The Legend of Keret
Also known as: Legend of Keret, Epic of Keret, Keret Epic, KRT
An Ugaritic king, Kirta, receives divine guidance to win a queen and heirs but breaks a vow, bringing a wasting illness and palace turmoil; the high god El intervenes, healing Kirta as succession strife flares and the tale breaks off.
Description
Composed in Ugaritic verse, The Legend of Kirta recounts how the childless king Kirta laments his fate until El appears in a dream, instructing him to lead a campaign to Udum and claim the princess Hurriya. Kirta vows rich offerings to Athirat but fails to fulfill them after his successful marriage and newfound offspring. The broken vow draws a crippling illness upon him. El fashions the healer Shatiqatu to restore Kirta, yet a succession crisis erupts when a son moves against his weakened father. The poem, rich in parallelism and royal ideology—divine sanction, oath, kingship, and justice—survives fragmentarily, leaving its resolution unknown.
Historiography
Known from Late Bronze Age tablets unearthed at Ras Shamra (Ugarit) and catalogued as KTU 1.14–1.16, the epic is fragmentary with lacunae affecting names and episode boundaries. Modern editions reconstruct sequence and poetics through parallel passages and formulae. Major translations and studies (Gibson; Parker; Smith; Wyatt) emphasize royal ideology, vow and curse motifs, and Ugaritic verse structure. The text’s reception informs comparative studies of Northwest Semitic kingship and epic tradition.
Date Notes
Preserved on Ugaritic tablets (KTU 1.14–1.16) from Ras Shamra; composition likely predates extant copies.
Major Characters
- Keret
- El
- Hurriya
- Aṯirat
Myths
- King Kirta’s Vision and Pact with El
- The Expedition to Win a Bride
- Kirta’s Oath-Breach and Illness
- The Rebellion of Yassub and the Oath’s Resolution
Facts
- The epic is preserved on Ugaritic alphabetic cuneiform tablets KTU 1.14–1.16 from Ras Shamra.
- Kirta’s childlessness motivates divine intervention by El through a revelatory dream.
- El commands Kirta to mount an expedition to Udum to obtain the princess Hurriya as wife.
- Kirta vows offerings to Athirat (Asherah) but fails to fulfill them after success.
- Kirta’s resulting wasting illness is linked to his broken vow and divine displeasure.
- El fashions the healer Shatiqatu, who restores Kirta to health.
- A palace succession dispute arises when a son challenges Kirta’s rule.
- The poem’s ending is lost; the resolution of the rebellion is unknown.
- The work exemplifies Ugaritic parallelism and royal-ideological themes.
- Modern study relies on collation of multiple damaged tablets and comparative Semitic poetics.