Deity Β· Canaanite Β· c. 1400 BCE
Mot
Also called MΓ΄t, Death Β· also recorded as Muth, Maweth, π€π€ π€, ΧΧΧͺ (per Wikidata)
Death itself as a god, with a throat wide enough to swallow Baal. The later mouth-of-hell is this image, several cultures downstream.
Well sourced
Mot is death conceived as an appetite rather than an event. In the Baal Cycle his throat reaches from earth to sky, and Baal, the storm and the rain, goes down it β which is drought described as being eaten. Anat destroys him by the methods used on grain, and the cycle turns. The image outlives the religion: the Hebrew Bible keeps the throat, with Habakkuk widening the appetite of the greedy man like Sheol's and Job naming a firstborn of Death, and Isaiah 25:8 gets its force by reversing the direction, promising that God will swallow up Death instead. The mouth of hell in medieval art is this same throat, several cultures downstream.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
None, and there could not be. Death is what the ritual calendar is defending against; nobody built him a house or brought him bread.
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- First attested
- The Baal Cycle (Ugaritic Tablets) Β· c. 1400-1200 BCE
- Rank
- God of Death
- Pantheon
- Canaanite
- Order
- Ugaritic pantheon
- Base of operations
- None, and there could not be. Death is what the ritual calendar is defending against; nobody built him a house or brought him bread.
- Era
- c. 1400 BCE
- Traditions
- Canaanite & Ugaritic
Traits
- Domain
- Death, drought, the underworld
- Traditional form
- An immense open mouth, one lip to earth and one to heaven
Stats
Known connections
Opposed by
2 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 2 offices attributed to Mot, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- malefic1
- transformation1
2 texts
Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names Mot, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
2 texts spanning roughly 900 years
Where the texts differ
- Name: given as Mot, Mavet (Death)
Swallows Baal and brings drought; is defeated by Anat, who winnows and grinds him.
Death as a swallowing throat rather than as an event, which is Mot's characteristic at Ugarit. Habakkuk 2:5 widens its appetite like Sheol's; Job 18:13 names a firstborn of Death; Hosea 13:14 addresses it directly. Isaiah 25:8 turns the image round and has God swallow Death instead β a reversal that only carries if the reader knows which way it normally runs.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Identified with Pluto
Death personified, given a Roman name. Recorded by Wikidata (P460); not asserted by a text this corpus carries.
Opposed by Baal Hadad
Swallowed by Death and returned with the rains.
Identified with Hades
The same equation reached through the Greek instead. Recorded by Wikidata (P460); not asserted by a text this corpus carries.
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Mot?
Is Mot the same as Pluto?
What rank is Mot?
How else is Mot spelled?
What is Mot said to do?
How old is Mot?
Nearest in the corpus
If Mot is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Anat
Warrior Goddess Β· Canaanite
Baal's sister and avenger. She grinds Death himself to pieces and sows him in a field, which makes her the most violent figure in the Ugaritic corpus.
Astarte
Goddess of Love and War Β· Canaanite
The West Semitic goddess of love and war, cognate with Ishtar β and the direct ancestor of the Goetic duke Astaroth, who kept the name and lost the gender.
Baal Hadad
Storm God Β· Canaanite
The Canaanite storm and fertility god who defeats Sea and Death β and whose title, *baal* ('lord'), the Hebrew Bible turns into a generic term for false gods.
Chemosh
God of Moab Β· Canaanite
National god of Moab, known from the Bible and from the Mesha Stele β where a Moabite king describes his own history in language almost identical to Israel's.
El
Father of the Gods Β· Canaanite
The aged high god who presides over the assembly at Ugarit β and whose name is one of the Hebrew Bible's own words for God.
Lotan
Chaos Serpent Β· Canaanite
The seven-headed sea-serpent slain in the Baal Cycle, described in language Isaiah reuses almost verbatim for Leviathan.
The books behind Mot
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
The Baal Cycle (Ugaritic Tablets)
Anonymous; recovered at Ras Shamra Β· c. 1400-1200 BCE Β· Ugaritic
Read The Baal Cycle (Ugaritic Tablets) in full βCover: CC BY-SA 3.0 Β· Unknown artist Β· Wikimedia file page
Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon
Various Β· c. 900β100 BCE Β· Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek
Read Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon in full βCover: Public domain Β· see en:Aleppo Codex; scanned by Β· Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference siteβs credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed β not the date the page was rebuilt.