CLA/WLIT 196
Ancient Lyric Poetry

POETIC DEVICES: PARALLELISM

Examples from our texts:

AKKADIAN:

1. In many cases the paralellism is very weak. The following repetition only serves to define that "my god" is Enki. But since this fact was already known to the audience, it adds little substance:

Atrahasis 2.3.6 ff.
My god would speak to me, but he is under oath,
He will inform me in dreams.
Enki would speak to me, but he is under oath,
He will inform me in dreams

2. The following passage is very much the same in outward appearance as the last. But it adds the important, dramatic detail that even Anu, the highest of the gods (ultimately higher than Enlil), is afraid:

Atrahasis 3.3.20-3
The gods became afraid of the clamor of the deluge,
They took refuge in heaven
They crouched outside
Anu became afraid of the clamor of the deluge

Note that this parallelism is also a sort of chiasmus.

3. Similarly in this passage, the second line repeats the idea of the first line, that the great god Enlil went aboard the ark, but in doing so adds a much more powerful detail:

Gilgamesh 11.189 f.
Thereupon Enlil went aboard the ship.
Holding me by the hand, he took me aboard.


WEST SEMITIC (Examples taken from  W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan [1968]).

Ugaritic

1. Ugaritic tricolon parallelism, in the form ABC:ABD:ADB (note the repeated "Behold" this is also an example of anaphora):

Behold (A), thine enemies (B), O Baal (C),
Behold (A), thine enemies (B) shalt thou crush (D),
Behold (A), thou shalt crush (D) thy foes (B)!

2. Ugaritic tricolon in form ABC:ABD:BD, Tale of Aqhat II.vi.26 ff.:

Ask thou (A) for life (B), O lad Aqhat (C),
Ask thou (A) for life (B), and I'll give it to thee (D),
Immortality (B), and I'll grant it to thee! (D)

3. Ugaritic bicolon in form ABC:BCA, Tale of Aqhat, I.148-150:

The wings (A) of the eagle shall Baal (B) break (C),
Baal (B) shall break (C) their pinions (A).

Hebrew

The existence of parallel pattrns similar and identical to those of Ugaritic narrative is often taken as an indication of the antiquity of poetic material in the Bible. Consider the following verses of The Song of Moses and Miriam (Exodus 15), considered by many to be a true poetic relic of the Late Bronze Age—that is, contemporary with or soon after the Exodus was believed to have happened.

1. Song of Moses and Miriam

A. Verse 6, bicolon in form ABCD:ABEF

Thy right hand (A), O Yahweh (B), is fearsome (C) in might (D),
Thy right hand (A), O Yahweh (B), has crushed (E) the enemy (F)

B. Verse 16, verse in form ABC:ABD

While thy people (A) cross (B), O Yahweh (C),
While thy people (A) cross (B) whom Thou hast created (D).

C. Judges 5:30, bicolon in form ABC:ABD:

Spoil (A) of dyed stuff (B) for Sisera (C),
Spoil (A) of dyed stuff (B) embroidered (D).

D. Judges 5:23, bicolon in form ABC:BCD

For they came not (A) to the help (B) of Yahweh (C),
To the help (B) of Yahweh (C) sending their warriors (D).