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Copyright

Tania Notarius;

Published On

2025-03-07

Page Range

pp. 529–554

Language

  • English

Print Length

26 pages

“Every glance of their eyes—like a flame, two flames”

A Case of Ugaritic Gt ʾmr ‘see’ Reconsidered

  • Tania Notarius (author)
Chapter of: Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Volume 1: Hebrew and the Wider Semitic World(pp. 529–554)
The study re-evaluates the Ugaritic Gt-stem of the root ʾmr, traditionally interpreted as anticausative or patientive, suggesting instead an agentive and autobenefactive/intensifying function in poetic contexts. The debated passage in KTU 1.2 I 32 portrays Yamm’s envoys with fiery glances and sharp tongues, metaphors that convey aggression and the potency of their speech act. These fiery attributes are interpreted as symbolic weapons, consistent with broader ancient Near Eastern traditions where divine or monstrous figures exhibit flaming eyes or mouths for intimidation and harm. The analysis challenges earlier readings of the envoys as fire deities or passive figures, instead presenting them as actively menacing agents whose appearance underscores their message’s urgency and threat.

Contributors

Tania Notarius

(author)
Associate Professor at the Department of Hebrew at University of the Free State

Tania Notarius (PhD, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is Associate Professor at the Department of Hebrew at the University of Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa and Lecturer at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University and Polis: The Jerusalem Institute of Languages and Humanities. The focus of her current research is ancient Northwest Semitic verbal syntax. She concentrates on less-studied syntactical issues, such as the syntax of participles (active and passive), the marking and expression of passive voice, the formal and semantic scope of the middle voice domain, and the syntax of infinitive phrases. She lays special emphasis on investigating the consistent linguistic differences between the language of poetry and prose. She is the author of The Verb in Archaic Biblical Poetry: A Discursive, Typological, and Historical Investigation of the Tense System (Brill, 2013).