Ugaritic Narrative Poetry.

• Author: LETE, GREGORIO DEL OLMO
• Position: Review

Ugaritic Narrative Poetry. Edited by SIMON B. PARKER. Society of Biblical Literature Writings from the Ancient World Series, vol. 9. Altanta: SCHOLARS PRESS, 1997. Pp. viii + 265, illus., maps. $34.95.

Edited by S. B. Parker, this volume presents a number of well-known "literary" Ugaritic texts, compiled under four main headings: Kirta, Aqhat, Baal, and "Shorter Texts." The translations are by E. L. Greenstein (KTU 1.14-16), S. B. Parker (KTU 1.10-12, 1.17-19, 1.83, 1.100), M. S. Smith (KTU 1.1-6,1.8, 1.96, 1.133: this version thus anticipates Smith's monumental Commentary to the Baal Cycle, now underway), Th. J. Lewis (KTU 1.20-22, 1.23, 1.114), and D. Marcus (KTU 1.24).

This volume is among the first of a new series (Writings for the Ancient World) "designed to provide up-to-date, readable, English translations of writings recovered from the ancient Near East" (p. vii). It is one of a number of series in different European languages now being prepared (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish). The main difference may be that this new series offers transliterations of the original text, following the model already used in previous editions (Driver, Gibson, del Olmo Lete). The translation is accompanied by a brief introduction and philological notes. These notes are kept to a minimum, and give information on textual and contextual items. All in all, this makes for a highly readable and useful book, of interest to both the general reader and the specialist.

It would be impossible, as well as inappropriate, to go into a detailed discussion of the interpretative options that the various translators make. The notes themselves present alternative views on obscure and debatable texts. In general, the point of view assumed by the authors tends to avoid unconfirmed or hazardous hypotheses and maintains a rather consensual, not to...