Tiamat

The Primordial Mother

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.

Mother of Gods

From the union of Tiamat and Apsu came Lahmu and Lahamu, then Anshar and Kishar, and eventually the younger gods who would people the cosmos. Tiamat initially tolerated her noisy divine children, even when their clamor disturbed Apsu's rest. Only after Ea killed Apsu did Tiamat turn against her descendants.

The Chaos Dragon

When Tiamat went to war against the younger gods, she transformed into a vast dragon and created eleven monster-types to serve as her army: the Viper, the Dragon, the Sphinx, the Great Lion, the Mad Dog, the Scorpion-man, Dragonflies, the Fish-man, the Bull-man, Kulullu, and the Centaur. Leading them was her new consort Kingu, to whom she gave the Tablet of Destinies.

World-Body

Tiamat's greatest significance comes in death. When Marduk slew her, he split her body like a shellfish. Half became the sky, half the earth. Her eyes became the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, her tail was bent up to form the heavens, her crotch supported the sky. The ordered cosmos exists within and upon her carcass.

Legacy

Tiamat's image as the primordial chaos dragon influenced countless later traditions, from the Hebrew tehom (deep) in Genesis to the Greek Thalassa to the dragon combat myths found throughout the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. She represents the necessary chaos that must be conquered for creation to exist.