such designate the goddess as a responsible for cutting the umbilical cord. Similarly, the root bq’, from which bq’t might be derived, refers to splitting, and possibly refers specifically to splitting the womb in this context. The term tq’t is most likely derived from tq’, "to hit with a hand," presumably referring to enthusiastically clapping hands to celebrate the birth of a child or possibly indirectly alluding to determination of a favorable fate. The compound prbḫṯ according to Theuer is presently impossible to translate and might be a Hurrian loanword in Ugaritic. 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. Aicha Rahmouni assumes that dmqt might instead refer to the whole group, not necessarily to a single goddess, and translates it as either "fairest ones" or "fairest one." Another translator, David Marcus, does not assume that the passage refers to individual goddesses: He argues that prbḫṯ is the name of a mortal woman, presumably a bride, poetically compared to one of the Kotharat. This interpretation is also supported by John Gibson, who presumes the Kotharat are invoked to bless her in her marriage. He considers it possible that the text was recited during wedding ceremonies in Ugarit and the name prbht is simply a placeholder. Character The Kotharat were chiefly associated with conception, pregnancy and birth. They were believed to be responsible for forming human children during pregnancy. Additionally, literary texts indicate that they blessed marriages. They are also sometimes characterized as divine midwives in modern literature. However, Dennis Pardee objects to this description, arguing that in known myths the Kotharat appear to only intervene before pregnancy. One of the Ugaritic texts describes them with the term snnt. Especially in older literature, it is often assumed to be a cognate of Akkadian sinuntu, "swallow." However, many researchers, for example Dennis Pardee and Aicha Rahmouni, favor the explanation "shining" or "brilliant," based on similarity to Arabic sanā, "to shine," "to gleam" or "to be exalted" (used to refer to stars), as well as its Aramaic cognate referring to refining metal or glittering. 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,