He begs his father for an heir of his own, and El instructs him to wage war against another kingdom and to demand its princess as his wife.
The epic story of Keret is contained in three rectangular clay tablets, excavated by a team of French archaeologists in Ras Shamra, Syria in 1930–31.
The tablets were inscribed by Ilimilku, a high priest who was also the scribe for the Myth of Baal-Aliyan (a part of the Baal cycle) and the Tale of Aqhat, two other famous Ugaritic epic poems discovered at Ras Shamra.
Along the way he stopped at a shrine of Athirat, the goddess of the sea, and prayed to her, promising to give her a great tribute in gold and silver if his mission succeeded.
Kirta then lay siege to Udum and eventually prevailed and forced King Pubala to give his daughter (in some translations, granddaughter), Hariya, to him in marriage.
As Tatmanat prayed and wailed, the land first grew dry and barren but eventually was watered by a great rain.
Then El performed some divine magic himself and created a winged woman, Shatiqatu, with the power to heal Kirta.
While the end of the legend is unknown, many scholars assume that afterwards Kirta lost all of his children, except for one daughter, who became his sole heir.
[14] Since its discovery in early 1930s, the Legend of Keret has been the subject of active scholarly study and gave rise to a wide variety of (often conflicting) analogies and interpretations.
[15] Most scholars agree that Keret is a purely mythical figure, although it is possible that some individual aspects of the myth do have historical basis.
[16] Cyrus H. Gordon argued, "It anticipates the Helen-of-Troy motif in the Iliad and Genesis, thus bridging the gap between the two literatures.