The primordial salt-sea goddess slain by Marduk, her body split to become the sky and earth, now as voiceless as the chaos she once was.
Born
2000 BCE
Died
100 CE
Lived
2,100 years
Dead for
1,926 yrs
Cause of death
Forgotten
Replaced by
Christianity and Islam in the later Near East
The Obituary
Tiamat was the primordial goddess of the salt sea in Mesopotamian cosmology, the mother of the first gods born when her waters mingled with the fresh waters of Apsu. In the Babylonian Enuma Elish she becomes the monster of chaos, raising an army to avenge her slain consort, only to be killed by the young god Marduk, who splits her body to form the sky and the earth. She lived entirely within Mesopotamian myth, never a cult figure of her own. When that cosmology lapsed in the early centuries CE, she was forgotten.
Worth remembering
She mingled her salt waters with the fresh waters of Apsu to give birth to the first generations of gods.
Enraged at the killing of Apsu, she spawned eleven monsters and serpents for war, only to be split like a shellfish by Marduk's arrow and winds.
Gallery
Mushhushshu dragon panel from the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, Pergamon MuseumCC0
Sources
Tiamat is the primordial goddess of the salt sea in Mesopotamian myth, mother of the first gods, slain by Marduk who forms heaven and earth from her body. Wikipedia
In the Enuma Elish, Tiamat raises an army of monsters to avenge Apsu but is defeated by Marduk. World History Encyclopedia
Tiamat is the primordial personification of the salt sea in Mesopotamian myth and the central antagonist of the Enuma Elish; Marduk splits her body 'like a dried fish' to form the sky and earth, appointing the sun, moon, and stars from her remains. Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Enuma Elish is the Babylonian creation epic in which Tiamat raises an army of eleven monsters, is slain by Marduk, and her body is used to create the cosmos. Encyclopaedia Britannica
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.
Buried nearby — by shared fate or a neighbouring lifespan.
