Drunken Ugaritic Gods

Continuing on in the literature of the Ancient Near East, I was challenged (indirectly) by a Hittite text. It is an oracle report which consists of the priests asking the gods yes and no questions based on extispicies and bird oracles. As I was reading it, I was thinking to myself that this was very strange and that I am glad we do not have gods like that. But then I remembered that this kind of thing did happen on occasion in the OT, primarily with the Urim and the Thummim (Exodus 28:30). While we do not know what they were, they seem to operate in a way similar to this Hittite text (which is on pages 204-211 of the Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions if you are interested).

But I then I read another text that was very different from YHWH. This text was about El, the chief god of the Ugaritic pantheon. The story goes that he had a party with lots of feasting and drinking. After the party, he got together with some of his drinking buddies in the drinking hall and drank some more. Then when he got home he met someone/thing (we have no idea what it was) which caused him to fall over into his feces and urine. Two goddesses go on a search for a cure for El, and the recipe is given at the end of the story so that others can use it as well. It is almost like a commercial: El uses it, so should you! I am thankful that our God does not go through drunken fits like this. 

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