not know him poke him with a stick.[77] The actions of the two goddesses are rebuked by a nameless "porter of the house of El," who complains that they are giving a dog food.[78] The rest of the composition focuses on El getting drunk and subsequently struggling with the effects of alcohol, and Yarikh is not referenced again.[76] However, the final lines apparently relay how to prepare a remedy for hangover using dog hair, which might be a reference to his role.[76][79] It is not certain why Yarikh acts in a dog-like manner in this text.[80] His behavior might simply be tied to the theme of alcohol consumption.[76]

While Yarikh himself makes no appearance in KTU2 1.12, a minor goddess appearing in this text, Talish (tlš[81]) is described as his handmaiden (‘amt).[82] The origin of her name is not known, though it has been proposed it was derived from a root meaning "tardy" or "delay," or from the verb "to knead."[83] Alternatively, it might be related to the ordinary name Tu-li-ša attested both in Ugarit and in Nuzi.[82] Talish occurs in parallel with Dimgay, another minor goddess, the handmaiden of Athirat, which is sometimes used to argue in favor of them being a single deity with a binomial name, Dimgay-wa-Talish (dmg w tlš).[81] In the surviving passage, both of them suffer from labor pain.[82] Since a well known Mesopotamian composition casts Sin in the role of a god helping in such situations, Yarikh's absence from the surviving sections of the text, coupled with Talish being explicitly associated with him, is considered difficult to explain by researchers.[84]

The myth KTU 1.92 mentions Yarikh in passing as one of the gods who receive game from Ashtart after her return from a hunt.[85]

In Emar edit

In Emar, the name of the moon god was represented by the logogram d30.[86] It is not certain if he can be identified as Yarikh.[86] According to Brian B. Schmidt the moon god worshiped in Emar was Sin.[10] However, it is not impossible that more than one deity of such character was present in the local pantheon,[86] and Gary Beckman lists the West Semitic reading as one of the four possibilities, next to Mesopotamian, Hurrian and Anatolian (Arma).[87] It has also been proven that in at least some cases the logogram refers to Saggar, already worshiped in the proximity of Emar, in Ma-NEki, in the third millennium BCE.[46] Other writings of his name are also attested, including multiple syllabic and a second logographic one, dḪAR.[88] Priests of the deity designated by d30 are attested in documents from Emar, but there is no indication that one of the few temples identified during excavations belonged to him.[89]

In the first millennium BCE edit

While Ugarit ceased to exist during the Late Bronze Age collapse, possibly due to the activity of the Sea Peoples,[90] the worship of Yarikh continued elsewhere in the first millennium BCE.[10]

Phoenician and Punic sources edit

 
The Phoenician version of the Karatepe bilingual.

No explicit references to Yarikh occur in any Phoenician sources,[91] such as inscriptions from Byblos, Tyre and Sidon.[92] The research of Phoenician religion is considered difficult due to the scarcity of written materials and the small number of direct references to deities other than the principal patron of each city, such as Baalat Gebal in Byblos, Eshmun in Sidon or Melqart in Tyre.[93] The role of astral deities such as Yarikh was small, possibly due to their lack of a connection to maritime trade, shared by many of the major deities of this culture.[94] The Phoenician version of the Karatepe bilingual mentions the sun and the moon in a context which might indicate that deities corresponding to them are meant, but they are not singled out in such a way as the weather god Baal is in the same document.[95]

In known Punic sources, Yarikh is similarly absent from inscriptions, though he does appear in theophoric names.[96] One attested example is ‘bdyrḥ, "servant of Yarikh."[96] Similar evidence exists for another moon god, Saggar, who might have functioned as a personification of the new moon in Punic religion.[97] Lunar symbols are present on Punic stelae, though since the accompanying inscriptions usually only mention the heads of the pantheon, Baal Hammon and Tanit, it has been argued that they represent the former of these two deities, rather than Yarikh.[98] However, no textual sources support the theory that Baal Hammon was a lunar deity, and the fact that in Palmyra he was treated as entirely separate from the local lunar god Aglibol might be evidence on the contrary.[99] Additionally, it is possible that said symbols, as well as other similar astral ones, do not represent any specific god, but are meant to illustrate the celestial nature of the main deities.[100]

Ammonite and Moabite sources edit

As of 2000, only a single certain attestation of Yarkih from the kingdoms of the ancient Transjordan has been identified.[101] One of the Ammonite kings bore the name yrḥ'zr (Jeraheazar), "Yarikh is my helper," as attested in an inscription on the plinth of a royal statue dated to around 700 BCE.[102] Ammonite seals depicting the crescent moon are known from the seventh century BCE, but they might be related to the worship of Sin of Harran, who was known in many areas to the west and south of his cult center in the Neo-Assyrian period.[103]

The evidence from the Moabite kingdom, which developed in parallel with the Ammon in the early first millennium BCE,[103] is limited to artistic depictions of the lunar crescent.[104] It has been argued that they might indicate the national god of the Moabites, Chemosh, at some point developed lunar characteristics.[101] Known textual sources from Moab mention neither Yarikh nor Sin.[104]

