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233 tamia to the Mediterranean coastlands (and thence to Egypt) on a route that crossed the Syrian desert to the Cedar Moun- tains of Lebanon. (A longer route but through the Fertile Crescent led via Harran on the Upper Euphrates). No wonder, then, that the Canaanites of the coastal lands, as their neigh- bors the Philistines, believed in (and reported) dreams as a form of Divine Encounter. Though their writings (of which we know primarily from finds in Ras Shamra, the ancient Ugarit, on the Mediterranean coast in Syria) dealt mostly with legends or "myths" of the god Baal, his companion the goddess Anat, and their father the aging god El, they do mention oracle dreams by patriarchal heroes. Thus, in the Tale of Agqhat, a patriarch by name of Danel who is without a male heir is told by El in a dream-omen that he would have a son within a year—just as Abraham was told by Yah- weh regarding the birth of Isaac. (When the boy, Aghat, grows up, Anat lusts for him and, as she had done with Gilgamesh, promises him longevity if he would become her lover. When he refuses, she causes him to be slain). Dreams as a venerated form of divine communication were also recorded in the lands on the Upper Euphrates and all the way into Asia Minor. With the coastal lands that are nowadays Israel, Lebanon, and Syria serving both as a land bridge as well as a battlefield between contending Egyptian Pharaohs and Mesopotamian kings—each claiming to act on Figure 79 Royal Dreams, Fateful Oracles