Athtar

Athtar's scene is four lines long and it has been read for a century as the ancestor of Isaiah's fallen morning star. Baal is dead; the throne of Zaphon is empty; Athirat proposes her own candidate; and Athtar climbs up, sits down, and discovers that his feet do not reach the stool. He says, in effect, that he will not be king up here — and goes down and rules the earth. Nothing is said about humiliation and nothing needs to be: the poem makes its argument about kingship by measuring a chair. The registry already carried the South Arabian and Aksumite gods of this name and not the Ugaritic one.

Domains

• sovereignty
• irrigation

Relations

• counterpart of: BaalThe substitute who does not fit. The scene exists to establish that Baal's kingship is not an office anybody can hold — the throne is the wrong size for anyone else, which is the point made physically rather than argued.The Baal Cycle: Athirat proposes Athtar as king in Baal's place, and he takes the throne and fails to fit it. (primary)
• counterpart of: AthtarThe same theonym as the South Arabian Athtar and the Aksumite Astar, which the registry already carried; what it did not carry was the Ugaritic god the Baal Cycle is about.Reference treatment of Athtar and of the South Arabian and Aksumite gods of the same name. (secondary)

Sources

• Athtar is the Ugaritic god who takes Baal's throne on Zaphon during his absence, finds his feet do not reach the footstool, descends and rules the earth instead.: The Baal Cycle (KTU 1.6). (primary); Reference treatments of Athtar and of his relation to the South Arabian and Aksumite gods of the same name. (secondary)