Mot (Semitic god)
Mot was the West Semitic god of death, infertility, and drought. On of the sons of the high god El he was the chief antagonist of the storm god Baal, whose life-giving rains brought fertility to the land. Mot, on the other hand, was the Lord of the destert dryness. In Canaanite mythology, Mot and Baal were bound in a cyclical battle in which Mot temporarily vanquished Baal only to be slain himself by Baal's sister Anath, after which Baal would be resurrected with the coming of the spring rains.
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, he 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, has defeated the sea god Yam and established his throne on Mount Saphon. A struggle now ensues for sovereignty.
"Respects I shall not send to Mot," declares, Baal. "Nor greetings to El's beloved, the Hero!" Mot the Belove 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 Mot's city, Hemry, where he sits on his throne. However, he cautions his minion: "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 god 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. Enfuriated, 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."
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 heifer: "He lies with Her seventy-seven times, Yea, eighty-eight times, So that She conceives And bears..." 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.
Baa'ls sister Anath, however, is 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 in Debir.
For clothing She is covered with a doubled cloak. The mountain in mournig She roams. In grief, through the forest. She cuts cheek and chin. She lacerates Her forearms. She plows lake a garden Her chest, Like a vale She lacerates the back. "Baal is dead! Woe to the people of Dagon's son! Woe to the multitudes of Athar-Baal! Let us go down into the earth."
With Her goes down the Torch of the Gods, Shapash. Until She is sated with weeping, She drinks tears like wine. Aloud She cries to the Torch of the Gods, Shapash: "Load Aliyan Baal on to Me!"
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.
Mot 'Death', son of 'El, according to instructions given by the god Hadad (Ba‘al) to his messengers, lives in a city named hmry ('Mirey'), a pit is his throne, and Filth is the land of her heritage. But Ba‘al warns them:
that you not come near to divine Death,
lest he made you like a lamb in his mouth,
(and) you both be carried away like a kid in the breach of his windpipe.
Hadad seems to be urging that Mot come to his feast and submit himself to Hadad.
Death sends back a message that his appetite is that of lions in the wilderness, like the longing of dolphins in the sea and he threatens to devour Ba‘al himself. In a subsequent passage Death seemingly makes good his threat, or at least is deceived into believing he has slain Ba‘al. Numerous gaps in the text make this portion of the tale obscure. Then Ba‘al/Hadad's sister, the warrior goddess ‘Anat, comes upon Mot, seizes him, splits him with a blade, winnows him in a sieve, burns him in a fire, grinds him between mill-stones and throws what remains on the field for the birds to devour.
But after seven years Death returns, seeking vengeance for the splitting, burning, grinding, and winnowing and demanding one of Ba‘al's brothers to feed upon. A gap in the text is followed by Mot complaining that Ba‘al has given Mot his own brothers to eat, the sons of his mother to consume. A single combat between the two breaks out until Shapsh 'Sun' upbraids Mot, informing him that his own father 'El will turn against him and overturn his throne if he continues. Mot concedes and the conflict ends.
In Sanchuniathon also Death is 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.
The language here is confusing, a bad summary and possibly corrupt, and the form Mot here is not the same as Muth which appears later. But it may be that the full and coherent account would have made clear that muddy and putrescent Death is the source of life.
According to H.H. Ben-Sasson's A History of the Jewish People, 1976, page 11-12: "From the Ugaritic evidence ... Other central deities [of the Canaanite pantheon] were ... Moth, the deity of death and the nether world" (Jeremiah 9:21; and Habakkuk 2:5).
External links
- Putting God on Trial- The Biblical Book of Job A Biblical reworking of the combat motif between Mot and Baal.
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
