Yagrush and Ayyamur

Named weapons

In KTU 1.2 IV, Kothar-wa-Khasis fashions two clubs (ṣmdm) for Baal and gives each a name, speaking over it words that tell it what to do. The first is Yagrush ("Driver" or "Chaser"), commanded to drive Yam from his throne. It leaps from Baal's hand like an eagle and strikes Yam's shoulders and chest, but Yam does not fall. The second is Ayyamur ("Expeller" or "Driver-out"), commanded to expel Yam from his seat. It strikes Yam's head, between the eyes, and the Sea collapses.

Word and weapon

The scene joins craft and speech: Kothar is both smith and speaker of incantations, and the naming is part of what makes the weapons effective. The clubs are among the earliest named weapons in any surviving literature.

In art

The storm-god's club or mace is his standard weapon in Levantine art. The well-known "Baal au foudre" stele from Ugarit, now in the Louvre, shows the god striding with a raised club in one hand and a spear or lightning-shaft ending in plant growth in the other. The stele does not label the weapons, and this site does not claim they are Yagrush and Ayyamur, but it shows how Ugaritians pictured their storm-god armed.