Apsu is an original Sumerian-Akkadian god, representing the fresh waters beneath the earth (opposed to Tiamat, the salty waters of Chaos). Later myths say that the fresh and salty waters were united by a third element, possibly a cloud, and created the first gods.
Mesopotamian myths say that Ea had cast a spell on Apsu to keep the sweet waters contained underground. (Although some myths say that Ea had killed Apsu.) Humanity was supposedly created from the clay formed by Apsu.
Abzu or Apsu is also the name of the fresh water in underground aquifers, which were given a religious fertilizing quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw water from the abzu. In this regard, in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, it referred to the primeval sea beneath the empty space of the underworld (Kur) and the earth (Ma) above.
1. Physical description
Apsu was the counterpart of Tiamat, but he was rarely described. Since he completed the destructive dragon, he was also seen as a terrible serpent.
2. Names and meanings
Over time, Apsu gained many names. In one of his original incarnations, the dragon was female, hence the name Zigarun, which was Akkadian for “The mother who has begotten heaven and earth.”
Apsu was another Akkadian name, and he was also known as Apason and Rishtu. In Assyrian-Babylonian mythology, he was known as Apzu, and in Sumerian mythology, Abzu. For the Babylonians, he was Aphson.
3. In Sumerian culture
In the city of Eridu, Enki’s temple was known asthe “house of deep waters”and was located on the edge of a swamp, an abzu.
Also compared to the characteristic religious cleanliness, these ponds were equivalent to the mikvahs of Jewish culture and the washing pools of Islamic mosques or the baptismal font in the Catholic-Christian religion.
4. In Sumerian cosmology
The Sumerian god Enki (Ea in the Akkadian language) was believed to have lived in the abzu since before humans were created. His wife Damgalnuna, his mother Nammu, his advisor Isimud, and a variety of servile creatures, such as the guardian Lahmu, also lived in the abzu.
5. As a deity
Abzu (apsu) is personified as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic. But that is approximately 500 years older. In this legend, this god was an ancient being formed from fresh water and a lover of another ancient deity named Tiamat who was a being made of salt water.
The Enuma Elish begins: “When above the heavens, neither the earth below existed yet, Apsu the ocean of fresh water was there, the first, the begetter, and Tiamat, the sea of salt water, she who bore them all; they were still mixing their waters, and no pasture land had yet been formed, not even a marsh of reeds.”
This resulted in the birth of the younger Sumerian gods, who then murdered Apsu to usurp his lordship of the universe. Enraged, Tiamat gave birth to the first dragons, filling their bodies with “poison instead of blood,” and waged war against her treacherous children, only to be killed by Marduk, the god of storms, who then formed the heavens and the earth from her corpse.
6. Apsu as a sacred place
The word ‘apsu’ sometimes referred to a sacred place in the watery depths, where the dragon Apsu lived and later the god Enki resided.
As a place name, apsu was used to refer to the extensive fresh waters produced by the marshes of southern Mesopotamia when it became the home of the wise god Enki and the birthplace of Marduk.
In one Sumerian myth, apsu was a river or sea from which Enki gathered clay and formed the deities; in another, it was where the goddess Nammu formed the first human being from clay.
Quick facts
- Apsu was the personification of fresh water and the ruler of all fresh water.
- He was thedragon husband of Tiamat and the father of the first deities.
- He decided to prevent his children from rebelling, but his wife refused to kill them.
- Mummu helped Apsu in his quest to calm the younger deities.
- His struggle with his offspring became the war between the ancient primordial deities and the new pantheon.
- Enki cast a spell on Apsu, putting him into a deep sleep, and then killed the monstrous dragon god.
- His death caused Tiamat to rise up with an army of monsters and renegade gods to avenge the death of her spouse.
7. Myths of Apsu
According to ancient Mesopotamian wisdom, all life came from water. At first, Apsu was perceived as a female entity, but later became a personal god, the dragon husband of Tiamat and the father of the first deities. Apsu was the personification of the freshwater ocean that flowed beneath the earth, because he was the ruler of all fresh water.
Creation
In the great creation myth recounted in the Enuma Elish, in the beginning, there was no land or sky, only the waste and confusion of the primordial oceans. Apsu was the fresh water surrounding the earth, and he merged with the feminine principle, Tiamat, the personification of salt water. This was the beginning of creation:
When the sweet and the bitter mixed, no reeds were woven, the waters did not rush, the gods had no name, no nature, no future… from Apsu and Tiamat, gods were created in the waters, and slime precipitated in the waters.
Fight between gods
As their children, the gods, flourished, their numbers increased and they attempted to bring order to the primordial chaos.
In some cases, Apsu and Tiamat could not bear the noise and commotion caused by the younger gods, so Apsu planned to eliminate them. But other versions claimed that the rebelliousness of the new deities enraged Apsu and his wife, or that Apsu heard his children plotting to kill him.
Whatever the cause of his alarm, Apsu decided to stop his children, and he and his wife asked Mummu for help. Tiamat, despite her anger, refused to kill her offspring when Mummu and Apsu joined forces.
Thus began the struggle between the ancient primordial deities and the new order. In the Babylonian creation epic, Enki killed Apsu with magical weapons or a magic spell, then imprisoned Mummu.
Other versions
In other versions, Enki cast a spell on Apsu, who was sleeping deeply, so that the deity could kill the monstrous dragon god.
Following his victory, Enki established his new home in Apsu’s corpse. He lived in his new abode after that with his wife, Damkina, and there they became the parents of the deity Marduk.
Other interpretations attribute the restructuring of Apsu to Marduk, who kept Apsu at his feet after defeating Tiamat in battle.
Apsu’s death caused his wife Tiamat to rise up with an army of monsters and renegade gods to avenge her spouse’s death.
