'Um Pchl, which I'm going to render 'Um Pachal, 'cause I need
to be able to pronounce Her name, dammit, is a Canaanite Goddess of Healing,
Serpents and Horses, called "the Mare". Her name means "the Purposeful
Goddess". She is the daughter of the Sun-Goddess Shapash,
and the wife of the God Choron, who is probably an Underworld God. Her legend
is preserved in a somewhat fragmentary text from Ugarit (the modern Ras Shamra),
which has been interpreted in a couple of ways, depending on the translator:
In one version, the Goddess 'Um Pachal has been bitten by a snake,
and is suffering greatly. She begs Her mother Shapash, the Sun-Goddess, to entreat
all the Gods to find a cure. But not one of the Gods can help Her, except for
Choron. He mixes a cure from various plants and herbs, and dispells the poison.
He then goes to 'Um Pachal's house, but She has locked the door against Him.
Through the door He asks to be let in; She only relents when He promises to
wed Her and give Her the dowry of Her request.
In another interpretation, 'Um Pachal already has the cure for
snakebite, but She needs the help of one other God, Choron. When She first sees
Him, She very much desires Him, although He is at the time "bereft of potency".
To restore Himself, He performs the rite involving the various plants and herbs,
which includes removing "the Tree of Death" from the thicket. When
He is cured, he comes (har, har) to Her house, "his emission as strong
as a wadi". (It should be noted that wadi is the word for a river-channel
that only runs with water in the rainy season; this comparison makes it sound
that the herbal treatment will not be a permanent cure for his ED, or perhaps
it refers to Choron in a seasonal capacity.) But by then, 'Um Pachal has bolted
the door against him, strengthening the lock with a spell, and He must call
to Her through the door asking to be let in. She then demands of Him a dowry
of snakes: "Give me reptiles as my bride-price, the serpent's brood as
the reward for my love." He does, and they are married.
In both interpretations (which are, after all, based on the same
text!), 'Um Pachal demands serpents as Her wedding-gift, which makes me lean
toward the version where She is the one who already has a sympathy with and
power over snakes, and only needs Choron to quicken the process. She would therefore
be a Goddess of Magic, as evidenced by the name of Her home, "the House
of Incantation"; and the meaning of Her name, "the Purposeful One"
implies determination and capability. She is also called "the wife of Choron,
Whose utterance is perfect", again referring to Her power of speech and
spell-casting. In Her role as Divine Mare for Whom Choron overcomes His impotence
'Um Pachal represents the power of sexuality and fertility, and the serpents
themselves can be seen in the same light. Her snakes also connect Her to the
Underworld and renewal, and to Her husband Choron; and the phallic snakes' shedding
of skin and renewal may directly relate to His impotency and cure, though His
disability may also be connected with His (suspected) role as a God of the Underworld,
the land of the dead where nothing lives or grows.
The spelling I found for Her name comes from only one source,
and is 'Um Phl, the "h" having a dot beneath it, which usually represents
the ch in Gaelic loch (the cat-coughing-up-a-hairball sound), i.e. 'Um
Pchl. Which I added some a's to so it made some sense in English. No, I'm not
a scholar and I can't read (or pronounce) ancient Ugaritic. It is, at best,
a not-entirely uneducated guess. Other texts referencing Her simply call Her
"the Mare".