Anat

Anat violently subdued Baal’s enemies. She fought with such force that Baal called her back and used a trick to bring her to his side. He feared that her attack might continue until she destroyed the whole world. When Anat returned, Baal told her that he needed a palace suited to his new status. The palace would establish him among the great gods. This episode appears in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, preserved on tablets from Ras Shamra.

Anat agreed to secure permission for the palace. She approached El, Baal’s father, and demanded that he allow its construction. El resisted her request. Anat then threatened him in order to force his agreement. She also worked with Baal to obtain the support of Athirat, El’s consort. Baal and Anat bribed Athirat so that she would help persuade El.

Faced with Anat’s threats and the pressure brought through Athirat, El eventually approved the construction. Baal could then occupy a dwelling suited to his rank and take his place among the great gods. The surviving tablets later refer to changes that Baal wanted made to the palace. The passage therefore connects Anat’s violence against Baal’s enemies with her efforts to secure El’s permission for the building.

Mot invited Baal to descend into the underworld, and Baal could not refuse. Before he entered, he mated eighty-eight times with a heifer. The heifer may have been Anat, since Baal was associated with the bull and Anat with the cow. Baal then entered the underworld and, from the world’s point of view, died. He took his children and the elements of his storm-godship with him. Without him, the world lost its weather and fertility.

Anat, El, and the other gods mourned Baal and wondered what would happen to the world without him. Anat then confronted Mot. Mot told her that he had devoured Baal. She attacked him with her sword and split him apart. She ground his remains under a hand mill, then sowed them in the fields. In one telling, she killed Mot and ground him under a millstone.

With Mot defeated, Baal returned from the underworld. His return brought back the weather and fertility of the earth. In one telling, he was restored to life and the throne. In another, he returned with his dead ancestors and joined the gods at a feast.