The Ugaritic sun goddess, called "Torch of the Gods" in the Baal Cycle, where she is the one figure with standing access to both the world of the living and the underworld, since her daily course is read as passing through it each night. After Mot kills Baal, Shapash helps Anat carry his body to Mount Sapan for burial and shares in the mourning; later, when Anat wants to move against Mot for killing Baal, it is Shapash who carries the request to El and secures his consent. In a separate late episode she also warns Kirta's rebellious son Yatpan against usurping his father's throne, extending her mediating role from the divine plane into royal succession.
Facts
Function
Domain / Function Cult
Attributes and IconographyAn ivory plaque from Ugarit shows a goddess identified with Shapash wearing the curled hairstyle borrowed from Egyptian images of Hathor and a solar disc on her head, matching the Ugaritic texts that call her "the torch of the gods" who lights the sky by day and watches over the dead by night. 1 Attributions
Mythic AssociationHelps Anat recover and bury Baal's body after Mot kills him, then carries Anat's request to move against Mot to El and secures his consent, acting throughout the Baal Cycle as the one figure trusted to cross between the living and the dead. 1 Origins
Origin of the NameShapash is called Torch of the Gods in the Baal Cycle, the epithet naming her daily course across the sky and, each night, through the underworld beneath it. 1 Attestation
Era of Attestation Veneration TodayHistorically attested; no continuous cult 1 Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 1 The Ugaritic sun goddess of the Baal Cycle, matching the reading already carried by Baal, El, Anat and Kothar-wa-Khasis for the same pantheon. Correspondences & Relations
Connections
Associated With
Anat, Deities This source names Anat directly: "After Mot kills Baal, Shapash helps Anat carry his body to Mount Sapan for burial and shares in the mourning; later, when Anat wants to move against Mot for killing Baal, it is Shapash who carries..."
Source Ugaritic Narrative PoetrySimon B. Parker (ed.); Mark S. Smith and others (trans.)
Baal, Deities This source names Baal directly: "called "Torch of the Gods" in the Baal Cycle, where she is the one figure with standing access to both the world of the living and the underworld, since her daily course is read as passing through..."
Source Ugaritic Narrative PoetrySimon B. Parker (ed.); Mark S. Smith and others (trans.)
This source names Ugaritic directly: "The Ugaritic sun goddess, called "Torch of the Gods" in the Baal Cycle, where she is the one figure with standing access to both the world of the living and the underworld, since her daily course is..."
Source Ugaritic Narrative PoetrySimon B. Parker (ed.); Mark S. Smith and others (trans.)
Worshipped In
Source Ugaritic Narrative PoetrySimon B. Parker (ed.); Mark S. Smith and others (trans.)
Sources
1. Ugaritic Narrative Poetry
Simon B. Parker (ed.); Mark S. Smith and others (trans.), Society of Biblical Literature, 1997Shapash, Ugaritic corpusView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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