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 were considered analogous to the Mesopotamian Šassūrātu, a collective term referring to assistants of the goddess Ninmah, and to Hurrian Hutena and Hutellura.
[5] Other forms of the name of the Kotharat are attested in texts from Mari: the older Kawašurātum (dkà-ma-šu-ra-tum) and more recent Kûšarātum (dku-ša-ra-tum).
[6] Its other derivatives include the name of the god Kothar, the Ugaritic word kṯr, "wise" or "cunning,"[6] and Hebrew kôšārāh, "luck" or "prosperity.
[14] The word yṯtqt might be derived from the root ṯtq, possibly "to split off," "to separate," and as such designate the goddess as a responsible for cutting the umbilical cord.
[16] Finally dmqt, seemingly designated as the youngest of the Kotharat, might mean "the good" or "the kind" and like tq’t refer to the ability to determine a positive fate for the infant.
"[17] Another translator, David Marcus, does not assume that the passage refers to individual goddesses: Let her partings gift and dowry Be weighed out (?)
[22] The proponents of the latter theory point out that there is no precedent for Ancient Near Eastern deities being referred to as "swallows," while various epithets highlighting luminosity are attested in Mesopotamian and Eblaite texts, as well as in the Hebrew Bible.
"[12] They appear in the myth Enki and Ninmah, where the members of this group are Ninimma, Shuzianna, Ninmada, Ninšar, Ninmug and Ninnigina.
[32] Wilfred G. E. Watson argues that in the myth Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh (KTU 1.24), the Kotharat function as handmaidens of the eponymous goddess.
Wilfred G. E. Watson counts them among the principal goddesses of this city of local origin alongside Anat, Ashtart, Athirat and Shapash.
[34] In two similar lists of deities (one fragmented),[35] they appear between the pair Arṣu-wa-Šamuma ("Earth and Heaven") and the moon god Yarikh.
[39] However, Lluís Feliu concludes that the presence of Kotharat in this document might be the result of a scribal mistake: kṯrt in place of aṯrt (Athirat), the wife of El.
[40] Two purported attestations of the Kotharat postulated by William F. Albright, on a tablet from Beth Shemesh and in verse 7 of Psalm 68, are no longer accepted in modern scholarship.
[19] They apparently oversee the birth of a son of Nikkal and Yarikh, and might also be invoked to bless a mortal woman, prbḫṯ due to her own upcoming wedding,[19] though it has also been proposed that the passage enumerates the individual names of the Kotharat.
[6] They visit the house of Danilu after Baal intercedes on his behalf with El, and grants him a descendant, the hero of the narrative, Aqhat.
[4] It is possible they later return to act as midwives during the birth of Aqhat,[4] though this assumption is speculative as a section of the story presumed to describe these events is missing.