Tehom, Tohu, Tahamat, Tiamat

Tiamat in Scotland?

תהו/תהום

This page needs to be read in partnership with the pages on Liv-Yatan (Leviathan), Bohu (et al), Nachash/Nechushtan, Rachav and Taninim, as these are all aspects or variants of the same paradigm.

Genesis 1:2 and 8:2 make TEHOM "the deep"; but this is clearly a late emendation of the original story; for details see TANINIM, but especially the textual commentary on Genesis 1:1-2:3.

The Bible uses TEHOM poetically to mean the seas, or a gulf, or an abyss; but it also uses TOHU in the same verses to mean the void of uncreation, the darkness before the Big Bang. Tehom is the Yehudit form of Tahamat or Tiamat, the primal sea-serpent of original Creation; can we assume that TOHU is the same, or at least an alternative variation?

The affirmative answer to that appears to lie in Psalm 148, verse 7: "Praise YHVH from the Earth, you sea-monsters, and all the deeps", for which "deeps" in the Yehudit is rendered as TEHOMOT (תְּהֹמוֹת), but the sea-monsters are TANINIM (תַּ֝נִּינִ֗ים). So we need to go back to the root, and that means the Assyrian Tiamat or the Babylonian Tahamat, either way the goddess of the sea, and specifically a sea-serpent whose cult was served by a prophetess/oracle; the goddess is presumably a later version. But even "goddess of the sea" is not the root of the roots: at the very beginning she was the "primordial ocean" itself, the molecules and elements that preceded Creation, the ones that Genesis calls Tohu and Bohu, the "void" and "chaos" which the Elohim had to overcome in order for the Cosmos to emerge.

Marduk in pursuit of Tiamat

As TIAMAT, she was thus the primaeval Mother Goddess of Mesopotamia, mother to the gods, consort of Apsu (or Absu), appearing in the shape of a dragon, the ultimate symbol of fertility. In one later version she was defeated in battle and killed by Marduk - but in all the earlier versions it was Apsu - and later still, syncretised with Ishtar (or serving as her oracular serpent in exactly the way that the Nachash does for Chavah in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3), her serpent wrapped itself around the Cosmic Egg, preventing it from hatching, and Marduk, or his predecessor, first incapacitated her with his "Evil Wind", then killed her with an arrow, and finally spliced her in half, releasing the egg to hatch, sending her off in twobifurcated parts, one of whom will remain herself, the sea-monster, the other of which will become the male land-monster BEHEMOT - he the red she the white dragon in the Welsh tradition. After her death, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flowed from her eyes, mist from her spittle, mountains from her breasts, and all the rest of the Cosmos from her other parts: the primordial elements now manifest as physical actualities. Her story is told in the Babylonian creation myth the Enuma Elish. Tiamat was envisaged as salt water and Apsu as fresh water (the same distinction that exists between those other sea-and-land monsters the crocodile and the alligator); from their union came all the other gods.

In the Yisra-Eli version, where she is also twinned with the land-serpent Behemot, he appears in the tale as BOHU, and Behemot at first is the name for all land-mammals, but later, when the giants of the Jurassic age became extinct, merely the cattle.

Not that Tiamat did die: she merely went to where all dead matter goes, the Underworld, and took charge of the process of biodegradation on which fertility depends (and the reason why the worm, become the serpent, become the dragon, is the main symbol of fertility). And having descended to the Underworld, Tiamat created eleven more terrifying monsters (she was herself the twelfth; Behemot lived above ground) to avenge the death of Apsu and destroy the younger gods. There were three fearsome horned snakes: Musmahhu, Usumgallu and Basmu; the snake-dragon Mushhushshu; Lahmu the hairy super man; Ugallu, the lion-demon; Uridimmu, the lion-man; Girtablullu, the scorpion-man; Umu-Debrutu, terrifying storms; Kulullu, the fish-man (mermen and mermaids) and Kusarikku, the bull-man. All eleven of Tiamat's creatures were defeated by Marduk, who preserved images of them in the watery remains of Abzu to commemorate his victory. They were made ample use of by the people of Mesopotamia in magical incantations, both to ward off evil and the forces of chaos. Many of their images are well known today through statues outside of palaces and temples, most notably the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. Contemporary reincarnations of these creatures can be found in your garden; just take a spade, and dig down into the roots beneath your trees and shrubs.

