The Mythic Mind

The Mythic Mind follows the tradition of works which insist on the necessity for a comparative dimension in the study of ancient Israel. The Israelite world-view was essentially a West Semitic world-view in origin, with additional deeply embedded influences from Egypt and Mesopotamia, though it produced its own distinctive character by way of synthesis and reaction. The essays in this volume explore various aspects of this process, historically and cosmologically, commonly challenging received views developed in the treatment of Israel in isolation. The importance of the Ugaritic texts in particular, as reflecting the cultural context in which ancient Israel developed into two symbiotic kingdoms, heirs to a common 'Canaanite' tradition, emerges clearly from such studies as chapter 5: 'Sea and Desert', chapter 7: 'Of Calves and Kings', chapter 9: 'The Significance of Spn' and chapter 10: 'The Vocabulary and Neurology of Orientation.'

1. The Problem of the 'God of the Fathers' 2. The Development of the Tradition in Exodus 3 3. The Significance of the Burning Bush 4. The Development of the Tradition in Exodus 3 5. Sea And Desert: Symbolic Geography in West Semitic Religious Thought 6. Symbols of Exile 7. Of Calves And Kings: The Canaanite Dimension in the Religion of Israel 8. The Darkness of Genesis 1.2 9. The Significance of Spin in West Semitic Thought: A Contribution to the History of a Mythological Motif 10. The Vocabulary and Neurology of Orientation: The Ugaritic and Hebrew Evidence 11. The Mythic Mind 12. 'Water, Water Everywhere...': Musings on the Aqueous Myths of the Near East 13. Androgyny in the Levantine World