Word of tree and whisper of stone2007

"This flagship volume of the Gorgias Ugaritic Series is a book of selected essays dating from 1992 to the present, devoted to themes in Ugaritic literature. Providing a glimpse into the worldview of ancient Syria, Word of Tree and Whisper of Stone includes the following chapters: A New Look at the Term sdmt; The Titles of the Ugaritic Storm-God; The Pruning of the Vine in KTU 1.23; Understanding Polytheism: Structure and Dynamic in a West Semitic Pantheon; Religion at Ugarit: an overview; Epic in Ugaritic Literature; "May Horon Smash Your Head!": a Curse Formula from Ugarit; and Word of Tree and Whisper of Stone, from which the volume takes its title. The shorter chapters, 1 and 3, deal with details in textual analysis, the intermediate ones, 5 and 6, with matters of religion and genre. The longer ones, 2, 4, 7 and 8, cover broader issues, respectively the surprisingly large range of Baal's epithets; the theology of the so-called "pantheon lists" form Ugarit, and the tension they invite between pluralistic and unitary conceptions of deity; and the question of prophecy in Ugarit. Prophetic figures have now been widely attested in the ancient Near East, from the time of Zimri-Lim of Mari down into the Iron Age. It was only a matter of time till the phenomenon was observed in Ugarit. This final chapter explores the language of divine communication in the light of some archaic features in Israelite oracular procedure."--Publisher's website.