Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In Today’s video, we’ll be discussing Tiamat,
the primordial goddess of chaos who waged a war against the gods, a goddess so powerful
that she brought an entire pantheon to its knees. Beyond her own incredible innate power,
she fleshed out her forces by spawning a brood of terrible monsters, and she raised up a captain
to lead her unholy host, taking him as her consort and giving him the Tablet of Destiny,
which endowed him with mastery over destiny, thus making him virtually unstoppable.
Alright, let’s get into it.
Most of what we know about Tiamat comes from the Enuma Elish, an ancient creation myth of
Babylonian origin that describes the genesis of the world and the rise of the gods. It tells
the story of how the god Marduk establishes his supremacy by defeating the primordial
goddess Tiamat and creating the cosmos from her body. The text is written in the form
of an epic poem and is one of the oldest recorded creation myths in human history.
From here, we’re going to go through the Enuma Elish,
beginning with Chaos and the emergence of the gods and focusing on Tiamat throughout.
The Babylonians conceptualized chaos as a primordial body of water, made up of two
primordial gods: Apsu, the god of freshwater, and Tiamat, the goddess of saltwater. They
existed before anything else and are the ultimate source of everything in Babylonian mythology.
Here’s the passage from the Enuma Elish that describes this:
“When on high heaven was not yet named, nor was the hard ground below called by
name - there was nothing but primordial Apsu, the begetter, and Mother Tiamat,
she who gave birth to everything. The waters of Tiamat and Apsu were mingled together as
a single body… It was a time before the gods had come into being, or were called by name,
or their destinies determined - this was when the gods took form within them”
Lahmu and Lahamu were the first gods born from chaos. They personify mud or silt, an intermediate
state, a primordial state of pre-creation between chaos and the emergence of the world.
Next came Anshar, heaven and Kishar, earth, and from them came Anu, who became the god of the
heavens and the supreme god of the Babylonian pantheon. And many more gods came forth,
and with their coming the stillness and silence, so long maintained, was shattered,
like a perfectly placid pond racked with ripples by the disturbance of a lobbed stone.
The incessant din made by the proliferation of gods afforded Apsu and Tiamat, the proto-pair,
no relief during the day and no rest at night. The constant commotion became so unbearable that Apsu
eventually resolved to destroy the gods, believing this was the only way to rid himself of tumult and
restore tranquility. To this end, Apsu conferred with Mummu, another god and sort of divine vizier.
Mummu strongly supported his lord’s plan, and this so pleased Apsu that he graced his
stalwart subject with a kiss. With both of them in agreement as to the course of
action that needed to be pursued, they brought their conspiracy to Tiamat, apprising her of
what they intended, for they thought that their shared plight would bind them in united purpose;
but they were mistaken: Tiamat was appalled by what they told her, and she was left outraged.
And from here, matters only became worse for Apsu. Not only did he fail to win over the strength of
Tiamat to his cause, but his plan - what he thought to be a secret plan - became known
to the younger gods, who, while initially thrown into a panic, were anchored by Ea, described as
“who knows everything, the skillful, the wise”. Where the other gods were fearful and indecisive,
Ea took action. He preempted Apsu and Mummu, casting a spell on them and sending them into
a deep sleep. Thus incapacitated, he killed Apsu and imprisoned Mummu, running a rope through his
nose and tying him away in some unspecified place. Apsu’s remains became the foundation
on which Ea built his house, sharing it with his wife, with whom he later conceived a son, Marduk,
the patron god of Babylon, the true hero of the Enuma Elish, and a god so mighty and majestic that
his power and splendor utterly dwarfed that of any other god in the Babylonian pantheon.
Anu, being a doting grandfather, gifted Marduk the four winds, much as a grandparent
of old would have gifted a carved figurine, a rattle, a sling, or something of the like.
Marduk was already a boisterous boy, and the bluster of the winds only made his ruckus
the more, cosmic disturbance again becoming the flashpoint for future confrontations - this time,
cataclysmic confrontations. The older gods were exasperated by the noise, and the bubbling
brouhaha was of a different sort than the last, which was quickly quelled by Ea killing Apsu.
Though Tiamat decided not to commit her strength to Apsu’s malevolent machination, instead appalled
by the plan proposed to her, there was now more than one stimulus working on her.
She shared in the exasperation felt by the Elder gods, and she was outraged by the death
of her husband - both of these coupling to catalyzing a radical change in her character,
enraging her from protective mother archetype to the incarnation of destructive chaos.
Here’s the passage from the Enuma Elish that describes the elder gods
and Tiamat gearing up for all out war: the elder gods marshaling their forces
and Tiamat spawning an unholy brood of monsters to fill out her ranks:
“They banded themselves together and at the side of Tiamat they advanced; They were furious;
they devised mischief without resting night and day. They prepared for battle, fuming and raging;
They joined their forces and made war… [Tiamat] who formed all things, Made in addition weapons
invincible; she spawned monster−serpents, Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang; With poison,
instead of blood, she filled their bodies. Fierce monster−vipers she clothed with terror,
With splendor she decked them, she made them of lofty stature. Whoever beheld them,
terror overcame him, Their bodies reared up and none could withstand their attack.
She set up vipers and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes,
and raging hounds, and scorpion−men, And mighty tempests, and fish−men, and rams;
They bore cruel weapons, without fear of the fight. Her commands were mighty,
none could resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, she made eleven [kinds of] monsters.”
