Kotharat | |
---|---|
Tutelary goddesses of marriage, conception, pregnancy and birth | |
Major cult center | Mari, Ugarit |
Parents | hll (Hulelu?)[1] |
Equivalents | |
Mesopotamian | Šassūrātu |
Hurrian | Hutena and Hutellura |
Kotharat (Ugaritic: 𐎋𐎘𐎗𐎚, kṯrt[2]) were a group of seven goddesses associated with conception, pregnancy, birth and marriage, worshiped chiefly in northern part of modern Syria in the Bronze Age. They are attested in texts from Mari, Ugarit and Emar. There is no agreement among translators over whether they had individual names in Ugaritic tradition. They were considered analogous to the Mesopotamian Šassūrātu, a collective term referring to assistants of the goddess Ninmah, and to Hurrian Hutena and Hutellura. It has been suggested that the latter were at least in part patterned after the Kotharat.