Rapiu

Rapiu is the singular of a plural the registry already had. The Rephaim are the shades of dead kings in the Ugaritic funerary texts; Rapiu is one of them used as a title, or their king, or the god the word is named for — the material does not distinguish as tidily as one would like. What is striking is the geography: he is the god enthroned at Ashtaroth who rules in Edrei, and Deuteronomy gives those same two cities, in that order, to Og of Bashan, the last of the Rephaim. Two literatures, half a millennium apart, put the same pair of place names in the same formula.

Domains

• underworld

Relations

• counterpart of: The RephaimThe singular of the plural the registry already carried. Whether he is their king, their eponym, or the word for one of them used as a title is not settled.Reference treatment of Rapiu as the singular form of Rephaim. (secondary)
• counterpart of: MilkuBoth are seated at Ashtaroth; some treatments identify the two.Reference treatments placing both Rapiu and Milku as rulers at Ashtaroth. (secondary)

Sources

• Rapiu, the 'King of Eternity', is the Ugaritic underworld king enthroned at Ashtaroth and ruling in Edrei, the singular form of Rephaim.: Reference treatments of Rapiu, of the Rephaim and of the Ashtaroth-and-Edrei formula. (secondary)