Shatiqatu (, šʿtqt), also vocalized as Shaʿtiqatu or Shataqat, was a figure in Ugaritic mythology, most commonly interpreted as a minor goddess by modern researchers. She is only attested in the Epic of Kirta. In this literary text, she is described as a creation of El tasked with healing the eponymous king, Kirta.
Name and character
Shatiqatu's name can be translated as "she who causes evil to pass away" or "she who causes illness to pass away". It is etymologically related to the Akkadian term šūtuqu, referring to averting evil, disease or misfortune.
Various interpretations of Shatiqatu's nature have been proposed, with experts variously labeling her as a deity, another type of supernatural being (analogous to a demon, angel, genie or golem), or a human being. The first possibility is the most widespread view in scholarship. She has been specifically characterized as a "healing goddess". It has also been argued that she was portrayed as an exorcist. These two spheres were interconnected in the cultures of Ancient Near East. 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.
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. However, it has also been proposed that statuettes of Shatiqatu could be prepared for potters to be used in healing rituals, with the procedure imitating the account of her creation in the Epic of Keret. 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. 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. Matthiae suggests that Shatiqatu was a similar non-antropomorphic 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. However, according to Theodore J. Lewis Shatiqatu is described as anthropomorphic in the Ugaritic text she appears in.
It is a matter of debate among researchers if Shatiqatu was imagined as winged. 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. Matthiae argues that if the identification with the female sphinxes in art is correct, Shatiqatu could be depicted as both winged and wingless. The Epic of Kirta describes her as equipped with a wooden staff (ḫṭ), which apparently played a role in healing.
Shatiqatu narrative in the Epic of Kirta
Shatiqatu is presently known only from the Epic of Kirta, one of the three best known literary compositions from Ugarit. The known tablets were prepared by the scribe Ilimilku. 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. It has been pointed out that while it is known from Ugarit, the city is not mentioned in the text, and the king instead lives in Khubur. The section of the composition dedicated to Shatiqatu can be found on tablet KTU 1.16, and occupies lines 5.10–6.14.
