When above the heavens 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. In this story, he was a primal being made of fresh water and a lover to another primal deity, Tiamat, who was a creature of salt water. Typical in religious washing, these tanks were similar to the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches.Ībzu ( apsû) is depicted as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Elish, taken from the library of Assurbanipal (c 630 BCE) but which is about 500 years older. Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called abzu ( apsû). In the city Eridu, Enki's temple was known as E 2-abzu (house of the cosmic waters) and was located at the edge of a swamp, an abzu. 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. The term abzu / apsû was occasionally also used to refer to a tank for holy water in a temple courtyard.The Sumerian god Enki (Ea in the Akkadian language) was believed to have lived in the abzu since before human beings were created.
Occasionally, it seems, the Abzu was identified with a river (the Hubur) that one had to cross in order to reach the Underworld. He flipped upside down (threw downward into the Abzu) stones tied. The Underworld was located beneath the Abzu. Adam, Noah, and the Ancient Mesopotamian Mythology of the Creation and the Flood. He is the source of knowledge and was the lover of Tiamat, the primal goddess of the salt water, and together they created the gods in the. As Ea’s son, the Babylonian chief god Marduk was often designated “firstborn son of the apsû“. Abzu, also known as Apsu, Apzu or Engur, is the Primordial Deity of the Ocean, Wisdom and the Watery Abyss and the Deification of the vast primordial fresh water beneath the earth that serves as the source of all lakes, rivers, springs, streams, and wells. After Ea’s killing of Apsû, he erected his dwelling on Apsû’s body, the dead creature’s name being transferred thereafter to Ea’s residence. On another level, according to the Babylonian Epic of Creation, Apsû was a primal being, the lover of Tiamat. The temple of Enki at Eridu was known as E.ABZU, “the house, or temple, of the Abzu”. (Enki was believed to have ruled the Abzu prior to mankind’s creation). The Abzu was the domain of the god Enki/Ea, his consort Damgalnuna (Damkina) and his mother Nammu, as well as being the home of a number of his peculiar creatures. The Abzu therefore served as the source of all wells, springs, rivers, streams and lakes. The Enuma Elish 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." This resulted in the birth of the younger gods, who later murdered Apsu in order to usurp his lordship of the universe.Įnraged, Tiamat gives birth to the first dragons, filling their bodies with "venom instead of blood", and made war upon her treacherous children, only to be slain by Marduk, the god of Storms, who then forms the heavens and earth from her corpse.Īccording to ancient Mesopotamian belief, the Abzu (or engur) was the vast freshwater ocean that lay beneath the earth (as opposed to the salt sea, which was thought to surround the earth).
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. 630 BCE) but which is about 500 years older. In this respect, in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology it referred to the primeval sea below the void space of the underworld (Kur) and the earth (Ma) above.Ībzu (apsû) is depicted as a deityonly in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Elish, taken from the library of Assurbanipal (c. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the abzu.
The Abzu or Apsu (Cuneiform: ? ?, ZU.AB Sumerian: abzu Akkadian: apsû), also called engur (Cuneiform:?, LAGAB×HAL Sumerian: engur Akkadian: engurru-lit., ab='water' zu='deep'), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology.