{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "kind": "Translation",
  "metadata": {
    "generated": "2026-08-22T14:14:13Z",
    "language": "en",
    "schemaUrl": "/v1/schema/translation/"
  },
  "data": {
  "schemaVersion": 2,
  "chapterCount": 2,
  "chapterFiles": [
    {
      "file": "chapter-1.json",
      "n": 1,
      "lines": 226,
      "segments": 10,
      "title": "The Baal Cycle, KTU 1.1 + 1.2 — Baʿlu vs Yammu: the storm-god's conflict with Sea"
    },
    {
      "file": "chapter-2.json",
      "n": 2,
      "lines": 634,
      "segments": 14,
      "title": "The Baal Cycle, KTU 1.3 + 1.4 — the palace-building cycle: ʿAnat's bloody battle, ʾAṯirat's intercession, Kothar's construction, the window debate, Baʿlu's enthronement"
    }
  ],
  "code": "BCY-WOH",
  "lineCount": 860,
  "segmentCount": 24,
  "primaryLang": "uga",
  "originalLang": "uga",
  "publicationYear": 2026,
  "refId": "BCY-WOH",
  "schema": [
    "composition",
    "tablets",
    "columns",
    "lines"
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  "schemaLabels": {
    "en": [
      "Composition",
      "Tablet",
      "Column",
      "Line"
    ]
  },
  "slug": "baal-cycle-woh",
  "titles": {
    "en": "The Baal Cycle",
    "de": "Der Baal-Zyklus",
    "es": "El Ciclo de Baal",
    "fr": "Le Cycle de Baal",
    "ja": "バアル神話",
    "ko": "바알 신화",
    "ru": "Цикл Ваала",
    "zh": "巴力神话",
    "zh-Hant": "巴力神話",
    "uga": "Baʿlu"
  },
  "versionTitles": {
    "en": "Wheel of Heaven Translation",
    "de": "Wheel-of-Heaven-Übersetzung",
    "es": "Traducción Wheel of Heaven",
    "fr": "Traduction Wheel of Heaven",
    "ja": "ホイール・オブ・ヘブン訳",
    "ko": "휠 오브 헤븐 번역",
    "ru": "Перевод Wheel of Heaven",
    "zh": "Wheel of Heaven 译本",
    "zh-Hant": "Wheel of Heaven 譯本"
  },
  "shortVersionTitles": {
    "en": "WoH, 2026",
    "de": "WoH, 2026",
    "es": "WoH, 2026",
    "fr": "WoH, 2026",
    "ja": "WoH, 2026",
    "ko": "WoH, 2026",
    "ru": "WoH, 2026",
    "zh": "WoH, 2026",
    "zh-Hant": "WoH, 2026"
  },
  "versionSource": "Best-effort reconstruction from named scholarly editions (KTU³ Dietrich-Loretz-Sanmartín 2013; Smith 1994 Vol 1; Smith & Pitard 2009 Vol 2; Pardee 2003 CoS 1.86; older PD editions including Gibson 1978, Ginsberg 1936, Herdner 1963 CTA)",
  "sourceCitation": "Dietrich, M., Loretz, O., and Sanmartín, J., Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani und anderen Orten (KTU³ / AOAT 360/1, Münster 2013) — the modern critical edition. Smith, M. S., The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume 1: Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU 1.1–1.2 (VTSup 55, Leiden 1994). Smith, M. S., and Pitard, W. T., The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume 2: Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU 1.3–1.4 (VTSup 114, Leiden 2009). Pardee, D., 'The Baʿlu Myth (1.86)' in W. W. Hallo (ed.), The Context of Scripture, Vol. 1 (Leiden 2003), pp. 241–274.",
  "versionLicense": "CC0-1.0",
  "priority": 6,
  "wohCurated": true,
  "verificationStatus": "best-effort-reconstruction-pending-verification",
  "subtitles": {
    "en": "The Late Bronze Age Northwest-Semitic storm-god mythological cycle from Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit, modern Latakia, Syria) — six tablets recovered 1929–1931, narrating Baʿlu's conflicts with Yammu (Sea) and Môtu (Death) and his ascension to kingship over the gods. THE primary comparative-mythology nexus for the Hebrew Bible: Yahweh-vs-Yam (Ps 74, 89, 93; Isa 27:1), El/Elohim, bnei elohim, Asherah, Leviathan/Lôtanu, mavet/Môtu, the storm-theophany at Sinai."
  },
  "descriptions": {
    "en": "An English translation of the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, produced from a best-effort reconstruction of the alphabetic-cuneiform text based on named scholarly editions (verification pending against KTU³ Dietrich-Loretz-Sanmartín 2013). **The project's first Ugaritic-source text and first Levantine-tradition text.** The Baal Cycle (KTU 1.1–1.6) is preserved on six clay tablets discovered at the royal palace of Ugarit (Ras Shamra) in the 1929–1931 excavations led by Claude Schaeffer. The tablets are scribed in the Ugaritic alphabetic cuneiform script (a 30-letter Northwest-Semitic abjad rendered with cuneiform-shaped wedges on clay — distinct from the syllabic Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform of Mesopotamia). The cycle was likely composed in the 14th–13th centuries BCE. The six-tablet narrative covers: (i) the conflict with Yammu / Sea (KTU 1.1 + 1.2 — chapter 1 of this translation), in which Baʿlu defeats the chaos-monster sea-god; (ii) Baʿlu's palace-building on Mount Ṣapunu (KTU 1.3 + 1.4); (iii) the conflict with Môtu / Death (KTU 1.5 + 1.6), in which Baʿlu is swallowed by Death, his sister Anat ritually destroys Mot, and Baʿlu returns to life. The cycle is the most extensively-preserved Late Bronze Age mythological composition from anywhere in the eastern Mediterranean and is the central comparative-philology document for understanding the Northwest-Semitic background of the Hebrew Bible. Chapter 1 covers KTU 1.1 + 1.2 — Baʿlu vs Yammu — including: the assembly of the gods; Yammu's demand for tribute; the messengers' arrival; the duel; Baʿlu's victory with weapons made by Kothar-wa-Khasis the divine craftsman; the proclamation of Baʿlu's kingship. The text is severely fragmentary in places — KTU 1.1 has only column iv substantially preserved (~28 lines), and KTU 1.2 column ii is broken away entirely. Lacunae are marked per the project's lacuna-bracket convention.",
    "verificationNote": "This translation is produced from a best-effort reconstruction of the Ugaritic alphabetic-cuneiform text. The sense of each line is well-attested across multiple scholarly editions (Smith 1994, Pardee 2003, Smith & Pitard 2009) and should match downstream English faithfully. Verification of the precise sign-by-sign Ugaritic transliteration against KTU³ (Dietrich-Loretz-Sanmartín 2013) is pending; corrections welcome.",
    "scriptNote": "Unlike the syllabic cuneiform of Sumerian/Akkadian, Ugaritic uses an alphabetic cuneiform — 30 letters, each with a fixed Unicode codepoint in the Ugaritic block (U+10380–U+1039F). The mapping from KTU/standard transliteration to Unicode is 1:1 and mechanical, allowing both the original-script rendering AND transliteration to be included in the source file from day one. This is the first text in the WoH corpus where original-script Unicode is included in the source file directly (Sumerian/Akkadian texts use a back-rendering pipeline because logographic cuneiform requires sign-by-sign lookup)."
  },
  "revision": 3,
  "updated": "2026-06-02T00:00:00+00:00"
},
  "links": {
    "self": "/v1/translations/baal-cycle-woh/",
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    "canonical_html": "https://www.wheelofheaven.world/library/baal-cycle-woh/",
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}