United States or Canada ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The parcelling out of these three divisions among Anu, Bel, and Ea is therefore merely alluded to in the closing line of the fourth tablet: He established the districts of Anu, Bel, and Ea. The narrative assumes what we know from other sources, that the heavens constitute the domain of Anu, Esharra belongs to Bel, while Apsu belongs to Ea.
Of the first tablet, we have two further fragments supplementing one another, in which the beginnings of this terrible conflict are described. With Apsu and Tiâmat there are associated a variety of monsters who prepare themselves for the fray.
It may be proper to recall that in the Solomonic temple, likewise, there were a series of jars that stood near the great altar in the large court. A piece of furniture to which great religious importance was attached was a great basin known as 'apsu, the name, it will be recalled, for 'the deep. The name indicates that it was a symbolical representation of the domain of Ea.
The ocean, though not expressly called Apsu, is evidently identical with the great body of waters supposed to both surround the earth and to flow beneath it. The reference to 'the waters of death' thus becomes clear. The gathering-place of the dead being under the earth, near to the Apsu, the great 'Okeanos' forms a means of approach to the nether world.
In confirmation of this view, a syllabary identifies the Du-azagga with the Apsu. Marduk, by virtue of his original quality as a solar deity, would naturally be pictured as coming forth from Du-azagga. In this sense the title Mar-Du-azaga, 'son of Du-azagga, is applied to him, just as he is called Mar-Apsi, the son of Apsu.
The Du-azagga is older than the Ubshu-kenna. Situated in the extreme east, the 'brilliant chamber' is evidently the place whence the sun rises in the morning. A hymn to Shamash expressly speaks of the sun rising out of the Du-azagga, and, since the sun also appears to rise up out of the ocean, the Du-azagga is placed at a point close to the great Apsu, which flows underneath the mountain.
The later 'theology' found a solution of the problem by assuming four series of deities represented by Apsu and Tiâmat, by Lakhmu and Lakhamu, by Anshar and Kishar, and by the triad Anu, Bel, and Ea. In a vague way, as we have seen, Apsu and Tiâmat are the progenitors of Lakhmu and Lakhamu.
Associated with Apsu and Tiâmat in council, is a being Mummu, and since Damascius expressly notes on the direct authority of Berosus that Apsu and Tiâmat produced a son Moumis, there is every reason to believe that Mummu represents this offspring. In the subsequent narrative, however, neither Apsu nor Mummu play any part.
The Semitic poem itself also supplies evidence of the independent existence of the Dragon myth apart from the process of Creation, for the story of Ea and Apsû, which it incorporates, is merely the local Dragon myth of Eridu.
In the schools of theology that arose with the advance of culture, these two notions water as the first element and a general conception of chaos were worked out with the result that Apsu and Tiâmat became mythical beings whose dominion preceded that of the gods. Further than this the questionings of the schoolmen did not go.
Word Of The Day