Kotharat (Ugaritic: 𐎋𐎘𐎗𐎚, kṯrt) were a group of seven goddesses associated with conception, pregnancy, birth and marriage, worshiped chiefly in the northern part of modern Syria in the Bronze Age. They are attested in texts from Mari, Ugarit and Emar. There is no agreement among translators over whether they had individual names in Ugaritic tradition. They were considered analogous to the Mesopotamian Šassūrātu, a collective term referring to assistants of the goddess Ninmah, and to Hurrian Hutena and Hutellura. It has been suggested that the latter were at least in part patterned after the Kotharat.

The name Kotharat (Kôṯarātu) is a conventional vocalization of Ugaritic kṯrt. Spellings such as Kathiratu and Katiratu is also used in modern literature. Other forms of the name of the Kotharat are attested in texts from Mari: the older Kawašurātum (^dkà-ma-šu-ra-tum) and more recent Kûšarātum (^dku-ša-ra-tum). In Emar, they were known as "Ilū kašarāti" (DINGIR^MEŠ ka-ša-ra-ti). All of these names are most likely derived from the Semitic root kšr, "to be skilled" or "to achieve," which is attested in West Semitic languages and in Akkadian. Its other derivatives include the name of the god Kothar, the Ugaritic word kṯr, "wise" or "cunning," and Hebrew kôšārāh, "luck" or "prosperity." Possible cognates, ku-ša-ri and ku-šar, have also been identified among theophoric elements known from Akkadian personal names.

Ugaritic texts indicate that the word Kotharat is plural, and it is conventionally assumed that it refers to a group of seven goddesses. However, occasionally smaller number, either four or six, is postulated as an alternative.

Individual names of the Kotharat might be attested in the Ugaritic myth Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh. Gabriele Theuer restores them as follows: ṯlḫh, mlgh, yṯtqt, bq’t, tq’t, prbḫṯ, dmqt. Wilfred G. E. Watson gives a similar list, but excludes yṯtqt. However, not all experts agree that these words are given names. Theuer, who accepts that each of these words is the name of a single goddess, considers ṯlḫh either a cognate of Hebrew šillûḥîm, which might refer to dowry, or alternatively of Akkadian šalāḫu, "to tear out," which she assumes might indirectly refer to removing the infant from mother's womb. She points out the similarity between mlgh and Akkadian mulugu, a term referring to the property a bride brought from her father's house. The word yṯtqt might be derived from the root ṯtq, possibly "to split off," "to separate," and as 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:

Let her partings gift and dowry
Be weighed out (?) for her
Bursts (?) of handclapping for prbḫṯ,
The fairest and youngest of the Kotharat.

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.

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.