Review Article Ups and Downs of Ugaritic Myth and Ritual Studies Pavel Čech Smith, Mark S. The Rituals and Myths of the Feast of the Goodly Gods of KTU/ CAT 1.23: Royal Constructions of Opposition, Intersection, Integration and Domination. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006. xvii + 201 pp. ISBN 90-04-14674-1 (cloth binding). Price 110.00 USD. It has already been thirteen years since the noted Old Testament scholar and Ugaritologist, Mark S. Smith, published his splendid commentary on the first section of the Ugaritic Baal Cycle. While working on the second part of the commentary, he encountered the theme of death in Ugaritic literature outside the Baal Cycle, namely in KTU 1.23, and this investigation crystallized in another book-length commentary. The book under review appeared in 2006. Shortly afterwards, the first, largely negative review, appeared, written by another eminent scholar of Ugaritic, Professor Pardee. 1 I find much of his critique justified, though unfortunately I cannot accept some of his conclusions. In the following examination I shall concentrate on the points of disagreement and finally present my own suggestions for further research in relation to this very exciting and enigmatic composition. KTU 1.23 exhibits a unique juxtaposition of ritual instructions and mythical narrative. Both the considerable length of the ritual portion (itself divided by horizontal lines into nine rubrics) and the structure of the tablet (carefully written ritual instructions in lines 1-29, followed by mythical narrative in lines 30-76, added by a skilful but not so careful hand) set it apart from the genre of mytho-magical texts (also labelled by Pardee para-mythological 2 or historiolae 3 ) that flourished in Ugarit at the same time. The narrative portion of the tablet tells of El’s meeting with two mšt c ltm. He performs a special shooting action with a subsequent barbecue, which persuades the women (probably identical with the mšt c ltm) to acknowledge him as their “man.” The inevitable happens and two pairs of gods are born. For each of them, El decides what their place in the world will be: for the first pair (Dusk and Dawn), heaven; for the second pair (ilm n c mm or “Goodly Gods”), seven years in the desert. After the Preface, entitled “Rationale and Procedure,” Smith’s volume is divided into three parts. Part 1 (pp. 3-28) contains “Introduction and Text,” Part 2 (pp. 31- 123) contains a commentary on both the “Ritual Actions and Narrative Recitations” ORIENTAL ARCHIVE 75, 2007 • 239