Israelite and Judahite sources edit

The worship of the moon was most likely practiced in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah both before the Babylonian captivity and afterwards.[105] Evidence includes toponyms and, according to Gabriele Theuer, theophoric names invoking Yarikh,[106] though according to Brian B. Schmidt certain examples of the latter are presently lacking.[107] Best known presumed examples of the former include Jericho and Beth Yerach.[108][109] It is also probable that the moon god of Harran, Sin, was also worshiped by the Israelites.[110]

It has been suggested that the numerous references to the moon being a celestial body subordinate to Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible might reflect a religious polemic against the worship of lunar deities,[111][112] though researchers note that caution is required in using this information to reconstruct the culture of the kingdoms prior to the period of Babylonian captivity.[113] Direct prohibitions or condemnation of the worship of the moon are mentioned in a number of passages too, for example in Book of Job 31:26-68.[107] Second Book of Kings 23:5 states that king Josiah of Judah banished priests making offerings to the moon alongside those devoted to other astral bodies and Baal.[114] It is difficult how many of these references can be considered sources of information about Yarikh, as it possible that they do not necessarily reflect a struggle against the preexisting cult of a local lunar deity, but rather the Mesopotamian traditions centered in Harran, which in the period of captivity and later might have been perceived as a competing creed.[115] Placing the polemics in the distant past might therefore have been only a rhetorical device.[115]

Palmyrene sources edit

In sources from Palmyra, whose pantheon known from between the late first millennium BCE and early first millennium CE included both strictly local deities and Phoenician, Mesopotamian and Arabian ones,[116] names with the element yrḥ refer to the local god Yarhibol, rather than Yarikh.[117] He was regarded as a solar deity.[118] However, it is possible that he was originally a moon god, and only developed his solar traits attested in historical sources secondarily.[118] Alternatively, his name might have instead been derived from Arabic yarḫu, "spring," which is argued to fit his association with the Palmyrene spring Efca.[118]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b Pardee 2002, p. 101.
  2. ^ a b c d e f del Olmo Lete & Sanmartin 2015, p. 963.
  3. ^ George, Andrew; Krebernik, Manfred (2022). "Two Remarkable Vocabularies: Amorite-Akkadian Bilinguals!". Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale. 116 (1): 113–66. doi:10.3917/assy.116.0113. S2CID 255918382.
  4. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 236.
  5. ^ Hallo, William W.; Younger, K. Lawson; Orton, David E. (1997). The Context of Scripture. Leiden New York (N.Y.) Köln: Brill. p. 349. ISBN 90-04-09629-9.
  6. ^ a b c d Krebernik 1997, p. 364.
  7. ^ del Olmo Lete & Sanmartin 2015, p. 964.
  8. ^ Krebernik 1997, p. 360.
  9. ^ a b Krebernik 1997, p. 363.
  10. ^ a b c d e Schmidt 1999, p. 587.
  11. ^ Schwemer 2008, p. 30.
  12. ^ a b c d van der Toorn 2009, p. 22.
  13. ^ a b c Pardee 2002, p. 285.
  14. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 173.
  15. ^ Archi 2013, p. 224.
  16. ^ a b c d Archi 1997, p. 256.
  17. ^ a b Archi 1997, pp. 252–253.
  18. ^ Archi 1997, pp. 253–254.
  19. ^ a b Nakata 1995, p. 252.
  20. ^ Feliu 2003, p. 209.
  21. ^ Frayne 1990, p. 641.
  22. ^ Frayne 1990, p. 566.
  23. ^ a b Frayne 1990, p. 530.
  24. ^ Frayne 1990, p. 662.
  25. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 561.
  26. ^ van Soldt 2016, p. 105.
