725
should the debtors flee to another country (RS 19.66 = KTU 3.8).
Wrongful enslavement of a free person was probably punishable,
as reflected in the rhetorical question addressed by the king of U“natu
to the sàkinuof Ugarit: “How can a man sell his fellow to the
Egyptians?” (RS 34.158).
As seen in RS 16.191+, slaves could be redeemed through the
payment of ransom money (see also the letter RS 8.333, a ransom
from the Suteans, or RS 15.11, from the Egyptians).
The second way in which slavery could be ended in Ugarit was
by manumission. The owner freed the slave by a symbolic act, namely
anointing the slave’s head with oil (RS 8.303). In two cases, the
manumission of a female slave seems to have been a prerequisite to
giving her in marriage (RS 8.303 and RS 16.267). In 16.250, a slave
wife is manumitted by her master-husband, presumably in his old
age, and is made head of the household.- F
5.1 Marriage
Although no marriage contracts have been found so far at Ugarit,
several references concerning marital rules and the Ugaritic myth
that narrates the divine marriage of Yarhu and Nikkal shed some
light on this aspect of legal life.
The Ugaritic poem RS 5.194 (= KTU 1.24) provides us with a
vivid picture of the formation of marriage, namely, its two neces-
sary steps: (1) the bridegroom’s request to the bride’s father that the
bride be given to him or, in other words, that she enter his house;
and (2) his payment of the bride-price (Ug. mhr) to the head of the
bride’s family. The final scene of the bride’s family making ready
the scales shows that this very payment represented the conclusion
of the contract. (Note that nothing is said of a written document.)
As shown now by the legal evidence,^15 the bride-price (ter¢atu) was
returned to the bride by her father (cf. RS 15.92), presumably included
with her dowry.^16 In one text (RS 16.200), it is designated as “her(^15) Cf. Boyer, “La place des textes d’Ugarit.. .,” 300ff.; Rainey, “Family Relationships
in Ugarit,” 16ff.
(^16) Gifts could probably be added, e.g., the nidnufrom the father-in-law in RS
15.85.
WESTBROOK_f18–718-735 8/27/03 12:30 PM Page 725