Mot (Semitic god)

Mot was the West Semitic god of death, infertility, and drought. One of the sons of the high god El he was the chief antagonist of the rain god Baal, whose life-giving waters brought life fertility to the land. Mot, on the other hand, was the Lord of the desert dryness and all that is opposed to life.

In Canaanite mythology, Mot and Baal were bound in a cyclical battle in which Mot temporarily vanquishes Baal, whose body is heroically rescued by his sister Anath, after which Baal is resurrected returning life-giving rain to the land.

The struggle between Mot and Baal figures in the biblical story of prophet Elijah's battle with the the prophets of Baal, played out in the context of a period of devastating drought, during which the Israelites must turn either to Baal or the Hebrew God Yahweh for relief.

Mot in Canaanite myth

Sources regarding Mot are scarce, but he apparently played a major role in Canaanite mythology. According the Baal Cycle, discovered at Ras Shamra in 1958, Mot was called the "Darling of El" and was one of the primary actors in the annual fertility cycle. In this drama, Baal, the Lord of the life-giving fresh waters, had defeated the sea god Yam and established his throne on Mount Saphon. A struggle then ensued for sovereignty, in which Baal and Mot battled for supremacy.

Baal's challenge to Mot

"Respects I shall not send to Mot," Baal declares, "nor greetings to El's beloved!" Mot responds in kind: "I alone am he who will rule over the gods, yea, command gods and men, even dominate the multitudes of the earth."

Baal prepares to storm Mot's realm, commanding his forces to march toward death's city where Mot sits on his throne. However, he cautions his minions: "Do not draw near the god Mot, lest he make you like a lamb in his mouth, like a kid in his jaws you be crushed!" The lesser gods must thus honor Mot: "The heavens halt on account of El's darling, Mot," Baal declares. "At the feet of Mot, bow and fall. Prostrate yourselves and honor him!"

Despite honoring him with words, however, Baal refuses to pay him tribute. Infuriated, Mot sends word back to Baal that, he will exact revenge by devouring Baal, thus bring a terrible curse of drought upon the earth:

"A lip to earth, a lip to heaven, and a tounge to the stars., so that Baal may enter his inwards, yea descend into his mouth, as scorched is the olive, the produce of the Earth, and the fruit of the trees."

Mot's victory and Baal's death

Knowing that it is futile to resist, Baal responds in fear and submission, sending his messengers to declare: "Hail, O divine Mot! Thy slave am I, yea Thine forever." Mot rejoices when the lesser deities bring him this message, because Baal will be delivered unto him, and the fertility of the land will die with him. "Take thy clouds, thy wind, thy storm, thy rains!" Mot declares, "and go down to the nether reaches of the earth, so that Thou mayest be counted among those who do down into the earth, and all may know that Thou art dead!"

Before dying, however, Baal copulates with a sacred heifer, sewing the seeds of his own rebirth: "He lies with her 77 times, Yea, 88 times, so that she conceives." Baal is then found dead in the land of Deber.

Baal's death reaches the ears of the high god El, who is moved to grief over his son's death: "He pours the ashes of grief on his head, the dust of wallowing on his pate." El roams the mountains and forest weeping, lacerating his forearms and back in grief.

Anath's intervention

Baa'ls sister Anath, however, does more than merely mourn her brother's passing. She travels throughout the land in search of his body, finally finding him prostrate on the earth. Like El, she lacerates her body as a sign of grief for Baal. She then carries him on her shoulders and brings him to Mount Saphon, giving him a proper burial and sacrificing 70 each of buffaloes, oxen, small cattle, deer, wild goats, and asses.

Anath then travels to the abode of El and his wife Asherah and declares Baal's death, implying that Asherah will rejoice since she had earlier sided with Yam against Baal. "Hear, O Lady Asherah of the Sea!" cries El. "Give one of thy sons that I may make him king." They appoint Ashtar the Terrible to sit on Baal's throne, but he is inadequate to the task.

Now the heroic virgin Anath goes to face Mot, holding Baal in her heart like "a cow toward her calf." Boldly, she seizes Mot, tearing his clothes and demanding: "Come, Mot, yield My brother!" Mot pleads his case, explaining Baal's death as an act of nature, of which he, the god of dryness and death, is merely a part. "I arrived at the goodness of the land of Debar... I met Aliyan Baal; I made him like a lamb in my mouth. Like a kid in My jaws was He crushed."