  27. ^ Rahmouni 2008, pp. 244–245.
  28. ^ Rahmouni 2008, p. 160.
  29. ^ a b Rahmouni 2008, p. 334.
  30. ^ Rahmouni 2008, pp. 246–247.
  31. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 170.
  32. ^ Smith 2014, p. 41.
  33. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 15.
  34. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 21.
  35. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 30.
  36. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 31.
  37. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 47.
  38. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 64.
  39. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 278.
  40. ^ a b c van Soldt 2016, p. 103.
  41. ^ a b Theuer 2000, p. 261.
  42. ^ van Soldt 2016, pp. 103–104.
  43. ^ Schwemer 2001, p. 547.
  44. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 281.
  45. ^ a b c Válek 2021, p. 52.
  46. ^ a b Archi 1997, p. 255.
  47. ^ Rahmouni 2008, pp. 102–103.
  48. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 280.
  49. ^ Smith 2014, p. 77.
  50. ^ Pardee 2002, pp. 150–151.
  51. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 69.
  52. ^ Wiggins 1998, p. 779.
  53. ^ Wiggins 1998, p. 762.
  54. ^ a b Wiggins 1998, p. 766.
  55. ^ a b c d Wiggins 1998, p. 769.
  56. ^ Wiggins 1998, pp. 763–764.
  57. ^ Wiggins 1998, pp. 771–772.
  58. ^ Wiggins 1998, pp. 764–765.
  59. ^ Theuer 2000, pp. 177–178.
  60. ^ Watson 1993, p. 53.
  61. ^ Schwemer 2001, p. 545.
  62. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 177.
  63. ^ Wiggins 1998, p. 770.
  64. ^ a b c Wiggins 1998, p. 765.
  65. ^ a b Wiggins 1998, p. 771.
  66. ^ Rahmouni 2008, p. 335.
  67. ^ Rahmouni 2008, p. 341.
  68. ^ Wiggins 1998, pp. 766–767.
  69. ^ Rahmouni 2008, p. 230.
  70. ^ Wiggins 1998, pp. 768–769.
  71. ^ Weippert 1998, p. 358.
  72. ^ Wiggins 1998, p. 768.
  73. ^ a b Theuer 2000, p. 19.
  74. ^ Weippert 1998, p. 357.
  75. ^ Wiggins 1998, p. 772.
  76. ^ a b c d e Wiggins 1998, p. 775.
  77. ^ Wiggins 1998, pp. 774–775.
  78. ^ Wiggins 1998, p. 774.
  79. ^ Pardee 2002, p. 186.
  80. ^ Wiggins 1998, pp. 776–777.
  81. ^ a b Rahmouni 2008, p. 79.
  82. ^ a b c Rahmouni 2008, p. 82.
  83. ^ Rahmouni 2008, pp. 81–82.
  84. ^ Rahmouni 2008, pp. 82–83.
  85. ^ Smith 2014, p. 46.
  86. ^ a b c Fleming 2000, p. 157.
  87. ^ Beckman 2002, p. 49.
  88. ^ Beckman 2002, p. 48.
  89. ^ Beckman 2002, p. 52.
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  91. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 562.
  92. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 309.
  93. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 308.
  94. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 310.
  95. ^ Theuer 2000, pp. 311–312.
  96. ^ a b Theuer 2000, p. 312.
  97. ^ Theuer 2000, pp. 312–313.
  98. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 313.
  99. ^ Theuer 2000, pp. 315–316.
  100. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 317.
  101. ^ a b Theuer 2000, p. 563.
  102. ^ Theuer 2000, pp. 414–415.
  103. ^ a b Theuer 2000, p. 415.
  104. ^ a b Theuer 2000, p. 417.
  105. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 459.
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  107. ^ a b Schmidt 1999, p. 588.
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  110. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 474.
  111. ^ Schmidt 1999, p. 590.
  112. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 449.
  113. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 430.
  114. ^ Schmidt 1999, pp. 591–592.
  115. ^ a b Schmidt 1999, p. 592.
  116. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 400.
  117. ^ Theuer 2000, p. 409.
  118. ^ a b c Theuer 2000, p. 410.

