OTHER NAMES: Hanat
TYPE: Fertility and war goddess
ORIGIN: Canaanite and Phoenician [Northern Israel, Lebanon, and Syria]
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: From prehistoric times (circa 2500 BCE) until 200 CE or later.
SYNONYMS: Anath; Lady of the Mountain; Antit (Egyptian)
CENTER(S) OF CULT: Ugarit [Ras Samra] and generally in places down the grain-growing coastal regions of the eastern Mediterranean. Hanat, Ugarit, Tanis.
ART REFERENCES: Named specifically in Egyptian hieroglyphic on a stele from Bethsan; described on various other votive inscriptions, clay plaques, etc.
LITERARY SOURCES: Ugaritic texts from Ras Samra; various offering lists.
SYMBOL: Atef crown, wings
PARENTS: El and Athirat (in Urarit); Ra or Ptah (in Egyptian tradition)
CONSORT: Baal Hadad (Ugarit disputed); Set (Ancient Egyptian religion disputed)
GREEK EQUIVALENT: Athena
INFORMATION: The sister of Baal, ANat is primarily a fertility goddess. In art she is usually depicted naked, with breasts and vaginal area prominent. Often she wears a coiffure similar to that of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, with whom at times she has been closely linked. Anat is described variously as "mother of the gods" and "mistress of the sky". In addition to her fertility role, she is a youthful and aggressive goddess of war, a capacity in which she was adopted by Egypt from the end of the Middle Kingdom (early eighteenth century BCE) and particularly through the Hyksos Dynasty when she was prominent in Lower Egypt. A sanctuary was dedicated to her at Tanis and she was identified as a daughter of the sun god Re with warlike attributes of lance, battleax and shield. She impressed Rameses II whose daughter was called Bin-Anat (daughter of Anat). Rameses III adopted her as his "shield" in battle.
The Ras Samra stele describes her as "Antit, queen of heaven and mistress of all the gods." Known as the "virgin Anat," she indulged in orgies of violence "wading up to her thighs in blood and gore." She may be one of a triad of goddesses with Athirat and Asera. In the classic Canaanite confrontation legend, after the primordial battle between good and evil in the guise of Baal and Mot, Anat searched out the body of Baal. She buried it and caught up with his slayer, Mot, to make appropriate retribution. She cleaved and winnowed, burned and ground Mot in a curious variation of a common theme associated elsewhere with gods of vegetation (see Osiris). She also features in the Legend of Aqhat, in which she sends an eagle to slay the youth when he refuses to give her his magical bow.