Thesiss

This dissertation provides a new interpretation of the Bronze Age Ugaritic myth of Baal. The poem is read within its political context of the thirteenth and twelfth centuries B.C. Building off of previous scholarship that has recognized a political focus in the poem, I situate t…

The study concludes that the term habba`al in the OT is not a uniformly understood proper noun but a title, “the baal”, that had distinct uses in the north and the south. In northern sources, “the baal” refers to the Phoenician storm deity introduced by the Omrides—likely unders…

This dissertation examines ancient conceptions of Near Eastern deities whose names consistently included geographic epithets, which functioned like last names. In Neo-Assyrian (ca. 900-630 B.C.E.) texts, Ištar-of-Nineveh and Ištar-of-Arbela are often included as divine witnesses…