Can All Monsters Be Traced Back to Tiamat?

Across multiple mythologies, the term “mother of monsters” is used frequently on the likes of women such as Echidna, Lamia, and Angrboda. But in Mesopotamian mythology, the mother of monsters is Tiamat, who’s less of a woman, and more of an ocean, specifically, the source of all salt water. She also happens to be the mother of a lot of gods, which doesn’t do her any favors when the family reunion turns very violent.

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Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
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Bibliography

Gilmore, David D. Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.

Higgins, Ryan S. “The Good, the God, and the Ugly: The Role of the Beloved Monster in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible.” Interpretation (Richmond), vol. 74, no. 2, 2020, pp. 132–45.

Katz, Dina. “Reconstructing Babylon: Recycling Mythological Traditions Toward a New Theology.” Babylon, vol. 1, 2011, pp. 123–34.

Lenzi, Alan. Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: an Introduction. SBL Press, 2011.

Marangudakis, Manussos. “The Social Sources and Environmental Consequences of Axial Thinking: Mesopotamia, China, and Greece in Comparative Perspective.” Archives Européennes de Sociologie. European Journal of Sociology., vol. 47, no. 1, 2006, pp. 59–91.

Miller, Robert D. "Tracking the Dragon Across the Ancient Near East." Archiv Orientalni, vol. 82, no. 2, 2014, pp. 225-245.

Sax, Boria. “The Mermaid and Her Sisters: From Archaic Goddess to Consumer Society.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol. 7, no. 2, Summer 2000, pp. 43–54.

Seri, Andrea. “The Role of Creation in Enūma Eliš.” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, vol. 12, no. 1, 2012, pp. 4–29.

“Tiamat.” Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions, 2006, pp. 1095–1095.

“Tiamat.” The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters, Edited by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock. Taylor & Francis, 2014, pp. 532–533.

Women in Antiquity: Real Women Across the Ancient World, edited by Stephanie Lynn Budin, and Jean MacIntosh Turfa, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Xiang, Zairong. “Below Either/Or: Rereading Femininity and Monstrosity Inside Enuma Elish.” Feminist Theology, vol. 26, no. 2, 2018, pp. 115–32.

[orsino]

It is hard not to see Echidna— a mother of monsters in Greek myth— as a distorted recollection of Tiamat, or a Hellenic reinterpretation. And of course, there are other fascinating parallels—battle in heaven, generational struggles of older gods with newer ones, and so on.

[kab]

Now I know why Tiamat is the mother of dragons in DnD. It's really cool to learn more about old myths and legends outside of the standard Greek/Roman/European umbrella.

[medusa_slayer]

It would be cool to mention that the depiction of Ninurta with Anzu you showed here was for a long time believed by many to be a depiction of Marduk and Tiamat instead. Very cool Easter Egg

[rue...whenwasthis]

someone once told me "when you speak it's like you watch PBS on purpose" and i was like "I do, their myth videos slay"

[manmoy]

Apsu/Abzu's death story sounds very vaguely similar to that of Uranus and Cronos in the ancient Greek religion; wonder if there was an even older Mediterranean or Middle Eastern tale that gave rise to both stories

[cnhnx]

Ancient Mesopotamians:
"How do you think mountains came to be?"
"Y'know their shape kinda remind me of something..."

[MrPink-qfxi]

I think she was probably a primordial water goddess, creator mother of all other gods during Sumerian or older times, but with the rise of Warrior Storm Gods, she became more of a monster to be slain and counqured to give way to creation like Joseph Campbell speculates.

[serenityenderson]

Even after all editions of this, for some reason I still imagine "I'm Dr Emily Monstrum, and this is Zarka" at the close of the intro 😂

[carlfromaccounting]

If I remember correctly, the very first Final Fantasy was heavily inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, from the classes, to the spells, and to the monsters, so the Tiamat of both franchises being very similar is not surprising considering that one of them copied the (inaccurate) homework of the other.

[grapeshot]

I remember that cartoon from the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons. This monster was one of the main antagonist.

[timothyhicks]

I’ve been reading a lot about Mesopotamian mythology this week, so this video is a perfect supplement!

[ryancarter]

Perhaps you can do "slimes" next, I wondered about it's origin, it seems to be a modern monster, not as modern as Sirenhead but still fairly modern but maybe I will be surprised and there is an older origin or inspiration for the creature.

[samwill]

Big mommy vibes.
Literally, that is one VERY large mother

[agar]

In Fate/Grand Order she has both maternal and monstrous aspects, "Femme Fatale" and "Dragonoid" forms. And the community loves her, lots of players wish for years for Mom to be playable, me included.

[CerebrumMortum]

Very interesting, as usual. I actually studied Tiamat's old stories as part of Biblical studies.
So, FUN FACT:
In the first biblical creation myth (Genesis 1), god *creates* heaven and earth, but he does *not* create the two other parts: the waters and the chaos. In Hebrew, the state of the earth at genesis is "Tohu and Bohu" (tohu va'vohu). 'Tohu' is alleged to originate from Tiamat's name, while Bohu is from the Phoenician goddess of primordial darkness 'bohu'.
In this way, the genesis creation myth is a direct theological challenge of the Hebrews/Israelites over their Phoenician and Babylonian contemporaries, in which god replaces mordukh as the power that defeats the primordial waters-chaos-darkness, splits open the waters, and creates from them the skies, and... the rivers! - Euphrates and Tigris (and two more; these come in the second creation myth).

Both tohu and bohu are also primordial mothers, defeated by a "sky father", encoding deep into our culture the emergent of patriarchal order.

(Also fun fact: "Yam", the cannite god of the sea, is also the hebrew word for sea.)

[situpeutparlemoi]

Seeing how old Mesopotamian mythology essentially "translates" into modern myth and religion is really interesting to me. Thanks for this neat video, and congrats on becoming a mom, Dr. Zarka!

[brabamda]

"Tiamat is both nurturer and destroyer, mother and monster, as SHE chooses." That's so powerful.

[ShinHakumen]

FGO Player: Ah, yes. Tiamom. She's very cute. And now I think I have a bad case of Oedipus complex for her.

Normie: Say what!?

FGO Player: Did I stutter?

[crozraven]

wow, I guess FGO series kinda portrayed Tiamat far more faithfully by being a naughty big badonka dragon waifu, then most of fantasy series.

[medbii]

Fate/Grand Order also has a depiction of Tiamat. She is humanoid with draconic/beastly figures, and is mostly a rampaging monster throughout her initial appearance. However, when she is slain in the story, she opens up about how she felt betrayed by her children and its honestly kind of sad. I wonder if other media gives her any form of depth aside from evil dragon/monster.