Months pass, and Anath again confronts Mot, this time more violently, succeeding in dissipating his deathly power.

With a sword She cleaves him,

With a pitchfork She winnows him,

With a fire She burns him,

In the millstones She grinds him,

In the fields She plants him,

El now has a prophetic dream, indicating that Baal may yet live. "Let me sit and rest," El declares, "and let my soul repose in ny breast. For Aliyan Baal is alive, for the prince, Lord of Earth, exists."

Anath's assistant Shapash now descends into the underworld, and upon her return she carries Baal with her. Baal immediately confronts Mot, smiting him on the shoulder and neck. He then returns to his throne on Mount Saphon, but Mot follows him there, blaming Anath's victory on Baal's inspiration:

Because of thee, O Baal, I have experienced humiliation.

Because of thee, experienced scattering by the sword.

Because of thee, experienced burning in the fire.

Because of thee, experienced grinding in the millstones.

Because of thee, experienced winnowing by the pitchfork.

Because of thee, experienced being planted in the fields.

Because of thee, experienced being sown in the sea."

Mot now threatens to destroy Baal utterly and usurp his kingship. Baal is able to drive him out of the heights of Saphon, but Mot vows revenge.

Final battle

Mot and Baal now join in a fierce battle:

They shake each other like Gemar-beasts, Mot is strong, Baal is strong.

They gore each other like buffaloes, Mot is strong, Baal is strong.

They bite like serpents, Mot is strong, Baal is strong.

They kick like racing beasts, Mot is down, Ball is down.

Shapash intervenes, imploring Mot not to carry on the battle, for Baal now enjoys the support of El, the father of them both. "How will Bull-El, thy father, not hear thee? Will He not remove the supports of thy throne, or upset the seat of thy kingship, nor break the scepter of thy rule?"

The season have changed, and now it is Mot's turn to be afraid. The God of sterility thus submits to Baal, the god of fertility, conceding the kingship to him, at least for the present.

Etyology

The word mot (spelled mt) is cognate with forms meaning 'death' in various Semitic and Afro-Asiatic languages: with Arabic موت mawt; with Hebrew מות (mot or mavet); with Maltese mewt; with Syriac mautā; with Ge'ez mot; with Canaanite, Egyptian Aramaic, Nabataean, and Palmyrene מות (mwt); with Jewish Aramaic, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, and Samaritan מותא (mwt’); with Mandaean muta; and with Akkadian mūtu.

In Sanchuniathon Death, call Muth, is also son of El and counted as a god, as the text says in speaking of 'El/Cronus:

... and not long afterwards he consecrated after his death another of his sons, called Muth, whom he had by Rhea; this (Muth) the Phoenicians esteem the same as Thanatos ['Death'] and Pluto.

But earlier in a philosophical creation myth Sanchuniathon has referred to great wind which merged with its parents and that connection was called Eros 'Desire':

From its connection Mot was produced, which some say is mud, and others a putrescence of watery compound; and out of this came every germ of creation, and the generation of the universe. So there were certain animals which had no sensation, and out of them grew intelligent animals, and were called "Zophasemin," that is "observers of heaven"; and they were formed like the shape of an egg. Also Mot burst forth into light, and sun, and moon, and stars, and the great constellations.

Mot in the Bible

The Hebrew biblical word for death is "mavet," which is etymologically identical with "mot." Several biblical verses somewhat personify death, such as the following, from which the concept of death as the grim "reaper" is derived:

Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares. Say, "This is what the Lord declares: 'The dead bodies of men will lie like refuse on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper,with no one to gather them.'"

The story of Mot's battle with Baal also provides an insight into the biblical story of Eljiah's battle with the prophets of Baal. The background of the story involves a terrible drought and a struggle between the prophets of Baal and the prophet Elijah from control of the high place altar at Mount Carmel. The people of Israel are torn between belief in the Hebrew God, who is lord of both life and death, and the Canaanite religion, in which life and rain belong to Baal, while drought and death belong to Mot.

To propitiate Baal, his priests engage in a ritual recapitulating the myth of El and Anath mourning over Baal's death prior to his resurrection, by lacerating themselves. Elijah's proves God's superiority over Baal first by a miracle in which God consumes Elijah's sacrifice with fire from heaven, and later providing rain to end the drought.

External links

• Putting God on Trial- The Biblical Book of Job A Biblical reworking of the combat motif between Mot and Baal.

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