ABSTRACT
II i. Behind (ah`r) Ugaritic ah`r and its derivative forms (uh`ry, uh`ryt) probably have a basically spatial sense, ‘behind’, which is used metaphorically in a temporal sense, with reference to the future. We can see this most graphically by reference to its Greek cognate. It was shown long ago by H. Lewy (1895: 229, noted by Astour 1967: 314-15) that the Greek name Acheron (’#FHUZQ), given to the river of the underworld, has a West Semitic etymology. The fact of the choice of direction, referring to what lies behind (that is, in spatial terms) the person experiencing a temporal process, tells us important things about the sense of position in space and time of the culture concerned, a point on which I shall remark further below. This is also the sense of ’ahar in Hebrew. Usage in Ugaritic is as follows:
The force here is adverbial, relating the present action to that immediately preceding. It could also be translated ‘when’, or ‘afterwards’. I have treated it here as an anacrusis. The same usage occurs in KTU 1.4 iii 23-24:
The same grammatical, though not necessarily prosodic, purpose is served in the monocolon of KTU 1.4 v 44:
ah `r.mg y.kt ^r.wh`ss Then Kothar-and-Hasis arrived. A more specific temporal allusion may be intended in the expression ah`r.špšm, occurring in KTU 1.14 iv 32-33, and 46. This is variously understood. Gibson (1978: 87-88) translates it by ‘afterwards with the sun (on the third/fifth day)’ (correcting brb> to bh`mš in l. 46); del Olmo (1981: 29899) has ‘with the coming out of the sun (on the third/fourth day)’, while de Moor (1987: 199-200) has ‘after sunset (on the third/fourth)’. The precise sense is obscure, and this is reflected in the disparity of these approaches. But it seems to be prepositional, though the m at the end of špšm turns the whole phrase into an adverbial one.
