The Sea and Monarchic Legitimation in the Ancient Near East

the sea and the King appear together in many ancient Northwest Semitic texts, dating back to the Mari of the Old Babylonian period, featuring in the epics of Late Bronze Age Ugarit, all the way down to biblical texts dating to the Persian period. The sea is also a staple of many Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions, figuring in the feats of many, if indeed not most, of the kings following the Urukean Lugalzagesi and Sargon of Agade.¹ While the sea is an important geographical feature on the shore of the eastern Mediterranean where ancient Ugarit was located, there is