Shatiqatu

[7] She is described as a creation of El, which might reflect his proposed role as the god responsible for apotropaic magic in the Ugaritic pantheon in a similar capacity as Enki in Mesopotamia.

[8] Due to Shatiqatu's absence from known ritual texts, for example offering lists, it has been suggested that she was not an object of active worship, but merely a literary character invented by Ugaritic scribes for the sake of a specific narrative.

[1] Additionally, Paolo Matthiae argues that she might correspond to the figure of a female sphinx which recurs on cylinder seals known from various sites located in modern Syria.

[10] Said artistic motif reached this area in the early second millennium BCE, when one such a figure representing Ita, a daughter of Amenemhat II, was sent to Qatna.

[11] Matthiae suggests that Shatiqatu was a similar non-anthropomorphic figure who can be interpreted as a Syrian adaptation of the Egyptian motif of the sphinx as a representation of "the pharaoh as protector of the great necropolis of Giza", reinterpreted as a supernatural defender of kingship in its new context.

[14] Such an appearance would be a parallel of Mesopotamian depictions of apotropaic figures, such as Pazuzu or apkallu, but there is no certainty if the translation of a passage possibly referring to her flying is correct.

[19] The narrative focuses on the eponymous monarch, Kirta, who faces issues typical for Bronze Age rulers, including problems connected to succession, illness and revolts against his rule.

[22] At one point in the story Kirta falls ill.[23] It is assumed he might have been inflicted with sickness as punishment for forgetting a vow to Athirat, who he was meant to honor with generous gifts if she helps him acquire a wife, as established earlier.

[29] The lines describing the process in detail are too fragmentary to permit a fully certain restoration, though it is assumed that it ends with El tasking the freshly created Shatiqatu with driving away illness.

[37] The specific actions Shatiqatu takes to heal Kirta are not described in detail, though the text does mention that she uses a magical staff to remove the illness from his body, and that she subsequently washes him from sweat and opens his throat, making him able to eat again.