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Anat's killing of Aqhat is followed by a drought; in Stories from Ancient Canaan, Michael Coogan speculates that the lost conclusion to the myth sees Aqhat's resurrection and the restoration of fertility to the land. If so, I think there's another parallel with Inanna/Ishtar, who decreed Dumuzi's captivity in the Netherworld.

In the Epic of Baal, there's a different variation on the pattern: Anat retrieves Baal's body, and slays his murderer, Death himself, returning Baal to life.

Another parallel: in Enuma Elish, Marduk fights and defeats Tiamat, the sea; in the Epic of Baal, Baal fights and defeats Prince Sea. (Both Baal and Marduk are young up-and-coming gods, who receive a temple as the reward for their victories.)

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Coogan, Michael David. Stories from Ancient Canaan. Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1978.
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My jaw dropped as I was reading the Ugaritic myth Baal on the bus, and came to the part where Anat, not satisfied with the real battle she's just gleefully engaged in, turns her own furniture into soldiers so she can keep fighting. After which she literally washes her hands in blood, before washing them in water. This is the event represented by artist Thalia Took's image of Anat. It's an even more bloodthirsty portrayal of a war goddess than anything I've read of Inanna/Ishtar.

Kapelrud says of Anat: "She is the demanding goddess of battle, never satisfied, always with a never-resting wish to go on, which is the typical mark of passion, until it ends up burning up itself."
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Coogan, Michael David. Stories from Ancient Canaan. Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1978.

Kapelrud, Arvid S. The Violent Goddess: Anat in the Ras Shamra Texts. Universitets-forlaget, Oslo, 1969.
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These goddesses are connected to each other, and to Inanna/Ishtar, in ways I'm not clear about. Are they essentially the same goddess, appearing in different cultures? Have they borrowed characteristics from one another? I intend to investigate!

In Stories from Ancient Canaan, Michael Coogan notes that while Anat, Astarte, and Asherah appear regularly in the Ugarit myths, none of them have major roles. Asherah is consort of the supreme god, El. The warlike Anat is Baal's sister and his wife; she has a ferocious temper. Like the Hindu goddess Kali, she wears human heads as a necklace and human hands on a belt.

In the myth of Aqhat, Anat demands the king give her his bow and arrow, made by the god of crafts; when he refuses and insults her, her vengeance costs Aqhat his life. The parallel with Ishtar's spurned proposal to Gilgamesh is striking.

Before wreaking her revenge, Anat turns to the supreme god, El, perhaps for help or permission (part of the story is missing); presumably he refuses her, because she threatens him, and he lets her go. Again there's a parallel, with Ishtar threatening to wreak havoc if the supreme god Anu doesn't let her take revenge on Gilgamesh; and with Inanna and Ebih, in which Inanna seeks Anu's permission to take revenge on the uppity mountain.
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Coogan, Michael David. Stories from Ancient Canaan. Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1978.

Sandars, N.K. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Penguin, London, 1972.

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