Abzû or Apsû (Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ), also called (Cuneiform:, ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: – recorded in Greek as [
]
), is the name for fresh water from underground which was given a religious fertilising quality in ancient near eastern cosmology, including Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. It was believed that all lakes, springs, rivers, fountains, rain, and even the Great flood, as described in Atra-Hasis, originated from the Abzû. In Mesopotamian cosmogony, it is referred to as the freshwater primordial ocean below and above the earth; indeed the Earth itself was regarded as a goddess Ninhursag that was conceived from the mating of male Abzu with female saltwater ocean Tiamat. Thus the divine Mother Earth – on her surface equipped with a bubble of breathable air – was surrounded by Abzû, and her interior harbours the realm of the dead (Irkalla).
In Sumerian culture
In the city of
Eridu,
Enki's temple was known as E
2-abzû (house of the deep waters) and was located at the edge of a swamp – an abzû.
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Certain tanks of
holy water in
and
temple courtyards were also called abzû (
apsû).
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Typical in religious washing, these tanks were similar to
Judaism's
mikve,
ghusl of
, or the
baptismal font in
Christianity churches.
In Sumerian cosmology
The
god
Enki (Ea in the Akkadian language) was believed to have keen eyes and appeared out of the abzû since before human beings were created. His wife
Damgalnuna, his mother
Nammu, his advisor
Isimud and a variety of subservient creatures, such as the gatekeeper
Lahmu, also lived in the abzû.
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As a deity
Abzû (
apsû) is depicted as a
deity[
]
only in the Babylonian
Creation myth Epic poetry, the Enūma Eliš, taken from the library of
Assurbanipal but which is about 500 years older. 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. The begins:
- "When above the heavens ( e-nu-ma e-liš) did not yet exist
- : nor the earth below,
- Apsû 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."
The act of procreation led to the birth of the younger gods: Enki, Enlil, and Anu. Anchored in the Tablet of Destinies, they founded an organisation to make Mesopotamia fertile through agriculture, but got into a dispute and consequently created the first humans as labour slaves, to peacefully resolve the conflict. The humans multiplied en masse and disturbed the gods around Enlil and Anu with their noise, so that they wanted to use the cosmic freshwater ocean to trigger the great flood and destroy the humans (cf. Atra-Hasis). Enraged by the devastation of earth, Tiamat gave birth to monsters whose bodies she filled with "poison instead of blood" and waged war against her traitorous children. Only Marduk, the founder of Babylon, was able to kill Tiamat and mould the final constitution of heaven and earth from her corpse.
In popular culture
Abzû is a 2016 adventure game that was influenced by Sumerian mythology of Abzû.
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See also
Notes
External links
