Tanith

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Goa'uld Spy Tanith

Earth Culture of Origin

Phoenicia, Carthage

Alternate Names / Spellings

Tanit, Tent (Phoenician/Punic), Tint, Tanis (Greek),Tanetu (Egyptian), Ashtoreth, Ashtarte, Astarte, Ishtar (Babylonian), Athar (Arabia), Dea Caelestis (Heavenly Goddess), Lady of Carthage. Name means Serpent Lady. Associated with Hathor (Egpyt), Juno (Rome).

Presides Over

Fertility, the heavens, moon and stars.

Personal Symbols

Tree of life, palm tree, caduceus (Tree of Life surmounted by her serpents), doves, grapes, crescent moon.

Earth Mythological References

The country of Tunis/Tunisia was named after this goddess. Wife of Baal (Baal-Hammon), she was a more popular deity than her husband. First-born children were a favorite sacrifice.

Stargate References

Tanith was the name chosen by the symbiote implanted in Hebron of Parval. Convinced that she had swayed the immature symbiote she carried to a new philosophy, Shaun'auc of the Red Hills took this information to the Tok'ra to procure a willing host for it. As a former love of Teal’c, Shaun'auc offered hope that the Goa'uld threat might be lessened through such contact. Unfortunately, Tanith had been deceiving Shaun'auc all along and after implantation, Tanith murdered her. The Tok'ra suspected Tanith's crime; however, they played along with Tanith, allowing the symbiote to maintain control of its host body as a means to disseminate disinformation to the Goa'uld. (4.04 "Crossroads")

Once Tanith's usefulness was over, the Tok'ra intended to extract Tanith from the host and leave the symbiote behind on Vorash for later retrieval by Apophis (4.22 "Exodus Part 1"). Tanith escaped this fate, however, and offered his services to a more powerful Goa'uld (Anubis). Arriving at Tollana with a mothership protected from the Tollan ion cannons, Tanith forced this advanced culture to build powerful weapons that could penetrate solid matter, such as the iris shield at the SGC, in exchange for their continued survival. Tanith attacked the planet in the end, and a hurried transmission through the Stargate informed the Tau'ri that only a few Tollan had escaped and defenses were failing. (5.09 "Between Two Fires")

Teal’c finally succeeded in avenging the death of Shaun'auc when he killed Tanith while SG-1 was scouting a Goa'uld base on P3X-116. Tanith's ship crashed almost right on top of the Stargate as Teal’c was passing through the wormhole. The impact prematurely disengaged the transmission, leaving Teal'c essentially 'stalled' in the wormhole until the transmission could be continued. Emergency measures were taken, including borrowing the Russian DHD after a heartfelt plea from Daniel Jackson, to regenerate the transmission and retrieve Teal’c before another wormhole was established, thus saving the Jaffa's life. (5.14 "48 Hours")

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Completed by: --Mel 08:47, 9 Jan 2005 (PST)