Bibliography edit

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  • Frayne, Douglas (1990). Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 B.C.). University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442678033. ISBN 978-1-4426-7803-3.
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  • Pardee, Dennis (2002). Ritual and cult at Ugarit. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-90-04-12657-2. OCLC 558437302.
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yarikh, ugaritic, 𐎊𐎗𐎃, yrḪ, moon, yaraḫum, moon, worshiped, ancient, near, east, best, attested, sources, from, amorite, city, ugarit, north, modern, syria, where, principal, deities, primary, cult, center, most, likely, larugadu, located, further, east, proxi. Yarikh Ugaritic 𐎊𐎗𐎃 YRḪ moon 2 or Yaraḫum 3 118 119 was a moon god worshiped in the Ancient Near East He is best attested in sources from the Amorite 4 city of Ugarit in the north of modern Syria where he was one of the principal deities His primary cult center was most likely Larugadu located further east in the proximity of Ebla His mythic cult center is Abiluma 5 He is also attested in other areas inhabited by Amorites for example in Mari but also in Mesopotamia as far east as Eshnunna In the Ugaritic texts Yarikh appears both in strictly religious context in rituals and offering lists and in narrative compositions He is the main character in The Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh a myth possibly based on an earlier Hurrian composition The eponymous goddess was regarded as his wife in Ugarit but she is not attested in documents from most other Syrian cities and most likely only entered the Ugaritic pantheon due to the influence of Hurrian religion YarikhMember of Gaṯarama Gaṯaruma 1 Other namesArakh ErakhMajor cult centerLarugadu Ugarit Jericho Beth YerachPlanetMoonPersonal informationSpouseNikkal in Ugarit EquivalentsMesopotamian equivalentSinHurrian equivalentKusuḫ Ugarit ceased to exist during the Bronze Age collapse and while Yarikh continued to be worshiped in the Levant and Transjordan attestations from the first millennium BCE are relatively rare He played a small role in Phoenician Punic Ammonite and Moabite religions and appears only in a small number of theophoric names from these areas It is also presumed that he was worshiped by the Israelites and that the cities of Jericho and Beth Yerach were named after him While the Hebrew Bible contains multiple polemics against the worship of the moon it is not certain if they necessarily refer to Yarikh Contents 1 Name 2 In early Amorite tradition 3 In Ugarit 3 1 Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh 3 2 Other Ugaritic narrative texts 4 In Emar 5 In the first millennium BCE 5 1 Phoenician and Punic sources 5 2 Ammonite and Moabite sources 5 3 Israelite and Judahite sources 5 4 Palmyrene sources 6 See also 7 References 7 1 BibliographyName editThe name Yarikh Yariḫ 𐎊𐎗𐎃 YRḪ 2 is an ordinary Ugaritic word which can refer not only to the lunar god but also to the moon as a celestial body 2 A further meaning attested for it is month 2 Earlier forms of the name Y arakh and Y erakh are attested as elements of Amorite theophoric names 6 The name is grammatically masculine 7 which is the norm for lunar deities across the Ancient Near East in contrast with Greece where the moon corresponded to a female deity Selene 8 Cognates of Yarikh s name are present in many Semitic languages 9 As a name for the celestial body and the ordinary word month they are attested in Hebrew ירח YRḤ Phoenician 𐤉𐤓𐤇 YRḤ Old Aramaic 𐡉𐡓𐡇 YRḤ however the name of the Aramaic moon god Sahr is not a cognate 6 Palmyrene Aramaic 𐡩𐡴𐡧 YRḤ and Nabataean Aramaic 𐢌𐢛𐢊 YRḤ 2 The Akkadian word warḫum month or rarely moon is a cognate as well 6 as are Old South Arabian wrḫ month and the word warḫ moon or month present in Ethiopian Semitic languages 2 In early Amorite tradition editIt is presumed that the moon god was one of the major deities of the early Amorite pantheon 10 Daniel Schwemer outright states that next to Hadad he was the main deity of the entire area inhabited by the Amorites 11 He was commonly worshiped as a family deity 12 His presumed main cult center attested in the Ugaritic texts 13 but located further inland in central Syria 14 presumably in the proximity of Ebla was Larugadu lrgt identified with Arugadu from the earlier Eblaite sources 15 No references to this location from outside the Ugarit and Ebla corpora of texts are known 13 Since Yarikh himself is not attested in the sources from the latter city it is presumed that he was only introduced to northern Syria by the Amorites 16 The Eblaites instead referred to their moon god as Suinu similar as their contemporaries in Kish and in addition to phonetic writing Zu i nu adopted the Mesopotamian convention of using dEN ZU to represent the name of the moon deity in cuneiform 17 While Suinu s name is a cognate of Akkadian Sin it is presumed that his cult developed locally and was not introduced from Mesopotamia 16 His cult center was apparently NI ra arki a city located close to Ebla 18 A second possible lunar deity worshiped in Ebla was Sanugaru 17 Due to Yarikh s association with Larugardu it has additionally been argued that the god Hadabal dNI DA KUL who was worshiped there in the third millennium BCE had lunar character 9 but this conclusion is not universally accepted 16 Alfonso Archi assumes that the diffusion of Hadabal s cult whose territorial extent is well documented in Eblaite texts does not appear to match his presumed