Mot, also known as Maweth, ( mūt, māweṯ, ) was the Canaanite god of death and the Underworld. He was also known to the people of Ugarit and in Phoenicia, where Canaanite religion was widespread. The main source of information about Mot in Canaanite mythology comes from the texts discovered at Ugarit, and Afro-Asiatic languages: Arabic موت mawt; Hebrew מות (mot or mavet; ancient Hebrew muth or maveth/maweth); Maltese mewt; Syriac ܡܰܘܬܳܐ (mautā); Ge'ez ሞት (mot); Canaanite, Egyptian, Berber, Aramaic, Nabataean, and Palmyrene מות (mwt); Jewish Aramaic, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, and Samaritan מותא (mwt’); Mandaean muta;<!-- see page 49 of https://qadaha.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/nhura-dictionary-mandaic-english-mandaic.pdf for text rendering --> Akkadian 𒍗 (mūtu); Hausa mutuwa; and Angas mut.

Religion and mythology

Ugaritic texts

The main source of the story of Mot ("Death") is Ugaritic. He is a son of 'El, as Baal was the god of rain among the Canaanites and certain other Semitic nations. Modern scholars have disputed such views as a failure to take into account the original narrative and cultural context, pointing instead to a purposeful subversion of the Baal/Mot myth on the part of the authors of the Hebrew Bible, working in a framework of an audience who were well-acquainted with the religious worldview of the surrounding nations.

Phoenician sources

A Phoenician account survives in a paraphrase of the Greek author Philo of Byblos by Eusebius, who writes of a Phoenician historian named Sanchuniathon. In this account, Death is a son of 'El and counted as a god, as the text says in speaking of 'El/Cronus:

<blockquote>And not long after another of his sons by Rhea, named Muth, having died, he deifies him, and the Phoenicians call him Thanatos ['Death'] and Pluto.</blockquote>

But in an earlier philosophical creation myth, Sanchuniathon refers to a great wind that merged with its parents, and that connection was called 'Desire' (πόθος):

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

The form Mot (Μώτ) here is not the same as Muth (Μοὺθ) which appears later.

Hebrew scriptures

In Hebrew scriptures, Death ("Maweth/Mavet(h)") is sometimes linguistically personified, as in and .

See also

  • List of Stargate SG-1 characters#Goa'uld#Minor characters

References

Further reading

  • McAffee, Matthew. "An Analysis of Words for “Death” in Ugaritic". In: Life and Mortality in Ugaritic: A Lexical and Literary Study. University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, 2019. pp. 125-190.
  • Mullen, E. T., Jr. (1980). "The Cosmogonie Conflicts: The Kingship of Ba'l, Yamm, and Môt". In: The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 46–84.
  • Sibbing-Plantholt, I. (2020). "Visible Death and Audible Distress: The Personification of Death (Mūtu) and Associated Emotions as Inherent Conditions of Life in Akkadian Sources". In: The Expression of Emotions in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 335–389.
  • Putting God on Trial- The Biblical Book of Job A Biblical reworking of the combat motif between Mot and Baal.
  • Book 1 of the Praeparatio Evangelica of Eusebius containing the paraphrase of Philo
  • Daccache, Jimmy. "Mot". In: Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception Online. Edited by Constance M. Furey, Joel Marcus LeMon, Brian Matz, Thomas Chr. Römer, Jens Schröter, Barry Dov Walfish and Eric Ziolkowski. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021. . Accessed 2023-02-15.