A powerful personification of death, Mot rules the Underworld in Ugarit, North Syria and other regions. In the Bronze Age, he shares duties with Asray, daughter of Baal, Goddess of the Underworld and Groundwater. Both Asray and Mot appear on local kaluti or god lists.
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God lists and offering lists compile all known deities and their importance in a ranking of the Gods. They're often combined, with offering lists detailing the entities to be included and the type of offering given, such as grain, a goat, fowl or ox.
Blood sacrifice is part of life in the early millennia BCE. Human sacrifice is definitely practiced in various regions. In the sacrificial hierarchy, the lives of homo sapiens are higher in importance than those of other animals.
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The most potent human sacrifice is that of the King - though most dynasties have figured ways around that part. The King's sacrifice may be symbolic. It can involve actual bloodshed of the ruler but not the death, as in some ancient Meso-American cultures. The eating and drinking of sacrificial meat and blood takes the qualities of the God unto oneself.
In the Bronze Age Mediterranean east, Mot is one of the many children of Creator God El. Mot's siblings include the Sun Goddess Shapash, Sky God Baal (Hadad, Ba'al), and the Divine Twins of Dawn and Dusk.
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The brother of Mot, Baal, banishes him to a city named hmry (Mirey), with a pit as his throne, and Filth the land of his heritage. Baal warns:
... that you not come near to divine Death, lest he make you like a lamb in his mouth,(and) you both be carried away like a kid in the breach of his windpipe.
Mot says his appetite is that of lions in the wilderness and the longing of dolphins in the sea. He threatens to devour Ba'al himself.
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Mot and Baal, primeval elements of Chaos and Order, Life and Death, Dark and Light, battle to the death every season. Baal, like many harvest deities, is killed and reborn each year. Mot is annually killed by Baal's sister Anath (Anat, goddess of hunting and war).
Anat is joined by their sister, Sun Goddess Shapshu. The sun dims in the mortal realm as Shapshu goes into the earth, or the Underworld, to help Anat.
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Warrior Huntress Anat slays Mot, roasts him in a fire, cuts him up into little pieces and grinds them into smaller pieces, and spreads them over a field for birds to eat. In this way she's able to resurrect Baal.
Seven years later, Mot returns to the Overworld seeking vengeance. He wants one of his own brothers to eat. Here part of the text is missing.
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When the story picks up again, Baal argues with Mot that he, Baal, has already given Mot two brothers to consume. Apparently Mot is too greedy. Mot and Baal fight.
Shapash the Sun Goddess steps in. She chastises Mot, telling him his father El will throw him off the throne If Mot continues this behavior. At that, Mot quiets down, cedes victory to Baal, and the battle ends.
For now.
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As the personification of Death his realm is the Underworld but Mot sometimes walks among mortals. His bony hands are like ice. Who he touches will die within a year and a day. Sometimes, honoring Mot with offerings and incantations can stave off that curse.
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