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.
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
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.