![]() He puts Apsu to sleep through an incantation and kills him and then imprisons Mummu. She goes to the god of wisdom Ea (also known as Enki) and tells him about the plot.Įa, in addition to his great wisdom and intellect, was also god of magic. Apsu and Mummu agree to kill the younger gods and Tiamat, not knowing what else to do, feels she must warn her children. Mummu interjects at this point, encouraging Apsu to destroy his children, and Tiamat's plea is ignored. ![]() Though their behavior causes distress, let us tighten discipline graciously.” ![]() “How can we destroy what we have given birth to? She cried in distress, fuming within herself, That silence may reign and we may sleep.” I will destroy and break up their way of life “Their behavior has become displeasing to meĪnd I cannot rest in the day-time or sleep at night. They agree nothing can be done until they have spoken with Tiamat and so they go to her chamber where Apsu opens the discussion, saying: This latter aspect of Tiamat associates her closely with Inanna who, especially in The Epic of Gilgamesh as Ishtar, does not take rejection well and is prone to a violent response.Īpsu is also irritated by his children's actions and confers with his vizier Mummu about the problem. The most significant difference between the two is their intrinsic nature: Nammu is a nurturer while Tiamat's initial impulse toward caring for others is blunted by her seeming betrayal by her children and, afterwards, she becomes vengeful and destructive. Some scholars have noted that neither goddess had a cult following or temple dedicated to them but this claim has been challenged by the mention of a shrine to Nammu in Babylon. The only similarity between the two is that both are female, associated with the sea, and feature in stories concerning the creation of the world and humanity. Tiamat has been claimed to be the Babylonian version of Nammu but there is hardly any scholarly consensus on this claim. 2334-2279 BCE), founder of the Akkadian Empire, and, by the time of Hammurabi, was the most popular deity in Mesopotamia and patron goddess of the city of Babylon. 2285-2250 BCE), daughter of Sargon of Akkad (r. ![]() She was popularized quite early in Mesopotamian history by the poetess Enheduanna (l. Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (Copyright)In a number of works ( Inanna and the Huluppu Tree, Inanna and the God of Wisdom, among others) she is seen as manipulative and devious, primarily interested in getting her own way. 2150-1400 BCE) under her later incarnation as Ishtar. She was originally a minor vegetative deity who grew so popular that she came to be worshipped throughout Mesopotamia as the Queen of Heaven and is featured in a number of well-known Mesopotamian myths as well as in The Epic of Gilgamesh (written c. Inanna was the Sumerian goddess of fertility, love, procreation, and sensuality but was also associated with war, violence, and capriciousness. Unlike Nammu, Inanna was never a Mother Goddess. When the poem begins, the younger gods have been crying out to Enki to help them but he continues to sleep and does not hear until he is awakened by his mother Nammu who carries the gods' tears to him and influences him to help. Tiamat smite manual#In Enki and Ninmah, the goddess Ninmah (better known as Ninhursag) and god of wisdom Enki create human beings as helpers for the younger gods who are tired of manual labor and the maintenance of order against the forces of chaos. Lack of anything but a fairly general historical framework for Sumerian compositions means that any chronological approach to literary questions, such as the development of genres or correlation with historical processes or events, must be largely abandoned. ![]() Later mentions of the goddess are simply copies and variations of this work. Although her name is referenced in a much earlier Akkadian inscription, she does not figure in extant Mesopotamian mythological literature until Enuma Elish, written under the reign of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE) and usually dated to c. Her name, according to scholar Jeremy Black, comes from the word tiamtum meaning “sea” ( Gods, Demons, and Symbols, 177). She is depicted, in later periods, as a female serpent or dragon based on vague descriptions of her in Enuma Elish, but no iconography exists from ancient Mesopotamia. In all versions of the myth, following the original, Tiamat always symbolizes the forces of chaos, which threaten the order established by the gods, and Marduk (or Ashur in Assyrian versions) is the hero who preserves it. Tiamat is the Mesopotamian goddess associated with primordial chaos and the salt sea best known from the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish. ![]()
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