Baal and Mot — The Descent into Death
This is the final episode of the Baal Cycle, preserved on tablets KTU 1.5 and 1.6. After building his palace and boasting that he would send no tribute to Mot (Death), Baal is summoned to the underworld. He must go. He descends, and he dies. The rains cease. The earth withers.
The Maiden Anath finds his body, buries him, and then goes to Mot — and destroys him. She cuts him with a blade, winnows him with a fan, burns him with fire, grinds him with millstones, scatters him in the fields. Baal returns. But Mot also returns. The two fight again, inconclusively, until the sun goddess Shapash intervenes and Mot yields — for now.
The cycle ends not with permanent victory but with uneasy balance. Storm and Death will fight again. The rains will come and go. This is the Canaanite understanding: life is a cycle, not a conquest.
This is a Good Works Translation from the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabetic script by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
Mot's Invitation
From the newly opened window of his palace, Baal has boasted that he will pay no tribute to Mot, the god of Death. Mot sends a message back. His throat is the throat of the underworld — a lip to the earth, a lip to the heavens. The stars enter his jaws. He invites Baal to come down.
Mot, the son of El, sent word,
The Beloved of El, the Hero, declared:
"[...] when you struck down Litan, the Fleeing Serpent,
When you finished the Twisting Serpent,
The Tyrant with Seven Heads —
The heavens grew hot, they drooped,
For I myself was weakened.
Now you must come down into the throat of Mot, the son of El,
Into the pit of the Beloved of El, the Hero.
One lip to the earth, one lip to the heavens,
A tongue to the stars.
Baal will enter his belly,
Into his mouth he will go down,
Like an olive cake,
Like the yield of the earth and the fruit of the trees."
Mighty Baal was afraid.
The Rider of the Clouds was terrified.
"Go. Say to Mot, the son of El,
Declare to the Beloved of El, the Hero:
'The message of Mighty Baal,
The word of the Mightiest of Heroes:
Hail, Mot, son of El!
I am your servant, I am yours forever.'"
The gods departed. They did not linger.
They set their faces
Toward Mot, the son of El,
To the City of Ruin,
Hamriya, his throne,
The Pit, the land of his inheritance.
Baal's Descent
Baal prepares to go down to Death. He couples with a heifer and begets a son — an heir to carry on if he does not return. Then he descends. He enters the earth. And the word comes to El: Baal is dead.
[...]
Baal loved a heifer in the pasture,
A cow in the fields of the Shore of Death.
He lay with her seventy-seven times,
She let him mount eighty-eight times.
She conceived and bore a boy.
[...]
And Mighty Baal went down.
"Set your face toward the mountain of Kankaniya,
Lift the mountain on your hands,
The hill on top of your palms,
And go down into the House of Freedom in the earth,
Be counted among those who go down into the earth."
Baal went down [...]
Then Gapn and Ugar set their faces
Toward the Kindly One, El the Compassionate,
At the Source of the Two Rivers,
In the midst of the springs of the Two Deeps.
They entered the tent of El and went in
To the pavilion of the King, the Father of Years.
At the feet of El they bowed and fell,
They prostrated themselves and honoured him.
They raised their voice and cried:
"We went [...] to the edge of the earth,
To the boundary of the wasteland.
We came to the Beautiful Place, the Pasture-Land,
To the Lovely Field, the Shore of Death.
We came upon Baal — fallen to the ground.
Mighty Baal is dead.
The Prince, Lord of the Earth, has perished."
El Mourns
The father of the gods receives the news. He descends from his throne, sits on the ground, pours dust on his head, and mourns with a grief that shakes the cosmos.
The Kindly One, El the Compassionate,
Came down from his throne — he sat on the footstool.
From the footstool — he sat on the ground.
He poured the dust of mourning on his head,
The earth of humiliation on his skull.
For clothing, he covered himself with sackcloth.
He scraped his skin with a stone,
With a razor he cut his side-locks and beard.
He ploughed his cheeks and chin,
He raked the upper part of his arm,
He ploughed his chest like a garden,
He raked his back like a valley.
He raised his voice and cried:
"Baal is dead!
What will become of the people?
