Danel

Danel (Danʾilu), 'the man of Rapiu, the Harnamite', is the central patriarch of the Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat. After seven days of incubation rites El grants him a son, Aqhat. When the goddess Anat has the boy killed for his bow, Danel curses the land into drought, recovers his son's remains from the gullet of the vulture-mother Samal, and mourns him for seven years. His fame as an exemplar of righteous judgment evidently persisted in the Levant, since Ezekiel names a Danel alongside Noah and Job.

Children

• Pughat

Domains

• justice

Powers

• to judge the cause of the widow and the orphan at the city gate

Epithets

• mt rpi
• mt hrnmy

Relations

• father of: Aqhat
• father of: Pughat

Sources

• Simon B. Parker (ed.), Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, SBL Writings from the Ancient World 9, 1997
• H.-P. Müller, 'Daniel', in K. van der Toorn, B. Becking and P. W. van der Horst (eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed., Brill, 1999