Of all the Mesopotamian gods and monsters, Tiamat is the most well-known. Mostly because she is both

Of all the Mesopotamian gods and monsters, Tiamat is the most well-known. Mostly because she is both a god and a monster. In the Akkadian religion Tiamat was originally a primordial figure, a goddess symbolizing salt water. In the beginning of the cosmos the salt water of Tiamat mixed with the freshwater of Apsu (an event actually seen in the Persian Gulf). There the two sat and slept, basking in each other’s presence. There was no Earth, no Heaven, no light. Only a dark, warm swirling of water, reminiscent of both the beginning of the universe and the womb. Among the pair’s offspring was Lahmu and Lahamu, who went on to give rise to the new generation of gods, the earthly and heavenly ones. Apsu planned to kill his children, as gods of the Near East are wont to do, but was slain before he could carry out the theocide. In revenge Tiamat rose up, birthed a legion of monsters (see all previous entries), and sought to carry out Apsu’s original plan. In her possession she had the Tablet of Destinies, which granted the holder dominion over the cosmos, a clay “crown” of the divine right to rule. Tiamat was a terrible force to reckon with. The earthly and heavenly gods needed a hero to save them. So they called upon Anu. Or was it Enlil? No, it was Marduk! Marduk came as slew Tiamat with a club in a gruesome fashion. Her armies were summarily bound and shackled to his feet. Forevermore they would serve his as the demons and monsters of the new age. For, after the battle, Marduk took the Tablet of Destinies and Tiamat’s body to make the Earth as we know it. Ribs became the firmament of heaven and earth, eyes became the gushing Tigris and Euphrates, and her coiled tail became the Milky Way. Despite being called a primordial goddess, Tiamat was probably never worshipped. She has her origins with the older Sumerian goddess Nammu. Nammu filled a very similar role to the Sumerians but never as a monstrous figure. Salt water is their connecting force, which the combined Mesopotamian religion considered both instrumental to the formation of life, as well as dangerous and terrible. Freshwater, apsu, was considered life-giving and sacred, a whole ocean of it was said to lie beneath the earth to supply it with life. Saltwater meanwhile was complementary but less inviting. It can’t be drunk and it kills crops, it does not serve humanity. The life that comes from it is similar: numerous and terrifying demons. Tiamat’s name is literally derived from tāmtu, meaning sea. A similar concept sharing the same origin can be found in the “tehom” of genesis. Several recurring themes show up in Tiamat’s story: that of the father of the gods looking to slay the new generation, the primordial being slayed and divided up to make the earth, but arguably the most famous, that of the god-hero slaying the primordial serpent. A theme known as “Chaoskampf” in German. Here the serpent represents /chaos/: the shapeless buildings blocks of the universe, the wide expanse of the uninhabitable cosmos, every part of the world too harsh and dangerous for humanity to survive in. As the ocean incarnate Tiamat is a perfect example of this chaos. But is she a serpent? It’s a little unclear. In the Enuma Elish her form is specified once and is ambiguous. She has “a tail, a thigh, lower parts, a belly, an udder, ribs, a neck, a head, a skull, eyes, nostrils, a mouth, lips, viscera, a heart, arteries, and blood”. Which… isn’t all that descriptive. Excluding the udder, all those things can be found in nearly every land mammal and most reptiles. The inclusion of the udder, however, leads me to believe Tiamat is a cow. Or possibly a goat. Kidding aside (although… her being a primordial cow who brings forth saltwater from her udders wouldn’t be that out of pocket for comparative mythology…), the shape most given to Tiamat is that of a serpent. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any definitive depictions of her. The one most identified with her, a cylinder seal from the Neo-Assyrian period, depicts a classical usumgallu, but does not offer any positive indication that it is indeed Tiamat. Because of how unclear the description from the text is, it’s unlikely the mystery will have a satisfying conclusion. In keeping with every other appearance of the chaoskampf theme and her offspring, it’s probably that she assumed a serpentine form and that it was in some way a combination of many different animals as well. Though slain like a common wyvern, Tiamat remains at the forefront of the Mesopotamian religion in the modern world. Though the sea is dangerous and merciless, and the things that dwell within it are plentiful and scary, it was from it that life sprung from all those eons ago. Without Tiamat, Marduk would not exist, nor would the demons of the mountain and forest and sea, nor would I or any of you reading this. She may never have been worshipped as a proper goddess in her heyday, but she at least deserves our thanks for that most universal of gifts, life.–And here she is! I’ve drawn Tiamat once before in 2018 as part of a school project about Chaoskampf, but never her serpentine form. Unsurprisingly, it gave me a bunch of trouble. How do you draw something as huge and complex as a primordial serpent? My idea was to use a sea serpent as the base and have all the other demons represented as parts. A sort of big monster that’s constantly changing, made up of the parts of all the others animals and monsters. You can sort of see her sea serpent head is based on a pike’s. My initial idea was to make it in two versions as a gif, one with her “goddess” form colored in, the next with her monstrous form colored in. But it sucked. So I’d rather give the central piece the spotlight and leave the details of the sea serpent up to your imagination. This has been a very fun, albeit slow series. Almost the most research done for a single series of anything I’ve done here. What’s next? Probably not another long-form series, at least for a while. The actual first installment of TDG Acronym Pending is what I theoretically should be focusing on, but we’ll see. Got to figure out the title before though… Have a safe holidays. -- source link

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