Tethys vs Tiamat

A Titaness, daughter of Gaia and Uranus and wife of her brother Oceanus. Hesiod makes her mother of the world's rivers and of the three thousand Oceanid nymphs; in the Iliad Hera calls her 'mother Tethys' and recalls being raised in her house.

Tethys was among the children Gaia bore to Uranus, the generation of Titans that preceded the Olympians. She married her brother Oceanus and bore him the rivers and the Oceanid nymphs.

Tethys is one of the twelve Titans born to Gaia and Uranus. Paired with her brother Oceanus, the great river that encircles the earth, she becomes in Hesiod's *Theogony* the mother of all rivers (Nile, Alpheus, Scamander, and many more) and of the Oceanids, the three thousand nymphs of springs and streams.

The primordial goddess of the salt sea and chaos dragon. Tiamat is the mother of the first gods and, after being slain by Marduk, became the raw material from which the universe was fashioned.

In the beginning, there was only salt water (Tiamat) and sweet water (Apsu), mingling together in the primordial void. From their union emerged the first gods. When the younger gods grew noisy, Apsu sought to destroy them but was killed by Ea. Tiamat mourned but was eventually persuaded to avenge him, transforming into a chaos dragon and creating an army of monsters.

Tiamat represents the salt water of the primeval ocean, complementing her consort Apsu who embodied fresh water. Their mingling produced the first generation of gods. She is both creative and destructive, nurturing mother and terrifying dragon, embodying the ambivalent power of the primordial chaos from which order emerged.