The provenance file on Mūt
Provenance record 159 · Mūt · one temple, fully accounted for.
Provenance
1. The attestation. 𐤌𐤕, from the tradition's own record. On record: KTU (Ugaritic texts), Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Coogan, Stories from Ancient Canaan, Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan.
2. The preserved evidence. o → ū (Macron: long /uː/ (Mūt)) — absent from the ASCII form mot, present in the restoration, verifiable against the sources above.
3. The narrative record. The Summons — In KTU 1. 4 vii–viii, Mōt sends word to Baꜥal: because he was not invited to the storm-god's feast, he will feast on Baꜥal himself. The Descent and Death — In KTU 1. 5, Baꜥal submits.
4. The physical record. The Baꜥal Cycle tablets from Ras Shamra (KTU 1.4–1.6) are the principal witnesses to Mōt's mythology, preserving his threats, his swallowing of Baꜥal, and his dismemberment by ꜥAnat in alphabetic cuneiform. The Hellenistic Phoenician cosmogony survives only in the excerpts of Philo of Byblos transmitted by Eusebius. No distinct sanctuary of Mōt has been identified, but the widespread West Semitic word for death — Ugaritic mt, Phoenician mūt, Hebrew māwet, Akkadian mūtu — testifies to the concept's deep cultural reach.
5. The current holding. The temple at /sites/mot/, classified Tier 1. The restoration preserves more than the ASCII form can express — stress, length, or a letter the Latin keyboard lost — which places it, mechanically, in Tier-1.
6. The documented resonances. Funerary & Memorial Services, Agriculture, Food & Harvest, Gaming, Fantasy & Entertainment IP — seats argued and weighted in the pattern atlas, read through the myths in this temple's Resonance File.
7. The continuing record. Mōt's name survives in Hebrew māwet, Arabic mawt, and the Semitic root for death itself. His myth helped shape later personifications of death in biblical and apocalyptic literature, and the Baꜥal-Mōt cycle has long fascinated scholars of ancient religion as a Near Eastern parallel to — and a warning against facile equations with — later dying-and-rising god traditions.
At a Glance
- Restored name: Mūt
- ASCII form: mot
- Meaning: "Death"
- Domain of influence: Death, Underworld
- Pantheon: Phoenician
- Classification: Tier 1
- Original script: 𐤌𐤕
- Series: The Restoration Files, No. 159 of 271
The File Continues
Read the founding dispatch for the name's full story, the Resonance File for the archetype at work — or the whole archive in one sitting.
Continue the series — previous file: Mōšeh (read it here) · next file: Muspellheimr (read it here).
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