Nor were these her only creations: the genealogy of the gods themselves depended on her: in partnership with Apsu she mothered Lahmu and Lahamu, who in turn begat Anšar and Kišar - the full Toldot (genealogical table) can be found on this blog by one of three routes: "Babylonian-Mesopotamian gods and goddesses: A-G; H-N; P-Z".

Given that she is the entire Cosmos, past present and future, it is not surprising that she has no official cult centre, though Loch Ness in Scotland has tried very hard to claim that position, and anyone who visits the Everglades in Florida can witness the battle between her and Apsu on a daily basis, with Flamingo the most likely place to find her (she prefers the southern continent, but does roam northwards into Ingraham Lake), while Apsu's very similar-looking alligators are there by the thousand, especially along the I-75 between Fort Lauderdale and Naples (click here). But mostly, go to the Tigris and the Euphrates - Tiamat is alive and well thank you.

As to her feast day: the Enuma Elish was always recited on the fourth day of the New Year festival, which took place in Nissan. So Easter Monday, in the Christian calendar (should that not read Ishtar Monday?).

TOHU: (תהו), appears in Genesis 1:2. From the Chaldean root Tahah (תהה) meaning "to be waste", it is used variously in the Tanach to mean "a desert", "emptiness", "vanity".

Tohu (תהו) is linked to Bohu (בהו) in Genesis 1:2, the symmetrical equivalence of Tehom (תהום) as sea beast or sea-dragon, and Baham (בהם) as land-beast or land-dragon. Quite likely they were as much memories of the jurassic creatures as they were the reality of whales and elephants and woolly mammoths, when these mythologies were first elaborated. And yes, these are the same dragons that Saint George and Ar-Thur fought, that Tolkien reinvented as Gollum and Wagner as Fafner, and who live on in the superstition of the Loch Ness Monster as well as the tales of Liv-Yatan (Leviathan).

There is considerable dispute as to the origins of the four names, though they are known to have been pairs of twin brothers (cf Castor & Pollux etc). In Yehudit the godhead is lost – "for thou shalt have no other gods before Elohim" - but the spheres of the gods are kept, the former representing waste, emptiness, a desert, the latter meaning empty or void.

However, it is possible to deduce. Liv-Yatan (Leviathan) and Behemot are treated as twin monsters, one of the sea and the other of dry land (see, for example Isaiah 27:1). Liv-Yatan is also known to be a pseudonym for Tiamat. In Yehudit Tiamat becomes Tehom, as in Assyriac it becomes Tahama, a singular form of Tahamot. In Babylon the same creature appears variously as Tamtu, Tamdu and even Tawatu and Tauthe. Thus Tohu is likely to be another variant of the same name (in the same way that Brahma becomes Av-Ram, Av-Raham, Ibrahim and Abi-Ram, and Ishtar varies as Astarte, Asherah, Sarai and Sarah). And if one applies the same logic to Bohu, one arrives quite neatly at Behemot, or Behemoth. Cf Job 26:12 in which "By his power he threatened the Sea and by his skill he shattered Rahab". Rahab, or properly RACHAV (רָֽהַב) in Yehudit is yet another name for Tiamat/Liv-Yatan; and thus hints again at the story of Tiamat and her love for Apsu, or Abzu, the god of the sweet-water abyss from which Enki, the god of wisdom, emerged.

However, in partial contradiction of this, the people of Byblos worshipped, inter alia, a female principle named Baou, wife of the wind-god Colpia. In their creation story Baou is impregnated by the wind. A parallel of this story is found in the Greek, where she is Nyx = Night, whom Hesiod called "The Mother of all Things" (as Chavah/Eve is; Em Kol Chay), and as such very much an equivalent of Choshech in Genesis 1:2. In Greece she was Eurynome, who took the serpent Ophion or Ophioneus as her lover, again paralleling the Biblical myth.

Hesiod sees Oceanus as the eldest of the Titans, and the father of the three thousand rivers; Homer places him second only to Zeus in the pantheon. Most descriptions are akin to those of Liv-Yatan and the Great Dragon.