The son of Dagon — what will become of the multitudes?
After Baal, I will go down into the earth."
Anath Finds the Body
The Maiden Anath searches for her brother. She finds him in the Beautiful Field, the pasture at the edge of death. She weeps and buries him on Mount Saphon.
The Maiden Anath also went searching.
Like the heart of a cow for her calf,
Like the heart of a ewe for her lamb —
So was the heart of Anath for Baal.
She seized Mot by the hem of his garment,
She grabbed him by the edge of his cloak.
She raised her voice and cried:
"Come, Mot! Give me my brother!"
Mot, the son of El, replied:
"What do you want, O Maiden Anath?
I was going about, searching every mountain to the heart of the earth,
Every hill to the heart of the fields.
My throat craved human beings,
My throat craved the multitudes of the earth.
I arrived at the Beautiful Place, the Pasture-Land,
At the Lovely Field, the Shore of Death.
I met Mighty Baal.
I made him like a lamb in my mouth,
Like a kid in the breach of my windpipe he was destroyed."
[...]
The Maiden Anath went searching,
Every mountain to the heart of the earth,
Every hill to the heart of the fields.
She came to the Beautiful Place, the Pasture-Land,
To the Lovely Field, the Shore of Death.
She found Mighty Baal.
She wept and buried him.
She placed him in the Cavern of the Gods of the Earth.
She slaughtered seventy wild oxen
As a funeral offering for Mighty Baal.
[...]
Athtar on the Throne
With Baal dead, El attempts to seat a replacement on Baal's throne — Athtar the Terrible. But Athtar is too small. His feet do not reach the footstool. He descends from the throne and rules the earth instead. The throne of Saphon remains empty.
Lady Asherah of the Sea spoke:
"Let us make Athtar the Terrible king.
Let Athtar the Terrible reign."
Then Athtar the Terrible went up
To the heights of Saphon.
He sat on the throne of Mighty Baal.
But his feet did not reach the footstool,
His head did not reach the top.
And Athtar the Terrible spoke:
"I cannot reign on the heights of Saphon."
Athtar the Terrible came down,
He came down from the throne of Mighty Baal,
And he reigned over the whole earth.
[...]
Anath Destroys Mot
Time passes. The Maiden Anath goes to Mot — and she does not plead. She takes him as a farmer takes grain. She cuts him with a blade. She winnows him with a fan. She burns him with fire. She grinds him with millstones. She scatters him in the fields. This is the imagery of the harvest — Death is threshed like wheat.
Days became months,
Months became seasons.
The Maiden Anath went after Mot.
Like the heart of a cow for her calf,
Like the heart of a ewe for her lamb —
So was the heart of Anath for Baal.
She seized Mot, the son of El.
With a blade she split him,
With a fan she winnowed him,
With fire she burned him,
With millstones she ground him,
In the field she scattered him.
The birds ate his flesh,
The sparrows consumed his remains.
Baal Returns
El has a dream. He sees the heavens raining oil, the wadis running with honey. He knows that Mighty Baal is alive, that the Prince, Lord of the Earth, exists. He sends Anath and the sun goddess Shapash to search for him.
In a dream of the Kindly One, El the Compassionate,
In a vision of the Creator of All —
The heavens rained oil,
The wadis ran with honey.
The Kindly One, El the Compassionate, rejoiced.
He set his feet on the footstool,
He opened his mouth and laughed,
He raised his voice and cried:
"I will sit and rest,
My heart within me will rest.
For Mighty Baal is alive!
The Prince, Lord of the Earth, exists!"
El called to the Maiden Anath:
"Hear, O Maiden Anath!
Say to Shapash, the Luminary of the Gods:
'The furrows of the fields are cracked, O Shapash,
The furrows of El's fields are cracked.
Baal has abandoned the ploughed land.
Where is Mighty Baal?
Where is the Prince, Lord of the Earth?'"
The Maiden Anath went
To Shapash, the Luminary of the Gods.
She raised her voice and cried:
"The message of Bull El, your father,
The word of the Kindly One, your begetter:
The furrows of the fields are cracked, O Shapash,
The furrows of El's fields are cracked.
Baal has abandoned the ploughed land.
