Tiamat

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Ancient Mesopotamian religion
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Primordial beings Tiamat and Abzu Lahamu and Lahmu Kishar and Anshar Mummu
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Demigods and heroes Adapa Enkidu Enmerkar Gilgamesh Lugalbanda Shamhat Siduri Atra-Hasis Ziusudra Apkallu (seven sages)
Spirits and monsters Udug Lamassu/Shedu Asag Edimmu Siris Anzû Ušum Bašmu Mušmaḫḫū Ušumgallu Seven-headed serpent Humbaba Hanbi Kur Lamashtu Lilu Pazuzu Rabisu
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v t e

In

Some sources have identified her (without real proof) with images of a sea serpent or dragon.^[4]

Etymology

The Babylonian epic Enuma Elish is named for its incipit: "When on high [or: When above]" the heavens did not yet exist nor the earth below, Abzu the subterranean ocean was there, "the first, the begetter", and Tiamat, the overground sea, "she who bore them all"; they were "mixing their waters". It is thought that female deities are older than male ones in Mesopotamia and Tiamat may have begun as part of the cult of Nammu, a female principle of a watery creative force, with equally strong connections to the underworld, which predates the appearance of Ea-Enki.^[8]

In the Enuma Elish her physical description includes a tail, a thigh, "lower parts" (which shake together), a belly, an udder, ribs, a neck, a head, a skull, eyes, nostrils, a mouth, and lips. She has insides (possibly "entrails"), a heart, arteries, and blood.

Tiamat was once regarded as a sea serpent or dragon, although Assyriologist Alexander Heidel already recognized that "dragon form can not be imputed to Tiamat with certainty." She is still often referred to as a monster, though this identification has been credibly challenged.^[11] In Enuma Elish, she is clearly portrayed as a mother of monsters but, before this, she is just as clearly portrayed as a mother to all the gods.

Mythology

Abzu (or Apsû) fathered with Tiamat the elder deities Lahmu and Lahamu (masc. the 'hairy'), a title given to the gatekeepers at Enki's Abzu/E'engurra-temple in Eridu. Lahmu and Lahamu, in turn, were the parents of the 'ends' of the heavens (Anshar, from an-šar, 'heaven-totality/end') and the earth (Kishar); Anshar and Kishar were considered to meet at the horizon, becoming, thereby, the parents of Anu (Heaven) and Ki (Earth).

Tiamat was the "shining" personification of the sea who roared and smote in the chaos of original creation. She and Abzu filled the cosmic abyss with the primeval waters. She is "Ummu-Hubur who formed all things".

In the myth recorded on

The principal theme of the epic is the rightful elevation of Marduk to command over all the deities. "It has long been realized that the Marduk epic, for all its local coloring and probable elaboration by the Babylonian theologians, reflects in substance older Sumerian material," American Assyriologist E. A. Speiser remarked in 1942^[13] adding "The exact Sumerian prototype, however, has not turned up so far." This surmise that the Babylonian version of the story is based upon a modified version of an older epic, in which Enlil, not Marduk, was the god who slew Tiamat,^[14] is more recently dismissed as "distinctly improbable".^[15]

Interpretations

It was once thought that the Tiamat myth was one of the earliest recorded versions of the

A number of writers have put forth ideas about Tiamat: Robert Graves,^[18] for example, considered Tiamat's death by Marduk as evidence for his hypothesis of an ancient shift in power from a matriarchal society to a patriarchy. The theory suggested that Tiamat and other ancient monster figures were depictions of former supreme deities of peaceful, woman-centered religions. Their defeat at the hands of a male hero corresponded to the overthrow of these matristic religions and societies by male-dominated ones.

In popular culture

The depiction of Tiamat as a multi-headed dragon was popularized in the 1970s as a fixture of Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playing game inspired by earlier sources associating Tiamat with later mythological characters such as Lotan (Leviathan).^[19]

See also

• Nu (mythology) (Ancient Egyptian)
• Chaos (cosmogony) (Ancient Greek)
• Ymir (Norse)
• Pangu (Chinese)
• Sea of Suf – a primordial sea in the World of Darkness in Mandaean cosmology

References

1. ^ "Tiamat (goddess)". oracc.museum.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
2. JSTOR 4200258
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3. JSTOR 4200258
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4. ^ ^{a b} Jacobsen 1968, pp. 104–108.
5. ^ ^{a b} Jacobsen 1968, p. 105.
6. ISBN 0-674-64363-1
   .
7. ^ Yahuda, A. (1933). The Language of the Pentateuch in its Relation to Egyptian. Oxford.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
8. ISBN 3-8253-0533-3
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9. ISBN 0-521-58348-9
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10. ISBN 0-7103-0487-0
    .
11. ISBN 978-1-4632-1918-5
    .
12. ISBN 978-3-319-22795-5
    .
13. ^ Speiser, "An Intrusive Hurro-Hittite Myth", Journal of the American Oriental Society 62.2 (June 1942:98–102) p. 100.
14. ^ Expressed, for example, in E. O. James, The Worship of the Skygod: A Comparative Study in Semitic and Indo-European Religion (London: University of London, Jordan Lectures in Comparative religion) 1963:24, 27f.
15. ^ As by W. G. Lambert, reviewing James 1963 in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 27.1 (1964), pp. 157–158.
16. ^ Martikheel
17. ^ Gunkel, Hermann (1895). Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit. Eine religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung über Gen 1 und Ap Joh 12. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
18. ^ Graves, The Greek Myths, rev. ed. 1960:§4.5.
19. ^ Four ways of Creation: "Tiamat & Lotan Archived 2015-02-06 at the Wayback Machine." Retrieved on August 23, 2010

Bibliography

• King, Leonard William (1902a). The Seven Tablets of Creation (PDF). Vol. I: English Translations etc.
• King, Leonard William (1902b). The Seven Tablets of Creation (PDF). Vol. II: Supplementary Texts.
• Jacobsen, Thorkild (1968). "The Battle between
  JSTOR 597902
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tiamat.

• Enuma Elish
• Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation story