Aqhat Epic

Aqhat Epic
Ancient West Semitic legend explaining the earth's barrenness during the dry summer months, known only in fragmentary form from three tablets excavated in northern Syria and dating to about the 14th century BC.

It records the birth of a prince, Aqhat, in response to prayers. As a youth, Aqhat comes into possession of a bow intended for the goddess Anath and is killed by her when he refuses to part with it. His death brings famine, and his father and sister set out to avenge him, but there the text ends.

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▪ ancient Semitic legend
      ancient West Semitic legend probably concerned with the cause of the annual summer drought in the eastern Mediterranean. The epic records that Danel, a sage and king of the Haranamites, had no son until the god El, in response to Danel's many prayers and offerings, finally granted him a child, whom Danel named Aqhat. Some time later Danel offered hospitality to the divine craftsman Kothar, who in return gave Aqhat one of his marvelous bows. That bow, however, had been intended for the goddess Anath, who became outraged that it had been given to a mortal. Anath made Aqhat a variety of tempting offers, including herself, in exchange for the bow, but Aqhat rejected all of them. Anath then plotted to kill Aqhat, luring him to a hunting party where she, disguised as a falcon, carried her henchman, Yatpan, in a sack and dropped him on Aqhat. Yatpan killed Aqhat and snatched the bow, which he later carelessly dropped into the sea.

      Meanwhile, because of the blood shed in violence, a famine came over the land, leading Aqhat's sister and father to discover the crime and to set about avenging it. The conclusion is not known, however, because the legend's main text breaks off at that point.

      The legend appears to have been a seasonal myth designed to account for the land's barrenness during the dry summer months. Presumably the rest of the text related how fertility returned to the earth, either through the resurrection of Aqhat or through the fathering of a new family by Danel.

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Universalium. 2010.

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