Pugat- Canaanite HeroHero"Daughter of Danel"
Also known as: Pagat
Titles & Epithets
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Description
When the goddess Anat had her brother Aqhat murdered for his bow, Pugat washed her face, painted her eyes, strapped a dagger beneath her robes, and went to find the killer. The tablets break off before we learn whether she succeeded. But she went.
Mythology & Lore
Daughter of Danel
Pugat grew up in the household of Danel, the righteous judge of Ugaritic legend. She rose each dawn to draw water and collect dew from the fields. She knew the courses of the stars. Her brother Aqhat was the long-awaited son whom El himself had granted to Danel after years of prayer.
When the divine craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis gave Aqhat a composite bow, the gift attracted the goddess Anat. She offered Aqhat immortality in exchange. He refused, and she arranged his murder through her agent Yatpan, a raptor-like mercenary who struck the young man down during a meal. Drought descended upon the land. Danel mourned his son for seven years.
The Dagger Beneath the Robes
When the mourning was complete, Pugat took up a duty that would normally fall to a surviving brother. She washed herself, applied rouge to her face and paint to her eyes, and put on warrior's garments beneath the outer robes of a woman. She strapped a dagger against her skin and set out alone.
She found Yatpan where he dwelt. He welcomed her with wine, suspecting nothing from a woman with painted eyes and a cup in her hand. She sat beside him as he drank.
Then the tablets break off. The clay that would have told us Pugat's fate shattered or eroded centuries ago. What survives is enough: a woman who painted her face, armed herself, and went alone to face her brother's killer.