Abzu
| Abzu | |
|---|---|
| Genealogy | |
| Consort | Tiamat |
| Children | Kingu (Babylonian religion), Lahamu, Lahmu, Anu (Sumerian religion) |
| Part of a series on |
| Ancient Mesopotamian religion |
|---|
 |
|
|
The Abzu or Apsu (Sumerian: 𒀊𒍪 abzu; Akkadian: 𒀊𒍪 apsû), also called E ngar (Cuneiform:𒇉, LAGAB×HAL; Sumerian: engar; Akkadian: engurru—lit. ab='water' zu='deep', recorded in Greek as Ἀπασών Apasṓn[1]), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising quality in ancient near eastern cosmology, including Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. It was believed that all lakes, springs, rivers, fountains, rain and even the Flood, as described in Atrahasis, originated from the Abzu. In Mesopotamian cosmogony, it is referred to as the freshwater primordial ocean below and above the earth; indeed our planet itself is regarded as a goddess Ninhursag that was conceived from the mating of male Abzu with female saltwater ocean Tiamat. Thus our divine Mother Earth - on her surface equipped with a bubble of breathable air - is surrounded by Abzu, and her interior harbours the realm of the dead (Irkalla).
In Sumerian culture
[edit]In the city of Eridu, Enki's temple was known as E2-abzu (house of the deep waters) and was located at the edge of a swamp, an abzu.[2] Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called abzu (apsû).[3] Typical in religious washing, these tanks were similar to Judaism's mikvot, the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches.
In Sumerian cosmology
[edit]The Sumerian god Enki (Ea in the Akkadian language) was believed to have keen eyes and appeared out of the abzu since before human beings were created. His wife Damgalnuna, his mother Nammu, his advisor Isimud and a variety of subservient creatures, such as the gatekeeper Lahmu, also lived in the abzu.[4][5][6][7][8]
As a deity
[edit]
Abzu (apsû) is depicted as a deity[9] only in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enūma Eliš, taken from the library of Assurbanipal (c. 630 BCE) but which is about 500 years older. In this story, he was a primal being made of fresh water and a lover to another primal deity, Tiamat, a creature of salt water. The Enūma Eliš begins: "When above the heavens (e-nu-ma e-liš) did not yet exist nor the earth below, Apsu the freshwater ocean was there, the first, the begetter, and Tiamat, the saltwater sea, she who bore them all; they were still mixing their waters, and no pasture land had yet been formed, nor even a reed marsh." The act of procreation led to the birth of the younger gods: Enki, Enlil and Anu. Anchored in the Tablet of Destinies (mythic item), they foundet an organisation to make Mesopotamia fertile through agriculture, but got into a conflict and created the first pairs of humans as labour slaves to pacify it. The humans multiplied en masse and disturbed the gods around Enlil and Anu with their noise, so that they wanted to use the cosmic freshwater ocean to trigger the great flood and destroy the humans (cf. Athrahasis epic). Enraged by the devastation of earth, Tiamat gave birth to monsters whose bodies she filled with "poison instead of blood" and waged war against her traitorous children. Only Marduk, the founder of Babylon, was able to kill Tiamat and mould the final constitution of heaven and earth from her corpse.
In popular culture
[edit]Abzû is a 2016 adventure game that was influenced by Sumerian mythology of Abzu.[10]
See also
[edit]- Abyzou – Name of a female demon
- Cosmic ocean – Mythological motif
- Firmament – Solid dome dividing the primal waters
- Nu – Ancient Egyptian personification of the primordial watery abyss
- Varuna – Hindu deity associated with water
- Wuji – The primordial in Chinese philosophy
Notes
[edit]- ^ Maul, Stefan (October 2006). "Apsȗ". In Francis G. Gentry (English edition) (ed.). Brill's New Pauly. Brill. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e129820. ISBN 9789004122598.
- ^ Green, Margaret Whitney (1975). Eridu in Sumerian Literature. University of Chicago: Ph.D. dissertation. pp. 180–182.
- ^ Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, 1992. Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: an illustrated dictionary, s.v. "abzu, apsû". ISBN 0-292-70794-0.
- ^ Orlin, Eric (2015-11-19). Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. Routledge. p. 8. ISBN 978-1134625529.
- ^ Horowitz, Wayne (1998). Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. Eisenbrauns. p. 308. ISBN 0931464994.
- ^ Putthoff, Tyson (2020). Gods and Humans in the Ancient Near East. Cambridge University Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-1108490542.
- ^ Eppihimer, Melissa (2019). Exemplars of Kingship: Art, Tradition, and the Legacy of the Akkadians. Oxford University Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0190903015.
- ^ N. Pope, Charles (2016). Living in Truth: Archaeology and the Patriarchs (Part I): Early Pharaohs. DomainOfMan.com. p. 17.
- ^ Jordan, Michael (1993). Encyclopedia of gods: over 2,500 deities of the world. New York: Facts on File. p. 2. ISBN 9780816029099 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Haske, Steve (2016-09-27). "Exploring the Hidden Depths of 'Abzû'". Inverse. Archived from the original on 2017-03-09. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
External links
[edit]
Quotations related to Abzu at Wikiquote
| Primordial beings | _-_EnKi_(Sumerian).jpg) | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary deities | ||
| Other major deities | ||
| Minor deities | ||
| Demons, spirits, and monsters | ||
| Mortal heroes | ||