astral character 16 Yarikh Erakh is well attested in Amorite theophoric names 6 In Old Babylonian Mari he appears in thirty nine individual types of names 19 Examples include Abdu Erakh servant of Yarikh Uri Erakh light of Yarikh Yantin Erakh Yarikh has given and Zimri Erakh protection of Yarikh 10 Individuals bearing them came from various areas in the kingdom and near it including the city of Mari itself Terqa Saggartum the Khabur Triangle where particularly many are attested the area around the Balikh Suhum and Zalmaqum 20 A certain Yantin Erakh served as a troop commander under Zimri Lim 21 Similar theophoric names are also known from Eshnunna 22 A document excavated there indicates that at one point in the Old Babylonian period a certain Abdi Erakh was a king of an unspecified city in Mesopotamia 23 After its initial discovery Thorkild Jacobsen proposed that he ruled Eshnunna itself but this view has since been disproved 23 Another Abdi Erakh a contemporary of Ipiq Adad of Eshnunna apparently ruled over Ilip and Kish 24 It is sometimes argued that in Mesopotamia Erakh Yarikh and Sin might have been understood as respectively Amorite and Akkadian names of the same deity rather than two separate moon gods 10 12 However Ichiro Nakata lists them separately from each other in his overview of deities attested in Mari unlike the various variants of the names of the weather or solar gods 19 The deity Sin Amurrum attested in the incantation series Maqlu tablet VI verse 4 12 according to Karel van der Toorn might be the Mesopotamian name of the Amorite moon god 12 In Ugarit editYarikh was regarded as one of the primary deities of the Ugaritic pantheon 25 26 His role as a lunar deity was qualified by the epithet nyr smm luminary of the heavens or lamp of the heavens which has been compared to a similar Akkadian title of the Mesopotamian moon god Sin munawwir same u ersetim illuminator of the heavens and earth 27 He could also be referred to as a prince zbl which is also attested in the case of multiple other deities including the weather god Baal and the underworld god Resheph 28 and is meant to signify high status 29 Furthermore a single passage refers to him as the most pleasant of the gods n mn ilm which was apparently meant to highlight his physical attractiveness 30 According to Dennis Pardee it is possible he was believed to spend the day in the underworld 31 It has also been suggested that he could function as its gatekeeper a role which is otherwise well attested for the god Resheph 29 These two gods are paired in an incantation against snakebite 32 In the standard Ugaritic deity lists Yarikh follows the Kotharat and precedes Mount Saphon 33 In another similar text he follows the sea god Yam and Baal whose names are written in a single line and precedes the craftsman god Kothar 34 He is also attested in ritual texts During celebrations which took place during the full moon in an unknown month two bulls had to be sacrificed for him 35 Subsequently in an offering list included in the same prescriptive text it is stated he also receives a ram after Baal of Ugarit and Baal of Aleppo and before a ram and a bull were offered to Anat of Saphon 36 Another offering list places him between the Kotharat and Attar as a recipient of a ram 37 He could also receive offerings alongside Nikkal 38 Additionally the terms Gaṯarama and Gataruma designations of a group of god which are etymologically respectively dual and plural forms of the name Gaṯaru 39 might in some cases refer to Yarikh grouped with Gaṯaru the sun goddess Shapash or both of these deities 1 Thirty individuals bearing theophoric names invoking Yarikh have been identified with certainty in the Ugaritic texts 40 A particularly commonly occurring name Abdi Yarikh written as bdyrḫ in the Ugaritic alphabetic script meant servant of Yarikh 41 Additionally a single name known from a text written in the standard cuneiform script uses the logogram d30 as the theophoric element but it is not certain if it refers to Yarikh or another lunar deity 40 Kusuḫ is also attested in Ugaritic names appearing in a total of six one of them belonging to a person from outside the city while the Mesopotamian Sin in a single one belonging to a Babylonian rather than a local resident 42 While the total number of the names invoking Yarikh and adjacent deities is smaller than that of these invoking Baal Resheph or Shapash he is nonetheless better attested in this capacity than multiple deities who appear frequently in myths such as Athirat Attar Yam or Ashtart 40 In addition to his presence in theophoric names the Hurrian moon god Kusuḫ is also well attested in other documents from Ugarit 41 It has been argued that he was identified with Yarikh due to his analogous role 43 44 However in one ritual text KTU3 1 111 Kusuḫ and Yarikh accompanied by Nikkal who is placed between them receive offerings together as separate deities 45 Since accompanying instructions are a combination of Ugaritic when referring to Yarikh and Hurrian when referring to Kusuḫ and Nikkal it is possible that the scribe responsible for the preparation of the tablet was bilingual 45 Both this text and other sources from Ugarit indicate that Ugaritic and Hurrian deities could be worshiped side by side 45 Further lunar deities known from Ugarit include Saggar a god presumed to be analogous to Eblaite Sanugaru who was worshiped in association with Ishara 46 hll reading uncertain sometimes assumed to be analogous to the god Hulelu from Emar the father of the Kotharat whose name might be a cognate