Where is Mighty Baal?
Where is the Prince, Lord of the Earth?"
And Shapash, the Luminary of the Gods, replied:
"[...] I will search for Mighty Baal."
[...]
Mighty Baal returned.
The Final Battle
Seven years later, Mot returns. He confronts Baal. They fight — like wild bulls, like serpents, like stallions. Neither can defeat the other. At last the sun goddess Shapash intervenes, warning Mot that El will overturn his throne if he continues. Mot yields. Baal is enthroned.
In the seventh year,
Mot, the son of El, spoke
To Mighty Baal.
He raised his voice and cried:
"Because of you, Baal, I have suffered humiliation.
Because of you, I was split with a blade.
Because of you, I was burned with fire.
Because of you, I was ground with millstones.
Because of you, I was scattered in the fields.
Because of you, I was sown in the sea. [...]
Give me one of your brothers and I will eat,
The fury that I feel will be satisfied."
[...]
Mot was strong. Baal was strong.
They gored each other like wild bulls.
Mot was strong. Baal was strong.
They bit each other like serpents.
Mot was strong. Baal was strong.
They kicked each other like stallions.
Mot fell. Baal fell.
Above, Shapash cried to Mot:
"Hear, O Mot, son of El!
How can you fight with Mighty Baal?
How will Bull El, your father, not hear you?
He will tear out the posts of your dwelling,
He will overturn your royal throne,
He will break the sceptre of your rule."
Mot, the son of El, was afraid.
The Beloved of El, the Hero, was terrified.
Mot raised himself from his fall.
[...]
Shapash, the Luminary of the Gods, spoke:
"[...] He has made you king [...]"
[...] Baal returned to his royal throne,
To the resting place, the seat of his dominion.
[...]
The cycle ends here. Baal is restored. Mot is confined. But Death has not been destroyed — only beaten back. The window remains open. The rains will come again, and they will cease again. The ancient tablets offer no permanent victory, only the turning of the seasons and the knowledge that the storm always returns.
Colophon
The third and final episode of the Baal Cycle — Baal's descent to Death and return — is preserved on tablets KTU 1.5 and 1.6 (also designated CTA 5–6). The tablets are unevenly preserved: some passages are nearly complete, others are badly damaged or lost entirely.
The destruction of Mot by Anath — splitting, winnowing, burning, grinding, scattering — mirrors the agricultural processing of grain. This is the mythological root of the dying-and-rising god pattern that echoes through Adonis, Attis, Osiris, and the Christian resurrection. The Baal Cycle does not moralize it or theologize it. It simply tells it: the storm god dies, the rain stops, the earth cracks, and then he returns, and the wadis run with honey.
The final battle — bulls, serpents, stallions — ends in a draw. Neither Storm nor Death can permanently defeat the other. Shapash (the Sun) mediates. This is the deepest theology of the cycle: the cosmos is held together not by the triumph of one force but by the balance of all of them. Chaos is bounded. Death is real. Life returns.
Good Works Translation from the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabetic script by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Translated from the public-domain transliteration of the tablets as established in the KTU (Keilalphabetische Texte aus Ugarit) corpus. Existing translations by Ginsberg (1969), Wyatt (2002), and Parker (1997) were consulted for verification of readings at damaged passages. Smith's commentary on KTU 1.5–1.6 was never published.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
🌲
Source Text: Ugaritic Transliteration (KTU 1.5 I — Mot's Invitation)
Ugaritic cuneiform alphabetic text, transliterated into Latin script following the standard conventions of the KTU corpus. Word dividers in the original cuneiform are represented by periods. Lacunae are marked with [...]. Mot's summons to Baal — KTU 1.5 I.
