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Goddess of dragons5/27/2023 ![]() Lack of anything but a fairly general historical framework for Sumerian compositions means that any chronological approach to literary questions, such as the development of genres or correlation with historical processes or events, must be largely abandoned. Later mentions of the goddess are simply copies and variations of this work. Although her name is referenced in a much earlier Akkadian inscription, she does not figure in extant Mesopotamian mythological literature until Enuma Elish, written under the reign of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE) and usually dated to c. Her name, according to scholar Jeremy Black, comes from the word tiamtum meaning “sea” ( Gods, Demons, and Symbols, 177). She is depicted, in later periods, as a female serpent or dragon based on vague descriptions of her in Enuma Elish, but no iconography exists from ancient Mesopotamia. In all versions of the myth, following the original, Tiamat always symbolizes the forces of chaos, which threaten the order established by the gods, and Marduk (or Ashur in Assyrian versions) is the hero who preserves it. Tiamat is the Mesopotamian goddess associated with primordial chaos and the salt sea best known from the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish.
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