Beyond the tide of terrible monsters she produced - and not to mention her own formidable and
fearsome power, Tiamat also had working in her favor the fact that she wasn’t opposed by every
other god in the Babylonian Pantheon. Foremost of the gods who allied themselves with her was Kingu,
who was endowed with great power. Tiamat chose him as her new consort, and she raised him up,
making him the leader of her forces, bestowing on him the Tablet of Destiny;
and thus augmented, his will and potency made him virtually unstoppable; for whoever possessed
the Tablet of Destiny possessed supreme power, the very power to dictate destiny.
The younger gods could not overcome Tiamat and the fell forces she had risen against
them - let alone withstand them, and Ea, who was both a source of salvation and a bringer of doom
(salvation because he preempted Apsu’s plan and Doom because he incited Tiamat’s wrath),
was left despondent, unable to see how he and the other gods could possible extricate themselves
from the existential threat bearing down on them. After wallowing in defeat for a time,
he regained his composure and recovered a little of the initiative that previously
allowed him to act so decisively. He went to the god Anshar and relayed everything that had
transpired with Tiamat. And here’s a passage from Classical Myth that explains what happened next:
“When Ea heard of the fresh preparations, he lost his nerve and ran to the god Anshar. In
consternation Anshar bit his lip and slapped his thigh and demanded that Ea war against Tiamat.
At this point the tablet is broken [the tablet being one of several tablets on
which the story is engraved], but apparently Ea was unsuccessful, for when the text resumes,
it is Anu who attacks Tiamat. But she put her hand against him, and Anu ran away in terror.
At the moment of crisis, the gods lost all hope and sank into despair,
as they do in many Mesopotamian myths. Then Anshar remembered Marduk, whose moment had
come. He kissed Marduk on the lips, and Marduk agreed to fight Tiamat and her army of monsters,
but only on condition that he be given absolute power as a reward.”
After multiple failures, both failing to reason with Tiamat and failing to match her might against
might, the gods turned to Marduk, whose strength was hitherto absent from this great conflict.
Though untested in this matter, Marduk brimmed with confidence, assuring Anshar that he would
“soon set… [his] foot on the neck of Tiamat.” This pleased Anshar, and he implored Marduk to waste no
time and confront Tiamat immediately. However, Marduk didn’t go right away, for great service
exacts a great price. Marduk would champion the gods, but his motives weren’t wholly altruistic,
only lending his power if his condition was met, the condition being that the gods would convene
and, once joined in convocation, would proclaim Marduk king of the cosmos, yielding to him
absolute power and authority. Now brought together in assembly, Marduk listed his demands, which were
things like: I alone will be the master of Fate; my power and what is wrought with it will last
forever; and anything I say will forever be as the immutable and indelible laws of the universe.
The gods, though perpetual subordination was the cost, readily agreed, once again imploring Marduk
to go forth, exclaiming: “go slice the throat of Tiamat”, and “let the winds bring her blood.”
Armed with a bow a quiver bristling with arrows, with a net and a great war mace,
myriad bolts of lightning heralding his path, the seven winds blowing at
his back like behemoth beasts, frenzied, waiting to be uncaged, Marduk went forth,
stepping into his chariot and driving it forward to the epicenter of gore and glory. However,
as he approached, Tiamat coming into view, he was dismayed, just as every god before him,
these gods either endeavoring to placate or challenge Tiamat, was dismayed.
Unlike the others, though, losing his nerve didn’t drive him away in ignominious defeat. He
steeled himself and began bellowing insults, antagonizing Tiamat, who was thrown into a
rage and attacked. Here’s the passage from the Enuma Elish that describes their titanic clash:
“Tiamat and Marduk, the wisest god, locked together. They tangled in the hand-to-hand,
clasped in battle. Marduk spread out his net to capture her. The storm that followed behind him,
he splashed in her face. When Tiamat opened her wide mouth to swallow him, he drove the
storm so she could not close her lips. The savage winds swelled her belly, carved through her guts
and split the heart, wrecked and extinguished her life. He threw down the corpse and trod upon it.
What happened next is reminiscent of the death of Ymir in Norse mythology. Ymir was the first giant,
primordial and colossal. Odin and his two brothers killed Ymir in his sleep. They
then tore the giant's corpse apart and used it to create the world. And similarly, so too was
Tiamat’s corpse used as a quarry. She was killed. Her abominable army of monsters was captured by
Marduk’s net and imprisoned. And Kingu, the god whom Tiamat made her consort and the leader
of her horrific horde, was also imprisoned, Marduk taking the Tablet of Destiny from him.
With all of his enemies slaughtered or subdued, Marduk then transitions to the task of creation,
manifesting order from chaos. He trampled Tiamat’s legs and smashed her skull,
and he cut open her veins so that her blood was born by the winds to remote parts unknown.
And he sundered her body, using half of it to make the sky. As Ea did before atop the body of Apsu,
so did Marduk build atop the body of Tiamat, raising temples dedicated to Anu, Enlil, and Ea.
And this only marked the beginning of his great work. He set the constellations in the sky,
established the calendar, fixed the North star in the firmament, and conjured up the sun and moon.
And to explain what was done with Tiamat’s body, here is yet another passage from Classical Myth:
“From Tiamat’s spittle he made the surging clouds, the wind, the rain;
from her poison, the billowing fog. He heaped a mountain over her head and pierced her eyes,
from which flow the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.
Other mountains he heaped over her breasts, then bent her tail into the sky to make the Milky Way.
With her crotch he held up the sky. Marduk returned home in triumph, delivered the Tablet
of Destiny to Anu, and presented his captives before the gods. He washed off the gore of battle,
dressed in royal attire, and sat on a high throne to receive homage from the gods.”
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