Mot
Also known as: Death, Beloved of El (ydd il), Son of El (bn ilm)
Mythological Narrative
Death personified, whose throat reaches to the heavens and whose lip touches the earth, who swallows Baal and is himself destroyed by Anat and then fights Baal to a standstill.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## Death with a throat
Mot is death itself, not a ruler of the dead. The Baal Cycle gives him an enormous appetite: one lip to the earth, one lip to the heavens, a tongue to the stars (KTU 1.5 II), and a craving that the text compares to a lion's hunger and a dolphin's thirst. His city is Hmry ("Miry" or "Muddy"), where he sits on a throne in a land of filth, and messengers are warned not to come too close in case he swallows them.
## Baal in Mot's throat
After Baal builds his palace and declares his kingship, Mot answers with a threat, reminding Baal of the serpent Litan he defeated and warning that Baal must now come down into his throat (KTU 1.5 I). Baal submits. His death is announced to El, who mourns, and to Anat, who searches for him.
## Mot destroyed, and back again
Anat finds Mot and treats him like grain at harvest, splitting, winnowing, burning, grinding, and sowing him (KTU 1.6 II), and the birds eat his remains. Yet in the seventh year Mot returns, demanding compensation, and he and Baal fight like wild oxen, serpents, and stallions until both fall. Only when the sun-goddess Shapash warns Mot that El will overturn his throne does he give way and acknowledge Baal's kingship (KTU 1.6 VI).
## Interpretation
The grain imagery of Mot's destruction has led some scholars to read him as a harvest figure, but most now see the language as Anat's way of annihilating him completely. Mot is never finally destroyed: death can be driven back, not abolished.
Cross-Pantheon Parallels & Archetypes
Classical Art & Museum Artifacts
High-resolution museum artifacts, classical sculptures, pottery reliefs, and bronze idols preserving authentic historical representations of Mot.
Yashoda with the Infant Krishna
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Mot.
You Might Also Like
Hades
King of the underworld, brother of Zeus and Poseidon, who drew the realm of the dead by lot. Greeks avoided his name, calling him Plouton, the wealthy one.
Mictecacihuatl
Queen of Mictlan, the Aztec underworld, ruling alongside her husband Mictlantecuhtli over the ninth and deepest level of the land of the dead. Mictecacihuatl presided over the bones of the deceased and the festivals honoring the dead within the Aztec calendar.
Anat
The young warrior goddess of Ugarit, Baal's sister and fiercest ally, who wades through battle, bullies El into granting Baal a palace, finds Baal's body, and destroys Mot.
Athirat (Asherah)
El's consort, 'Lady Athirat of the Sea' and 'Creatress of the Gods', mother of the seventy sons of El, who can persuade El when no one else can.