[...] yšlḥ . mt . bn . 'ilm
y'ny . ydd . 'il . ǧzr
[...] k . tmḫṣ . ltn . bṯn . brḥ
tkly . bṯn . 'qltn
šlyt . d . šb't . r'ašm
tḥt . šmm . 'imrr . tml'un
w'att . trd . b'ir . mt . bn . 'il
bmhmrt . ydd . 'il . ǧzr
špt . l'arṣ . špt . lšmm
wlšn . lkbkbm
b'l . yrd . bqrb-h
bph . yrd . km . ḥmr
kẓ't . 'arṣ . wpry . 'ṣ
gy'r . 'al'iyn . b'l
yr'a . ṯr . rkb . 'rpt
lk . 'amr . lmt . bn . 'ilm
ṯny . lydd . 'il . ǧzr
ṯḥm . 'al'iyn . b'l
hwt . 'aliy . qrdm
hm . 'bdk . 'an . b'l
d'lmk
Source Text: Ugaritic Transliteration (KTU 1.5 VI — El Mourns)
El receives the news of Baal's death and mourns. KTU 1.5 VI.
[...] ltpn . 'il . dpid
yrd . lksi . ytb . lhdm
lhdm . ytb . l'arṣ
yšpk . 'pr . dmm . lri'šh
'pr . p'ilt . lqdqdh
lpš . y'iṣṣ . mḥ
'abn . mtrt . ydy
ydy . 'ad . ydh . bḥrb
qlṣm . ydy . ḫnnh
yḥrṯ . km . gnt . lḥy-h
km . 'imq . yḥrṯ . ksl-h
yša . gh . wyṣḥ
b'l . mt . my . l'imm
bn . dgn . my . hmlt
Source Text: Ugaritic Transliteration (KTU 1.6 II — Anath Destroys Mot)
Anath's destruction of Mot — the harvest imagery applied to Death itself. KTU 1.6 II.
ymm . l'irḫm
'irḫm . l'ušn't
btlt . 'nt . tṯ'a-nn
km . lb . 'alp . b'gl-h
km . lb . ṯ'at . b'imr-h
km . lb . 'nt . 'aṯr . b'l
t'aḫd . mt . bn . 'ilm
bḥrb . tbq'-nn
bmṭr . tdry-nn
b'išt . tšrp-nn
brḥm . tṭḥn-nn
bšd . tdr'-nn
ṣprm . t'ikl . š'ir-h
'ǧnpm . tklynn . mnth
Source Text: Ugaritic Transliteration (KTU 1.6 VI — The Final Battle)
Baal and Mot fight for the last time. Neither can defeat the other. Shapash intervenes. KTU 1.6 VI.
bšb' . šnt
y'ny . mt . bn . 'ilm
l'al'iyn . b'l
yša . gh . wyṣḥ
'lk . b'l [...]
bḫrb . bq'tny
bmṭr . drytny
b'išt . šrptny
brḥm . ṭḥntny
bšd . dr'tny [...]
tn . 'aḥd . 'aḫk . w'aklh
'ap . 'ibr . d'aṣpy
[...]
'z . mt . 'z . b'l
yngḥn . km . rumm
'z . mt . 'z . b'l
yṯtḳn . km . bṯnm
'z . mt . 'z . b'l
ymsḫn . km . ssmm
mt . ql . b'l . ql
l'ln . šmm . tṣḥ . lmt
šm' . 'il . mt . bn . 'ilm
'ik . ttḥ . 'm . 'al'iyn . b'l
'ik . yšm'k . ṯr . 'abk . 'il
ly'assy . skkm . dbt-k
lyhtpk . ks'a . mlk-k
lyṯbr . ḫṭ . mṯpṭ-k
gyr . mt . bn . 'ilm
y'irra . ydd . 'il . ǧzr
[...]
yṯb . b'l . lksi . mlk-h
lnḥt . lkḥt . drkth
Source Colophon
The Ugaritic cuneiform alphabetic text is transliterated from clay tablets discovered at Ras Shamra, Syria, during the French archaeological excavations of 1929–1933. The tablets are held in the collections of the Louvre Museum (Paris) and the National Museum of Damascus. The transliteration follows readings established through over nine decades of Ugaritic scholarship, beginning with Charles Virolleaud's first publications in the journal Syria (1929–1932) and refined through the work of Cyrus Gordon (Ugaritic Textbook, 1965), Manfried Dietrich, Oswald Loretz, and Joaquín Sanmartín (Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit, 1976; 3rd ed. 2013), and numerous other scholars. The ancient text, composed circa 1400–1200 BCE, is in the public domain.
🌲