Baal’s Cycle as social representation of Ugarit’s kingship

Abstract

The article proposes an interpretation of Baal’s canonic cycle in terms of the state’s role of Ugarit’s kingship. The different mythemes of the text are analysed as configurations of state’s definitions of order and chaos. In this ways, this categories describe the particular forms of the local political order –characterized by instability and weakness- as well as they prescribe its functions and legitimises its practices. The article considers different models employed to describe the kingdom of Ugarit and develops a semiotic analysis to show the complexity of the kingship ideology present in the text in relation to those models.