Antiqua Ugaritica Nova 8: Cherchez la femme!

Ugaritic politics at the very end of the Bronze Age was not monolithic. It is assumed that even the famous poet and scribe Ilimilku, with his relatively radical work, pursued a real political goal, i.e., the encouragement of the feminine element in the Ugaritic internal political struggle. Nearly everywhere, we can see a great, powerful lady behind a rather cheeky and failed masculine hero (Anat and Baal, Octavia and Jassibu, Pughat and Aqhatu, the queen and the king). The various genres of Ugaritic literature (myth, epic, correspondence, ritual) seem to confirm that it was the Ugaritic queen, perhaps Thariyelli, whose interests he wanted to promote.