The Ugaritic Baal cycle appears to be familiar with no less than three accounts of the killing of the Sea god, who is to be construed as a dragon. Such variety in mythological tradition should occasion no surprise, but clearly it does raise questions of consistency within the space of one literary work. In the present article I shall examine the various forms that occur, and attempt to reconcile them with one another, in the sense of seeking an appropriate explanation of the variety in terms of Ugaritian theology.

The three accounts attribute the victory over Yam to three different deities, and it is here that inconsistency arises, because the first two, by Athirat and Anat respectively, superficially at least detract from the literary force of the third, by Baal. We shall deal with these in turn.

1 Athirat

Ugaritic mythology gives no account of this myth, but we may infer its existence from the goddess' chief title, rbt atrt ym, as proposed by Albright. He interprets the formula as ‘the Lady who treads on the Sea [-dragon]’, and understands this to be an allusion to a myth in which Athirat overcomes Yam. While this may be regarded as no more than a conjecture, it is a very plausible one.