De A Short Story of Myth, de Karen Armstrong, ed. Canongate.
"This is clear in the myth of Anat, the sister and spouse of Baal, the storm god, which symbolises not only the struggling of farming but also the difficulty of attaining wholeness and harmony. Baal, who brings rain to the parched earth, is himself engaged in a creative battle with monsters, the forces and chaos and disintegration. One day, however, he is attacked by Mot, the god of death, sterility and drought, who constantly threatens to turn the earth into a desolate wilderness. At Mot's approach, Baal for once is overcome with fear, and surrenders without resistance. Mot chew him up, like a tasty morsel of lamb, and forces him down into the underworld, the land of the dead. Because Baal can no longer bring rain to the earth, vegetation withers and dies, amidst general lamentation. El, Baal's father - a typical High God - is helpless. When he hears of Baal's death, he comes down from his high trone, puts on sackcloth, and gashes his cheeks in the traditional rites of mourning, but cannot save his son. The only effective deity is Anat. Filled with grief and rage, she wanders through the earth, distraught, searching for her alter ego, her other half. The Syrian text which has preserved this myth tells us that she yearns for Baal "as a cow her calf or a ewe her lamb". The Mother Goddess is as fierce and beyond control as an animal when its young is in danger. When Anat finds Baal's remains, she makes a great funeral banquet in his honour, and, uttering a passionate complaint to El, she continues her search for Mot. When she finds him, she cleaves Mot in two with a ritual sickle, winnows him in a sieve, scorches him, grinds him in a mill, and scatters his flesh over the fields, treating him in exactly the same way as a farmer treats his grain.
Gosto desta história para lá de toda a medida. Tem tudo: o Bem vencido, a ressurreição trazida pelas mulheres, a luta sem fim entre o Bom e o Mau, a imparável fúria da Mulher.
"This is clear in the myth of Anat, the sister and spouse of Baal, the storm god, which symbolises not only the struggling of farming but also the difficulty of attaining wholeness and harmony. Baal, who brings rain to the parched earth, is himself engaged in a creative battle with monsters, the forces and chaos and disintegration. One day, however, he is attacked by Mot, the god of death, sterility and drought, who constantly threatens to turn the earth into a desolate wilderness. At Mot's approach, Baal for once is overcome with fear, and surrenders without resistance. Mot chew him up, like a tasty morsel of lamb, and forces him down into the underworld, the land of the dead. Because Baal can no longer bring rain to the earth, vegetation withers and dies, amidst general lamentation. El, Baal's father - a typical High God - is helpless. When he hears of Baal's death, he comes down from his high trone, puts on sackcloth, and gashes his cheeks in the traditional rites of mourning, but cannot save his son. The only effective deity is Anat. Filled with grief and rage, she wanders through the earth, distraught, searching for her alter ego, her other half. The Syrian text which has preserved this myth tells us that she yearns for Baal "as a cow her calf or a ewe her lamb". The Mother Goddess is as fierce and beyond control as an animal when its young is in danger. When Anat finds Baal's remains, she makes a great funeral banquet in his honour, and, uttering a passionate complaint to El, she continues her search for Mot. When she finds him, she cleaves Mot in two with a ritual sickle, winnows him in a sieve, scorches him, grinds him in a mill, and scatters his flesh over the fields, treating him in exactly the same way as a farmer treats his grain.
Our sources are incomplete, so we do not know how Anat managed to bring Baal back to life. But both Baal and Mot are divine, so neither can be wholly extinguished. The battle between the two will continue, , and the harvest will only be produced each year in the teeth of death. In one version of the myth Anat restores Baal so completely that next time Mot attacks him, he responds much more vigorously. Rain returns to the Earth, the valleys run with honey, and the heavens rain down precious oil. The story ends with the sexual reunion of Baal and Anat, an image of wholeness and completion, cultically reenacted during the New Year's festival."
Gosto desta história para lá de toda a medida. Tem tudo: o Bem vencido, a ressurreição trazida pelas mulheres, a luta sem fim entre o Bom e o Mau, a imparável fúria da Mulher.
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