Tiamat
(West Asian mythology)
The Babylonian she-dragon, the original of which was the Sumerian monster Labbu, begot and destroyed by Enlil. Enuma Elish contains an account of what the universe was like before the events took place which resulted in the creation by Marduk of a new world order. At first there were only the mingled waters of Abzu, the abyss of sweet water, Tiamat, the salt-water ocean, and Mummu, the mists hovering above their surfaces. Abzu and Tiamat were the parents of the first gods, Lahmu and Lahamu, whose own children were Anshar and Kishar, and grand-children, Anu and Ea. The commotion introduced in the universe by these younger deities annyed Abzu and Tiamat, who, on Mummu's advice, planned to destroy their progeny. When Ea knew of this he used his magical powers to thwart their attack and may have even killed Abzu. Final deliverance was achieved through Ea's son Marduk, who was born in the sweet water.
When news of the fearsome preparations Tiamat was making for war reached the gods, there was dismay and despair. Along with her second husband Kingu and an army of monstrous dragon and serpent forms, Tiamat, the mother of the gods, was bent on universal destruction. Chaos menaced the world. Then Anshar proposed that Marduk be appointed as the divine champion and armed ‘with matchless weapons’ for the terrible battle. This was agreed as well as Marduk's insistence that he be acknowledged as first among the gods. With bow and trident, club and net, and an armoury of winds, he rode his chariot into the fray. When Tiamat opened her jaws to swallow him, he launched a raging wind straight into her mouth, so that she could not close it, shot an arrow into her belly, and slew her. He took her followers captive, and fastened the tablets of destiny on his own breastndashthe wedding gift of Tiamat to Kingu. Then he split the carcass into two parts: one he pushed upwards to form the heavens, the other he used to make a floor above the deep. In the world between the created man out of the blood of Kingu, before retiring to his temple at Babylon.
Tiamat was imagined to be a composite creature, part animal, part serpent, part bird, revolting in appearance, and dreadful in anger. She was evil: a she-dragon. The beneficent aspect of the mother goddess has vanished entirely. The West Asian myth of the dragon, representing the chaos of original matter constantly at odds with the created order, found its fullest expression in the conflict between Marduk and Tiamat, who was probably the prototype for Satan.
The number of Christian saints who encountered dragons is endless, St George being the most famous. His victory happened in Libya, where he relieved the inhabitants of the daily sacrifice of a virgin to the beast's hunger. A less chivalric encounter with one of Tiamat's descendants is recorded in Georgian legend. St David of Garesja, a forerunner of the animal-loving St Francis, was a native of Assyria, and a hermit. When his deer were molested by ‘a large and fearsome dragon with bloodshot eyes and a horn growing out of his forehead, and a great mane on his neck’, St David threatened to rip open its stomach with his staff and turn it into food for mice, unless it quietly departed. But from the safety of its cave, the dragon exclaimed that it dared not venture forth because of its terror of thunderbolts. Only if the Saint promised not to take his eyes from it until the river was reached would it agree to leave. St David gave his word and together they set out –the Saint reciting Psalms and the dragon shaking the ground with his heavy tread. But close by the river the angel of the Lord spoke from behind and said‘David!’ So he looked round, and as he turned the dragon was struck by a thunderbolt and completely burnt up. When the kind-hearted St David saw this he was sad and asked the reason for the trick. In reply the angel told him that if the dragon had entered the river waters, it would have passed on into the sea, where grown enormous on fish it could overturn ships and destroy many living souls. Perhaps at this point the ninth-century chronicler turned dragon into Leviathan