of the Arabic word hilalun which lead to the proposal that he was the god of the lunar crescent 47 and Kas a only attested in association of Yarikh and based on presumed cognates in other Semitic languages for example Habrew presumed to represent a presently unidentified lunar phase 48 Dennis Pardee additionally suggests that yrḫ kṯy a hypostasis of Yarikh might be a lunar deity of Kassite origin 13 The presence of the Kassite Yarikh in Ugaritic texts is also accepted by Mark Smith 49 He is attested in a prayer for well being 50 and in an offering list 51 Yarikh appears in a number of Ugaritic myths but his role in them does not necessarily reflect his nature as a lunar deity 52 Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh edit Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh KTU 1 24 is the Ugaritic narrative composition which is focused on the moon god to the greatest degree 53 It is agreed that it describes the circumstances which lead to the marriage of the eponymous deities though its genre continues to be a topic of ongoing scholarly debate 54 Steve A Wiggins suggests that it is possible individual sections of the text do not necessarily belong to the same genre making it possible to classify both as a myth and as a hymn 54 After a proemium which mentions some of the deities involved in the plot and a number of verses dealing with the Kotharat Yarikh is introduced bargaining with the god Ḫiriḫibi who is not attested in any other sources 55 to be granted the permission to marry Nikkal 56 This most likely indicates that the latter is either her father or at least mediates on behalf of her family 55 Yarikh offers to pay a high bride price including large amounts of gold silver and lapis lazuli and additionally states that he will make her Nikkal s fields orchards which is most likely an euphemistic way to refer to his ability to sire an heir 57 Ḫiriḫibi is reluctant at first and suggests alternate brides to him Pidray and ybrdmy 58 The former is known to be a daughter of Baal while the latter is variously interpreted as a daughter of Attar 55 his sister 59 another daughter of Baal 60 61 or an epithet of Pidray 62 Ḫiriḫibi in his speech refers to Yarikh as son in law of Baal ḫtnm b l which might either refer to his prospective future after choosing Pidray indicate that he was already married to another of the weather god s daughters or simply serve as a courtesy title 63 Yarikh ultimately rejects both proposals and states that he is only interested in Nikkal 64 He finally succeeds and subsequently marries her 64 It is sometimes assumed that in addition to the scenes described above Yarikh also appears in the heavily damaged section of the myth occupying lines 5 15 of the tablet which according to this theory describe a sexual encounter between him and Nikkal but this is far from certain 65 Steve A Wiggins points out that even if it is accepted that sex is described neither deity is mentioned by name which makes it difficult to evaluate this proposal 65 The background of the entire myth is most likely Hurrian 64 66 It might be either a direct Ugaritic translation of a Hurrian original 67 or a less direct adaptation only relying on motifs from Hurrian mythology 68 It is agreed that Ḫiriḫibi is a god of Hurrian origin 55 69 Nikkal presented as Yarikh s spouse in this context but absent from other Ugaritic narratives was a derivative of the Mesopotamian goddess Ningal who was the wife of Sin Nanna the Mesopotamian moon god 70 and was also worshiped by Hurrians as the wife of Kusuḫ 71 Most likely the marital relationship between the corresponding Mesopotamian deities is also the reason behind portraying her as Yarikh s wife 72 It is not certain if Nikkal entered the Ugaritic pantheon directly from one of the Upper Mesopotamian cities or through a Hurrian cultural intermediary 73 The fact that most Ugaritic attestations of her are entries in Hurrian offering lists most likely supports the latter theory 73 She is otherwise almost entirely absent from western Syrian sources from the second and first millennia BCE 74 Other Ugaritic narrative texts edit In addition to Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh the moon god also appears in the text KTU 1 114 75 While relatively well preserved it is considered difficult to translate and many details remain unclear 76 Apparently during a banquet organized by El Yarikh for unknown reasons acts as a dog and crawls under the tables 76 Deities stated to be familiar with him including Ashtart and Anat offer him choice cuts of meat while those who do not know him poke him with a stick 77 The actions of the two goddesses are rebuked by a nameless porter of the house of El who complains that they are giving a dog food 78 The rest of the composition focuses on El getting drunk and subsequently struggling with the effects of alcohol and Yarikh is not referenced again 76 However the final lines apparently relay how to prepare a remedy for hangover using dog hair which might be a reference to his role 76 79 It is not certain why Yarikh acts in a dog like manner in this text 80 His behavior might simply be tied to the theme of alcohol consumption 76 While Yarikh himself makes no appearance in KTU2 1 12 a minor goddess appearing in this text Talish tls 81 is described as his handmaiden amt 82 The origin of her name is not known though it has been proposed it was derived from a root meaning tardy or delay or from the verb to knead 83 Alternatively it might be related to the ordinary name Tu li sa attested both in Ugarit and in Nuzi 