Kothar wa-Hasis

Kothar wa-Hasis is the craftsman god of Ugaritic literature, whose name means skilled and wise. He builds the houses of the gods, forges the weapons that let Baal defeat the sea, fashions thrones and furnishings of gold and silver, and makes the bow given to the hero of the Aqhat story. His home lies far away in Crete or Egypt, casting him as the source of foreign artistry, and later Phoenician tradition remembered him as Chousor, an inventor and first discoverer of crafts. The wider culture located exceptional skill in a divine source and told of a master craftsman who arms the gods and builds and adorns their dwellings. Hebrew writers drew on this pattern while reshaping it, placing the gift of extraordinary skill in human hands granted by God and tracing the origins of metalwork and the arts to named ancestors rather than to a deity.