The Vow of Mutiya, King of Shekhna

Abstract

"Of course, I cannot claim that Mutiya's egregious lapse directly influenced what was told about Keret. I could, however, suggest that these two accounts of misbegotten vows, one embedded in an epic and the other conveyed in a letter, are exploiting two themes that readily combine in popular belief: the first develops from the commonplace that achievers too often neglect benefactors who had once boosted their rise; the second depends on the conventional crediting to wrathful gods any exceptional or precipitous collapse of power. To the pious, therefore, neglected vows give fine opportunity not only to reflect on the fall of the mighty, but also to delve into some of the less mysterious facets of theodicy."