Canaanite Pantheon (Ugarit)Mythical Realm
The Source of the Two Rivers
El's remote dwelling 'at the source of the two rivers, in the midst of the springs of the two deeps', where gods and messengers go to seek his decisions; a mythical place without a known earthly location.
About The Source of the Two Rivers
Where El lives
Whenever a god in the Baal Cycle needs El's decision, the text uses a set formula: the traveller sets face toward El, at the source of the two rivers, in the midst of the springs of the two deeps, enters his domain, and comes to the pavilion of the King, the Father of Years (paraphrase). The dwelling is a tent or pavilion rather than a palace, and it lies at the far edge of the world, where the waters of the deep rise.
The mountain of assembly
A related place is the mountain where the assembly of the gods meets, which Ugaritic texts call Mount Lel (or the mountain of Night); Yam's messengers come to the gods feasting there in KTU 1.2 I. Whether the source of the rivers and the mountain of assembly are the same place is not clear.
Not on the map
Scholars have tried to identify El's home with real places, including sources of the Jordan or springs in Lebanon, but the texts give no geography, and this site treats it as a mythical realm. The idea of a god dwelling where the cosmic waters rise has a parallel in the Mesopotamian Enki's home in the Apsu, and some interpreters compare the biblical Eden's rivers.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Baal Cycle, KTU 1.4 IV
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.