The Goddess Tiamat and How Heaven and Earth Were Created

 

Human history, i.e. in ancient civilizations we know of, started out with women as the top deities. Mother godesses came first, but many/most of them were "dethroned" or changed into new forms at the rise of the Patriarchy 8,000-10,000 years ago. Historians are still discussing how much real power women had in those ancient societies, for instance were they matriarchies as we understand the word? I suppose that question is to be discussed even more in the years to come, but it's for sure that the old conviction of the naturalness of the sex roles as we see them in modern times has been challenged: These roles do not stem from an inborn/biological system of women as subdued home makers and men as bread winners, the "paterfamilias" who reign his family, his country, etc. as he choses to do.

The Mesopotamian god Marduk 

One of the extremely interesting old time pantheons is to be found in The ancient Mesopotamian Religion. Actually it seems to be closely related to the Israelite religion. They are not the same, but incidents and beliefs that we find in The Bible look like adaptations of parts of the Mesopotamian religion. The one god who grew into prominence as the head god of this pantheon was Marduk. He achieved power by killing the goddess, or demon, Tiamat who was a very, very intricate and nowadays probably quite misunderstood deity, the many-headed, dragon-like embodiment of primeval chaos. The poem Enuma Elish, which dates back to the reign of Nebuchadrezzar I (1119-1098 B.Ce.), tells the story of this exploits.

Enuma Elish consists of (fragments of) seven tablets and here we also find a story of how Marduk created the world out of the body of the slain goddess Tiamat. He cuts her in half, making the heaven and earth from each their half, but all of her body parts are used in this creation myth. There is no doubt that this age old myth is full of similarities to The Bible, and I find that fact very suggestive. I feel it should be researched within several scholarly fields, including female/feministic history. 

It's interesting that the Mesopotamian legend describes the making of humans: A god is beheaded, but I'm not sure who that god is. However, I suppose it may be Tiamat. Well, after this beheading the blood of the dead god mixes with soil from the Earth and becomes humans. Again, it's not the same as The Bible, but those who wrote this so-called "holy book" must have dipped deeply into the Mesopotamian and Assyrian texts because there are many similarities.

To me the development of a religion is more interesting than the belief in it as I spot some important historical depictions of knowledge and delusions which have had a grave impact on the lives of humans, even today.

Wikipedia

 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tiamat 

 

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Tiamat