Anat

**Anat**, also known as **Anatu** or **Anath**, was a Semitic goddess associated with war, death and vengeance.

## Overview

### Family

Anat was usually seen the daughter of El and Asherah, the common parents of most semitic deities, and as the sister and/or consort of the Ba'al, the widely revered god of storms and agriculture.

### Anat in the Baal Cycle

Anat and Kothar-wa-Khasis, the god of craftsmanship, assisted Ba'al in the battling Yamm, the chaotic god of the sea, and ascending to become the king of the gods.

After the conflict Ba'al and Anat ascend to Mount Hazzi (renamed Mount Zaphon), where they, with the help of Kothar-wa-Khasis, built the palace for the new king of the gods. Ba'al becomes prideful and after having vanquished the god of the sea, thinks he can also defeated Mot, the god of death and the underworld.

Mot challenges Ba'al to come to the underworld, and although the storm god originally refuses, as king and champion of the gods, he must go down to face him. Ba'al takes the weather (rain, wind, clouds) with him and faces Mot, seemingly dying in the process. The other gods, especially El and **Anat**, mourn the loss, and are not able to find a proper replacement to head the pantheon.

El later has a vision, and realises that Ba'al is still alive, but in the clutches of Mot in the underworld. He tells this to Anat, who flies into a rage and travels to the land of the dead to rescue Ba'al. She brutally kills Mot and revives Ba'al, allowing him to return to the world of the living.

## Worship

### Role

Anat was a virgin goddess of war, who was also sexually compelling and bloodthirsty. As a female warrior she was seen as subversion of Semitic warrior-culture, in which only the men served as soldiers, while the women remained in the household. Soldiers were also often called "sons of Anat".

### Anat in Egypt

Anat was also one of the several Semitic deities who were worshipped in Ancient Egypt as well, where she was seen as the daughter of either Re, the solar god, or Ptah, the demiurge god of Memphis, and the wife of Seth, the god of storms and chaos. She was seen as the protector of the pharaoh's chariot during war, alongside Astarte, another semitic war goddess who was also often paired with either Baal or Seth.

## Pop Culture

* Anat is a character feature in Brian Godawa's fantasy book-series, *The Chronicles of the Nephilim*. She is one of the fallen angels who became pagan deities, alongside the likes of Ba'al, Asherah, Molech, Inanna and Horus.

## References

1. ↑ Leick, Gwendolyn. *A Dictionary Of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology*
2. ↑  Leick, Gwendolyn. *A Dictionary Of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology'*
3. ↑  Miller, Robert D. *Tracking the Dragon across the Ancient Near East*
4. ↑  Satterfield, Bruce. *The Nature of the Struggle Between the Israelite and Canaanite Religion*
5. ↑  Miller, Robert D. *Tracking the Dragon across the Ancient Near East*
6. ↑  Satterfield, Bruce. *The Nature of the Struggle Between the Israelite and Canaanite Religion*
7. ↑  Satterfield, Bruce. *The Nature of the Struggle Between the Israelite and Canaanite Religion*
8. ↑  Satterfield, Bruce. *The Nature of the Struggle Between the Israelite and Canaanite Religion*
9. ↑  Noll, K.L. *Canaanite Religion*
10. ↑  Leick, Gwendolyn. *A Dictionary Of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology'*
11. ↑ Wilkinson, Richard. *The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt*