TYPE: Primordial Creator goddess
ORIGIN: Mesopotamian (Akkadian-Babylonian) [Iraq]
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: Circa 2000 BCE until circa 200 BCE.
CENTER(S) OF CULT: Babylon
ART REFERENCES: Plaques, votive stelae; glyptics, etc.
LITERARY SOURCES: cuneiform texts, particularly the creation epic Enuma Elis.
INFORMATION: Tiamat is the power of the ocean waters and is intimately involved with the Babylonian creation story. She combines with the underground fresh waters of Apsu to give birth to eleven monstrous beings and is said to have been enraged by, the death of Apsu at the hands of Enki and at the behest of a group of gods headed by Marduk. In revenge she forms other deities in the primordial cosmos into a rival group and chooses, as her second consort, the minor god Kingu to lead her army against Marduk. Marduk ultimately splits her in two, making the vault of heaven out of one half, using her eyes as the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, and heaping the mountains over her head.