82 Talish occurs in parallel with Dimgay another minor goddess the handmaiden of Athirat which is sometimes used to argue in favor of them being a single deity with a binomial name Dimgay wa Talish dmg w tls 81 In the surviving passage both of them suffer from labor pain 82 Since a well known Mesopotamian composition casts Sin in the role of a god helping in such situations Yarikh s absence from the surviving sections of the text coupled with Talish being explicitly associated with him is considered difficult to explain by researchers 84 The myth KTU 1 92 mentions Yarikh in passing as one of the gods who receive game from Ashtart after her return from a hunt 85 In Emar editIn Emar the name of the moon god was represented by the logogram d30 86 It is not certain if he can be identified as Yarikh 86 According to Brian B Schmidt the moon god worshiped in Emar was Sin 10 However it is not impossible that more than one deity of such character was present in the local pantheon 86 and Gary Beckman lists the West Semitic reading as one of the four possibilities next to Mesopotamian Hurrian and Anatolian Arma 87 It has also been proven that in at least some cases the logogram refers to Saggar already worshiped in the proximity of Emar in Ma NEki in the third millennium BCE 46 Other writings of his name are also attested including multiple syllabic and a second logographic one dḪAR 88 Priests of the deity designated by d30 are attested in documents from Emar but there is no indication that one of the few temples identified during excavations belonged to him 89 In the first millennium BCE editWhile Ugarit ceased to exist during the Late Bronze Age collapse possibly due to the activity of the Sea Peoples 90 the worship of Yarikh continued elsewhere in the first millennium BCE 10 Phoenician and Punic sources edit nbsp The Phoenician version of the Karatepe bilingual No explicit references to Yarikh occur in any Phoenician sources 91 such as inscriptions from Byblos Tyre and Sidon 92 The research of Phoenician religion is considered difficult due to the scarcity of written materials and the small number of direct references to deities other than the principal patron of each city such as Baalat Gebal in Byblos Eshmun in Sidon or Melqart in Tyre 93 The role of astral deities such as Yarikh was small possibly due to their lack of a connection to maritime trade shared by many of the major deities of this culture 94 The Phoenician version of the Karatepe bilingual mentions the sun and the moon in a context which might indicate that deities corresponding to them are meant but they are not singled out in such a way as the weather god Baal is in the same document 95 In known Punic sources Yarikh is similarly absent from inscriptions though he does appear in theophoric names 96 One attested example is bdyrḥ servant of Yarikh 96 Similar evidence exists for another moon god Saggar who might have functioned as a personification of the new moon in Punic religion 97 Lunar symbols are present on Punic stelae though since the accompanying inscriptions usually only mention the heads of the pantheon Baal Hammon and Tanit it has been argued that they represent the former of these two deities rather than Yarikh 98 However no textual sources support the theory that Baal Hammon was a lunar deity and the fact that in Palmyra he was treated as entirely separate from the local lunar god Aglibol might be evidence on the contrary 99 Additionally it is possible that said symbols as well as other similar astral ones do not represent any specific god but are meant to illustrate the celestial nature of the main deities 100 Ammonite and Moabite sources edit As of 2000 only a single certain attestation of Yarkih from the kingdoms of the ancient Transjordan has been identified 101 One of the Ammonite kings bore the name yrḥ zr Jeraheazar Yarikh is my helper as attested in an inscription on the plinth of a royal statue dated to around 700 BCE 102 Ammonite seals depicting the crescent moon are known from the seventh century BCE but they might be related to the worship of Sin of Harran who was known in many areas to the west and south of his cult center in the Neo Assyrian period 103 The evidence from the Moabite kingdom which developed in parallel with the Ammon in the early first millennium BCE 103 is limited to artistic depictions of the lunar crescent 104 It has been argued that they might indicate the national god of the Moabites Chemosh at some point developed lunar characteristics 101 Known textual sources from Moab mention neither Yarikh nor Sin 104 Israelite and Judahite sources edit The worship of the moon was most likely practiced in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah both before the Babylonian captivity and afterwards 105 Evidence includes toponyms and according to Gabriele Theuer theophoric names invoking Yarikh 106 though according to Brian B Schmidt certain examples of the latter are presently lacking 107 Best known presumed examples of the former include Jericho and Beth Yerach 108 109 It is also probable that the moon god of Harran Sin was also worshiped by the Israelites 110 It has been suggested that the numerous references to the moon being a celestial body subordinate to Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible might reflect a religious polemic against the worship of lunar deities 111 112 though researchers note that caution is required in using this information to reconstruct the culture of the kingdoms prior to the period of Babylonian captivity 113 Direct prohibitions or