The existence of rites of passage in the societies of the Ancient Near East remains something very difficult to evaluate, because such practices are not mentioned directly in our documentation. From a comparative approach, and the discovery of a code of symbols that associates the hunt with eroticism in the Ugaritic legend of Aqhat, a sufficient set of evidence has been gathered to confirm the existence of such a rite of passage in Ugarit. In this article, we develop the hypothesis that the death of Aqhat and the quarrel in which he is opposed to the goddess find their full significance in the context of a rite of passage from youth to manhood. The death of Aqhat seems to be a heroic counter-example and the paradigmatic tale for the failure to achieve this passage successfully.