Category talk:Anat

Is there really a need for this?

With all due respect, I am not sure if we need such highly specialized categories, especially when Wikipedia still has a puzzlingly generic "West Semitic deities" one with no real concern for culture or time period (late deities from Palmyra have little to do with Ugarit or Emar) - surely instead trying to come up with more sensible generic categories for deities worshiped in Syria, Lebanon etc. in antiquity would make more sense, there has to be a middle ground between the current situation and every deity having their own category. Plus how many articles are there which one could viably fit into an Anat category? Anat herself, the city named after her, presently nonexistent pages of rulers of Suhum who restored her temple there? If there at least were multiple works of art depicting Anat famous enough to warrant own pages I would consider it justified, but there's only a handful of certain depictions and most of them, to put it very lightly, are a curiosity even for experts and hardly warrant own pages. I feel like if the person who quadrupled the size of the article is uncertain if its subject is really a big enough of a deal for own category, something might be up. HaniwaEnthusiast (talk) 08:42, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

"Plus how many articles are there which one could viably fit into an Anat category? Anat herself, the city named after her, presently nonexistent pages of rulers of Suhum who restored her temple there?" I sincerely doubt that. We have articles on "sons" and "daughters" of Anat mentioned in ancient sources, a large number of toponyms associated with Anat, several places of worship, inscriptions and poems about Anat, a 1960s books theorizing that she was part of the Israelite pantheon, and modern depictions in Japanese fiction. We have more articles on Anat than Yahweh. Dimadick (talk) 11:09, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Fair, I guess, you made your case with the quick addition to a large selection of pages, even if some of the connections strike me as vague. The book is long out of date, though, since the Israelite evidence for widespread worship of Anat is not materializing, it should be noted. I think the whole theory was one of the many products of the presumption that Ugaritic evidence can be easily combined with the Bible, which to be fair were all the field of Ugaritic studies was for its first few decades. HaniwaEnthusiast (talk) 11:24, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Small addition: I think we could also add the pages of the Baal Cycle and Epic of Aqhat to the category, considering both feature Anat to a greater degree than any other known texts. HaniwaEnthusiast (talk) 11:29, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

These were among the first articles I added to the category, minutes after its creation. The Epic of Aqhat in particular has been cited as an influence on Greek mythology, since the vengeance of Artemis on Actaeon is rather similar. Dimadick (talk) 11:47, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Considering the details of Acteon's fate vary between versions I would be reluctant to make this sort of statement myself - especially in the light of the actually attested meeting between Greek and Levantine tradition resulting in Athena, rather than Artemis, being recognized as Anat-like (see the discussion of evidence of Cyprus in the article, plus proposals regarding Philo of Byblos), but good job. I actually missed these two in the category, honest mistake on my part.

Also, Ashtart/Astarte already had a category (also created by you, I didn't even realize), so in retrospect you were arguably fully justified all along considering their comparable prominence in antiquity. Sorry if the first message sounded like an attack, no hostility was meant. HaniwaEnthusiast (talk) 11:54, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

I had in the past contemplated whether a category on Anat was viable, but the main article was a mess. I had already noted the repeated reference to Anat in Biblical articles, because I often work on them. What surprised me on your expanded version of the article was Anat depicted as a maiden goddess of hunting, armed with a bow, and having similarities to Potnia Theron (Lady of Animals). Which is typically seen as a Mycenaean version of Artemis. Sometimes I forget how interconnected were the cultures of the East Mediterranean. Dimadick (talk) 12:20, 9 August 2022 (UTC)