Tiamat

[Miranda Raven]

Bother, I've deleted the name of the person who sent this. As it
happens, I was busy writing something about Tiamat...

: with Khadhulu is very important. By the time Muhammed was writing Satan
: was being called "the Old Serpent (Dragon)" and "the Lord of the Abyss."
: The Old Serpent or Old Dragon was Leviathan or Lotan. Lotan is traced back
: even further to Tietan. Tietan is Tiamat. The Dragon of the Abyss called
: satan is the same Dragon of the Abyss called Tiamat. Scholar specializing
: in Near Eastern mythology have stated this time and again. Why is this
: important? Because Lovecraft described Cthulhu as dragon like and sleeping
: in the abyss. Tiamat/Liviathan is also said to be sleeping or dormant. The
: identification, in the Quran, of Khadhulu with satan, the Old Dragon, Lord
: of the Abyss is thus another incredible "coincidence." The ancient Dragon
: of the Abyss (Tiamat) traces back to Sumeria the oldest known
: culture. The title "Lord of the Abyss" or "Lord of the Underworld"
: when translated into Sumerian is Kutulu. Kutu means Abyss or underworld and
: Lu mean lord or a person of importance. The fact that the Arab mystical
: power called Khadhulu is identified with the Old Dragon (Shaitan) and that
: this dragon can be traced back to Sumeria and that one of the title of
: this dragon (the Lord of the Abyss) is Kutulu seems to indicate that
: Khadhulu and Kutulu are one in the same. It would also seem to indicate
: that Khadhulu/Kutulu has been worshiped for a very long time. I believe it
: was L.K. Barnes (sp?) that first noted the Kutulu/Cthulhu "coincidence".

This might need a little more teasing out. According to my sources,
Tiamat represents salt water and the sea in its primordial aspect.
The OT Hebrew word for a primordial, watery deep or abyss is "tehom"
(although "tehoma" is sometimes seen). In Kaballah the great abyss is
"tehoma rabba". The identity between the plural form "tehomot" and
"tiamat" has been made by better scholars than me. In the opening
chapter of Genesis where God (Elohim) is hovering over the deeps, the
word used is "tehom", and it suggests a female, abyss of water.

In other words, in both Assyrio-Babylonian and Hebrew legend, there
is in the very beginning of things a primordial, female, watery abyss
or deep which connects to the much later concept of the Great Abyss.

Tiamat produced many monstrous offspring which are variously
described as serpents and dragons, and in her encounter with Marduk
she is also portrayed as a great monster, but for me the identity
"Tiamat=Abyss" rings truer that "Tiamat=Great Dragon". The dragon or
serpent symbol is generally male and the fertilisation of the watery
abyss by a serpent-like god occurs in several mythologies (see Joseph
Campbell's Masks of God).

xxx
Miranda

[Sandra Hall]

Miranda

I just posted the Memphite Theology, which states that Ptah [also known as
Tum], the transcendent cause, in regarding it/her/himself, created Atum
out of Nun, the primeval waters. Then all creation proceeds out of Tum, as
nine interpenetrating, interacting, interlocked aspects of the transcendent
cause. This nine are the Grand Ennead, which was later regarded as sacred
by the Pythagorean brotherhood.

I don't know Assyrio-Babylonian or Hebrew legend or theology, but it's
interesting that primeval waters are part of both those and the early
Egyptian theology (dated 4000 to 3500 BC).

Sandra, Kemetan neophyte