Tiawath was not the only monster known to Babylonian mythology. But
she is sometimes likened to or confounded with the serpent of darkness
with which she had originally no connexion whatever. This being was,
however, like Tiawath, the offspring of the great deep and the enemy of
the divine powers. We are told in the second verse of Genesis that "the
earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the
deep," and therefore resembling the abyss of Babylonian myth. We are
also informed that the serpent was esteemed as "more subtle than other
beast of the field," and this, it has been pointed out by Professor
Sayce, was probably because it was associated by the author or authors
of Genesis with Ea, the god of waters and of wisdom. To Babylonian
geographers as to the Greeks, the ocean was a coiling, snake-like
thing, which was often alluded to as the great serpent, and this soon
came to be considered as the source of all evil and misfortune. The
ancients, and especially the ancient Semites, with the exception of
the Phœnicians, appear to have regarded it with dread and loathing.
The serpent appears to have been called Aibu, 'the enemy.' We can see
how the serpent of darkness, the offspring of chaos and confusion,
became also the Hebrew symbol for mischief. He was first the source of
physical and next the source of moral evil.
Winged Bulls
The winged bulls so closely identified with ancient Chaldean mythology
were probably associated with Merodach. These may have represented
the original totemic forms of the gods in question, but we must not
confound the bull forms of Merodach and Ea with those winged bulls
which guarded the entrances to the temples. These, to perpetrate a
double 'bull,' were not bulls at all but divine beings, the gods or
genii of the holy places. The human head attached to them indicated
that the creature was endowed with humanity and the bull-like body
symbolized strength. When the Babylonian translated the word 'bull'
from the Akkadian tongue he usually rendered it 'hero' or 'strong
one.' It is thought that the bull forms of Ea and Merodach must have
originated at Eridu, for both of these deities were connected with
the city. The Babylonians regarded the sky-country as a double of the
plain in which they dwelt, and they believed that the gods as planets
ploughed their way across the azure fields of air. Thus the sun was
the 'Bull of Light,' and Jupiter, the nearest of the planets to the
ecliptic, was known as the 'Planet of the Bull of Light.'
The Dog in Babylonia
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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