| Tiamat is primeval Chaos,
bearer of the skies and the earth, mother of Lahmu,
Lahamu, Anshar,
and of Kishar. Traditionally conceived
of as a serpent or dragon of some sort, this idea does not have any
basis in the Enuma Elish itself.
Within that work 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, a heart, arteries, and blood. The clamor of the younger gods
disturbed her, but she continued to indulge them. When her husband Apsu
and his vizier Mummu suggested
that they kill the younger gods, she grew furious, calmed down and
rejected the plan. Her restless subservient gods goaded her into
action after Apsu is slain. They
prepared to wage war against the other gods. As Mother Hubur, the
underworld river, who fashions all things, she bore giant snakes with
venom for blood, and cloaked dragons with a godlike radiance yet with a
terrible visage, for the war. She rallied a horned serpent, a Mushussu-dragon,
a Lahmu-hero, a Ugallu-demon,
a rabid dog, a scorpion-man, Umu-demons,
a fish-man, a bull-man, and eleven others underneath her champion and
new lover, Qingu. She gave Qingu
the Tablet of Destinies to
facilitate his command and attack. |
