Anath: Bible
Anath, sister or consort of the fertility and storm god Baal, early 2nd millenium BCE. From the Walters Art Museum via Wikimedia Commons.
Anath (Anat) is a prominent figure in the Canaanite mythological texts, dating to c. 1400 BCE, discovered at Ugarit on the Syrian coast. She is a maiden/warrior goddess, the sister or consort of the fertility and storm god Baal. She plays a major role in the Ugaritic myths, rescuing Baal from the underworld and defeating Mot, the god of death. Despite her prominence in the Ugaritic texts, she rarely appears in the Hebrew Bible. However, the naming structure used in references to Anath in the Bible indicates that she may have been honored among some Israelites.
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Anath (Anat) is a prominent figure in the Canaanite mythological texts, dating to c. 1400 BCE, discovered at Ugarit on the Syrian coast. She is a maiden/warrior goddess, the sister or consort of the fertility and storm god Baal. She plays a major role in the Ugaritic myths, rescuing Baal from the underworld and defeating Mot, the god of death.
In the Hebrew Bible, however, Anath is barely visible. Her name appears only within the place names Beth-anath/anoth (Josh 15:59; 19:38; Judg 1:33) and Anathoth (Josh 21:18; 1 Kgs 2:26; Isa 10:30; Jer 1:1) and the personal names Shamgar ben Anath (son of Anath, in NRSV) (Judg 3:31; 5:6), Anthothijah (1 Chr 8:24), and Anathoth (1 Chr 7:8; Neh 10:19).
These names are generally taken to reflect the worship or veneration of the goddess Anath among Israelites. Beth-anath, for example, means “house or temple of Anath. Anathoth is the plural of the name Anath, just as Ashtaroth (compare Deut 1:4) is the plural of the divine name Ashtar (Astarte). The name Shamgar son of Anath, however, might not mean “Shamgar, son of [the goddess] Anath.” The formula “[personal name], son of [personal name],” usually places one’s father’s name in the second position.
Therefore, the name Anath, in this instance, may be a shortened form of a masculine name such as Anathothijah or Anatyahu, which may simply mean “sign(s) of YHWH.” If so, then Shamgar’s name would have nothing to do with the goddess Anath. Yet because Shamgar was a warrior and Anath a warrior deity, and because place names such as Beth-anoth point to the veneration of the goddess among some Israelites, the label “son of Anath” following Shamgar’s name may indeed connect him with the goddess. Extrabiblical data support such a possibility.
Anath is among a group of three goddesses in the Canaanite texts, the other two being Asherah and Astarte.
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