Amongst the many Midrashim (Rabbinical commentaries on the Tanach) are the following:

   "Elohim found the male Upper Waters and the female Lower Waters locked in a passionate embrace. 'Let one of you rise,' He ordered, 'and the other fall'. But they rose up together, whereupon Elohim asked: 'Why did you both rise?' 'We are inseparable,' they answered with one voice. 'Leave us to our love.' Elohim then stretched out His little finger and tore them apart; the Upper He lifted high, the Lower He cast down. To punish their defiance, Elohim would have singed them with fire, had they not sued for mercy. He pardoned them on two conditions: that, at the Exodus, they would allow the Children of Israel to pass through dry-shod; and that they would prevent Jonah fleeing by ship to Tarshish." (Midrash Konen 25)

The Midrashim of the Sanhedrin of Yeru-Shala'im (5th century CE) likewise refer to Tehom as "the sweet underground waters", which furthers the connection with Apsu; and the Sanhedrin of Yeru-Shala'im also speaks of Tehom as feminine, which is much more likely to be accurate. In this account, Tehom is invoked as part of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukot), when priests pour libations of wine and water of the altar of Elohim, and then call upon Tehom from below, and the Upper Waters from above, to bring forth spring water and rain.

Picking up my earlier but incomplete reference, Rahab (Rachav), Prince of the Sea, rebelled against Elohim. Elohim had ordered him to open his mouth and swallow all the world's waters, but Rachav refused. Elohim kicked him to death, and then sank his corpse to the bottom of the sea because the earth could not endure its stench (Bava Batra). This is a late Jewish variation of the Kena'anite myth, in which it is Yam or Mot, not Elohim, who engages in the battle. In Joshua 2, Rachav, or more likely one of his priestesses, appears as a "prostitute", which is the standard Tanachic way of derogating the sacred hierodule; this however is complex - in Yehudit as much as in English - because the Rachav of Joshua is spelled RACHAV (רָחָב), where the serpent RAHAB is spelled RAHAV (רָהַב): see my text commentary, and my notes on Rahab.

Other Midrashim hold that Elohim spared Rahab's life; but that, when later on a number of envious angels threw into the sea "The Book Of Razi-El" (a compendium of divine wisdom given to Adam by Elohim), he ordered Rahab to dive down and fetch it up. Rahab this time did not refuse.

Later Rahab supported the Egyptians in their quarrel with Yisra-El and pleaded with Elohim not to drown Pharaoh and his company in the Red Sea. Instead Elohim destroyed Rahab as well.

Some style Rahab "the Celestial Prince of Egypt"; others see him as Liv-Yatan or Oceanus. Liv-Yatan's monstrous tusks spread terror, his mouth issues fire and flame, his nostrils smoke, and his eyes radiate a fierce beam of light; his heart knows nothing of mercy or pity. As such he is like the Great Dragon who will be dispatched on the Day of Reckoning. The Great Dragon was originally captured by Elohim, who trapped him in a fishing net with all his progeny and shattered their skulls and pierced their sides. In Job Elohim is said to have captured Liv-Yatan in like manner (Job 41), using a hook which pierced his extraordinary scales, then hauled him up from the Deep, tied down his tongue with a rope, thrust a reed through his nostrils, pierced his jaws with a thorn and then threw the carcass back into the sea.

Crocodiles were worshipped at Crocodilopolis, Ombos, Coptos, Athribis and Thebes. Their mummies have been found in several Egyptian tombs; they were native creatures to the Middle East until very recently. Their principal god (as per the adjacent illustration) was named Sobek.

Behemot, the first land creature, is a kind of vast hippopotamus; its tail bigger than the trunk of a cedar, and with bones like pipes of brass. He rules land-creatures as Liv-Yatan does sea ones. Behemot inhabits the Thousand Mountains, living on lotus, red fern and willow, or grazing; the grass growing back every night. The river Yuval, one of Eden's rivers, was created for him to drink. He is also called the "Ox of the Pit", for which cf Job 40:15-24. All this according to Herodotus, who may have got some of his Biblical facts wrong (there is no river Yuval, for example, in the Biblical version of Eden, though there is a son of Lamech named Yuval); he adds, this time with personal knowledge, that Behemot was worshipped at Pamprenis as the wife of Set - Biblical Shet. Both Liv-Yatan and Behemot were sacred to Shet, and both appear in the Egyptian Book of the Dead in honour of Osher (Osiris), Set's main enemy.

There is also a third monster, Hel, in the Norse Creation myth, who rules the Underworld, and like Liv-Yatan of the sea, and Behemot of the land, has equivalents in mythologies from all around the world - see my notes to Genesis 3.

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