Anat

The warrior

Anat is the most violent figure in Ugaritic poetry. In the Baal Cycle (KTU 1.3 II) she fights two armies, heaping up heads and hands, wading knee-deep and then neck-deep in the blood of warriors, before washing herself with dew and rain. She boasts that she has already defeated Yamm, the dragon Tunnan, and the twisting serpent. Her usual epithet, "Virgin Anat" (btlt ʿnt), marks her as a young, unmarried woman, and the texts are more interested in her ferocity than in any maternal role.

Baal's ally

Anat is called Baal's sister and acts as his champion. When Baal needs a palace she goes to El and threatens to smash his grey head until it runs with blood unless he consents (KTU 1.3 V). When Baal dies she searches the land for him, carries his body to Zaphon with the help of the sun-goddess Shapash, buries him, and mourns. Then she seizes Mot and destroys him as a farmer destroys grain: splitting, winnowing, burning, grinding, and sowing him in the field (KTU 1.6 II).

Anat and Aqhat

In the Epic of Aqhat, Anat covets the bow that the craftsman god gave the young Aqhat. She offers him riches and even immortality; he refuses and tells her that bows are for warriors. With El's reluctant permission she has him killed by her henchman Yatpan, and the land suffers drought as a result. The poem does not present her as a simple villain; she seems to regret the bow's loss, which breaks in the killing.

Beyond Ugarit

Anat was worshipped in Egypt in the New Kingdom, where Ramesses II named a daughter Bint-Anat, and in a bilingual inscription from Cyprus she is equated with the Greek Athena.