5. Conclusions

We have studied Ugaritic Baal, a main character with clear divine status. Recent research has proposed two different alternatives to seeing aal as a dying and rising god. (a) It was suggested that there was a ruse, so that Baal cheated Mot and never actually went down to the Netherworld. (b) it was suggested that Baal is rather a god of the vanishing gods type, like Telepinu. We arrived at the following conclusions:

(1) Neither of these alternative approaches can be sustained. It has become clear that the Baal-Mot myth presupposes that Baal himself and no substitute makes the descensus. The attempt to understand Baal in the light of the vanishing gods who do not die is no viable alternative. There are important differences between the two types of deities concerning the reason for the absence (Mot’s invitation/the wrath of Telepinu himself) and the place of sojourn (the Netherworld/the outskirts of the inhabited world). Telepinu never dies, while Baal is exposed to death, whether this is described as a descent to the Netherworld (KTU 1.4-6) or as being killed by the beasts during a hunt (KTU 1.12).

(2) In spite of disturbing gaps in the material studied, it has been found that the Baal-Mot myth comprises the mytheme of death and return. The turn is a return to full and active life.

(3) Baal’s fates draw on the seasonal changes. His absence causes the summer drought. The onset of the autumn rains is the proof of his return. The Baal-Mot myth is a paradigm and etiology for the seasonal changes. The seasonal aspect of Baal’s fates is found both in the Baal cycle and in KTU 1.12. In this last-mentioned text, the mythological section serves to provide legitimization of the water libation mentioned at the end of the text.

(4) While Baal’s death and return are local motifs in the Baal myth, the situation on the cultic level of ritual is more difficult to ascertain. It is a striking fact that the corpus of ritual texts contains virtually no reference to Baal’s death and return. There are, however, two texts that may provide an indication of a ritual celebration of Baal’s fates. KTU 1.12 contains a clear reference to ritual procedures (libation of water), motivated by Baal’s death during a hunt. A passage in the Aqhat epic about Baal’s revivification as a paradigm for Anat’s reviving of Aqhat is possibly an allusion to ritual (KTU 1.17.VI:26-33).

(5) A recently suggested theory that the motif of Baal’s death and return was modelled on the fate of the Ugaritic kings as reflected in the royal funerary liturgy (KTU 1.161) was found difficult to sustain.

(6) That Baal is (a) the eponym of the rpum and (b) in this capacity the healer or saviour par excellence is an attractive possibility but still stands out as an unproven hypothesis. The texts on which it is based are capable of divergent interpretations.