condemnation of the worship of the moon are mentioned in a number of passages too for example in Book of Job 31 26 68 107 Second Book of Kings 23 5 states that king Josiah of Judah banished priests making offerings to the moon alongside those devoted to other astral bodies and Baal 114 It is difficult how many of these references can be considered sources of information about Yarikh as it possible that they do not necessarily reflect a struggle against the preexisting cult of a local lunar deity but rather the Mesopotamian traditions centered in Harran which in the period of captivity and later might have been perceived as a competing creed 115 Placing the polemics in the distant past might therefore have been only a rhetorical device 115 Palmyrene sources edit In sources from Palmyra whose pantheon known from between the late first millennium BCE and early first millennium CE included both strictly local deities and Phoenician Mesopotamian and Arabian ones 116 names with the element yrḥ refer to the local god Yarhibol rather than Yarikh 117 He was regarded as a solar deity 118 However it is possible that he was originally a moon god and only developed his solar traits attested in historical sources secondarily 118 Alternatively his name might have instead been derived from Arabic yarḫu spring which is argued to fit his association with the Palmyrene spring Efca 118 See also editIah Sin god aka NannaReferences edit a b Pardee 2002 p 101 a b c d e f del Olmo Lete amp Sanmartin 2015 p 963 George Andrew Krebernik Manfred 2022 Two Remarkable Vocabularies Amorite Akkadian Bilinguals Revue d assyriologie et d archeologie orientale 116 1 113 66 doi 10 3917 assy 116 0113 S2CID 255918382 Pardee 2002 p 236 Hallo William W Younger K Lawson Orton David E 1997 The Context of Scripture Leiden New York N Y Koln Brill p 349 ISBN 90 04 09629 9 a b c d Krebernik 1997 p 364 del Olmo Lete amp Sanmartin 2015 p 964 Krebernik 1997 p 360 a b Krebernik 1997 p 363 a b c d e Schmidt 1999 p 587 Schwemer 2008 p 30 a b c d van der Toorn 2009 p 22 a b c Pardee 2002 p 285 Pardee 2002 p 173 Archi 2013 p 224 a b c d Archi 1997 p 256 a b Archi 1997 pp 252 253 Archi 1997 pp 253 254 a b Nakata 1995 p 252 Feliu 2003 p 209 Frayne 1990 p 641 Frayne 1990 p 566 a b Frayne 1990 p 530 Frayne 1990 p 662 Theuer 2000 p 561 van Soldt 2016 p 105 Rahmouni 2008 pp 244 245 Rahmouni 2008 p 160 a b Rahmouni 2008 p 334 Rahmouni 2008 pp 246 247 Pardee 2002 p 170 Smith 2014 p 41 Pardee 2002 p 15 Pardee 2002 p 21 Pardee 2002 p 30 Pardee 2002 p 31 Pardee 2002 p 47 Pardee 2002 p 64 Pardee 2002 p 278 a b c van Soldt 2016 p 103 a b Theuer 2000 p 261 van Soldt 2016 pp 103 104 Schwemer 2001 p 547 Pardee 2002 p 281 a b c Valek 2021 p 52 a b Archi 1997 p 255 Rahmouni 2008 pp 102 103 Pardee 2002 p 280 Smith 2014 p 77 Pardee 2002 pp 150 151 Pardee 2002 p 69 Wiggins 1998 p 779 Wiggins 1998 p 762 a b Wiggins 1998 p 766 a b c d Wiggins 1998 p 769 Wiggins 1998 pp 763 764 Wiggins 1998 pp 771 772 Wiggins 1998 pp 764 765 Theuer 2000 pp 177 178 Watson 1993 p 53 Schwemer 2001 p 545 Theuer 2000 p 177 Wiggins 1998 p 770 a b c Wiggins 1998 p 765 a b Wiggins 1998 p 771 Rahmouni 2008 p 335 Rahmouni 2008 p 341 Wiggins 1998 pp 766 767 Rahmouni 2008 p 230 Wiggins 1998 pp 768 769 Weippert 1998 p 358 Wiggins 1998 p 768 a b Theuer 2000 p 19 Weippert 1998 p 357 Wiggins 1998 p 772 a b c d e Wiggins 1998 p 775 Wiggins 1998 pp 774 775 Wiggins 1998 p 774 Pardee 2002 p 186 Wiggins 1998 pp 776 777 a b Rahmouni 2008 p 79 a b c Rahmouni 2008 p 82 Rahmouni 2008 pp 81 82 Rahmouni 2008 pp 82 83 Smith 2014 p 46 a b c Fleming 2000 p 157 Beckman 2002 p 49 Beckman 2002 p 48 Beckman 2002 p 52 Theuer 2000 p 299 Theuer 2000 p 562 Theuer 2000 p 309 Theuer 2000 p 308 Theuer 2000 p 310 Theuer 2000 pp 311 312 a b Theuer 2000 p 312 Theuer 2000 pp 312 313 Theuer 2000 p 313 Theuer 2000 pp 315 316 Theuer 2000 p 317 a b Theuer 2000 p 563 Theuer 2000 pp 414 415 a b Theuer 2000 p 415 a b Theuer 2000 p 417 Theuer 2000 p 459 Theuer 2000 p 483 a b Schmidt 1999 p 588 Schmidt 1999 p 589 Theuer 2000 p 484 Theuer 2000 p 474 Schmidt 1999 p 590 Theuer 2000 p 449 Theuer 2000 p 430 Schmidt 1999 pp 591 592 a b Schmidt 1999 p 592 Theuer 2000 p 400 Theuer 2000 p 409 a b c Theuer 2000 p 410 Bibliography edit Archi Alfonso 1997 Studies in the Ebla Pantheon II Orientalia 66 4 GBPress Gregorian Biblical Press 414 425 ISSN 0030 5367 JSTOR 43078145 Retrieved 2022 07 28 Archi Alfonso 2013 Ritualization at Ebla Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 13 2 Brill 212 237 doi 10 1163 15692124 12341253 ISSN 1569 2116 Beckman Gary 2002 The Pantheon of Emar Silva Anatolica Anatolian studies presented to Maciej Popko on the occasion of his 65th birthday Warsaw Agade hdl 2027 42 77414 ISBN 83 87111 12 0 OCLC 51004996 del Olmo Lete Gregorio Sanmartin Joaquin 2015 A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition Leiden Netherlands Boston United States Brill ISBN 978 9 004 28865 2 Retrieved 2022 07 27 Feliu Lluis 2003 The god Dagan in Bronze Age Syria Leiden Boston MA Brill ISBN 90 04 13158 2 OCLC 52107444 Retrieved 2022 08 05 Fleming Daniel E 2000 Time at Emar The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner s Archive Pennsylvania State University Press ISBN 978 1 57506 044 6 Retrieved 2022 07 28 Frayne Douglas 1990 Old Babylonian Period 2003 1595 B C University of Toronto Press doi 10 3138 9781442678033 ISBN 978 1 4426 7803 3 Krebernik Manfred 1997 Mondgott A I In Mesopotamien Reallexikon der Assyriologie in German retrieved 2022 07 27 Nakata 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