Apsû
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| Fertile Crescent myth series |
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|---|---|
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| Mesopotamian | |
| Levantine | |
| Arabian | |
| Mesopotamia | |
| 7 gods who decree | |
| The great gods | |
| Demigods & heroes | |
| Spirits & monsters | |
| Tales from Babylon | |
| Primordial Beings | |
The apsû (also known as abzu or engur) was the name for the mythological underground freshwater ocean in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the apsû.
The Sumerian god Enki (Ea in Akkadian) was believed to have lived in the apsû since before human beings were created. His wife Damgalnuna, his mother Nammu, and a variety of subservient creatures also lived in the apsû.
In the city Eridu, Enki's temple was known as E-abzu ("the abzu temple") and was located at the edge of a swamp, an apsû.[1]
Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called apsû or abzu. Typical in religious washing, these tanks may be regarded as precursors to the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches.
[edit] As a deity
- Main article: Enûma Elish
Apsû is depicted as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Elish. In this story, he was a primal monster made of fresh water and a lover to another primal deity, Tiamat, who was a creature of salt water.
After Ea killed Apsû, he began to dwell inside of the dead god. This is considered as the origin of the apsû where Ea lives in myths set during later time periods. Marduk, though called "firstborn son of the apsû," is actually Ea's son, not Apsû's; the title is meant to be taken metaphorically, as Marduk was the first "child" born in the apsû. It would suggest that Abzu may have been the original name by which the divinity of Enki later became known.
[edit] References
- Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia by Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, ISBN 0-292-70794-0
- ^ Eridu in Sumerian Literature, Margaret Whitney Green, pages 180-182, phd disseration, University of Chicago, 1975.
