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Discord broke out among the gods although they were brothers, warring and jarring in the belly of Tiamat, heaven shook, it reeled with the surge of the dance; Apsu could not silence the clamour, their behaviour was bad, overbearing, and proud.
But still Tiamat lay inert until Apsu, the father of gods, bellowed for that servant who clouds his judgement, his Mumau,
'Dear counsellor, come with me to Tiamat.'
They have gone, and in front of Tiamat they sit down and talk together about the young gods, their first-born children; Apsu said,
'Their manners revolt me, day and night without remission we suffer. My will is to destroy them, all of their kind, we shall have peace at last and we will sleep again.'
Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia, translated by N.K. Sandars, Penguin Books, 1971, p.74.
PLACE: Babylon
TIME: prehistory
CIRCUMSTANCE: a priest recites 'The Babylonian Creation'; Tiamat, the mother of the gods, and Apsu, the father, quarrel.
mss. dates from ca. 1000 B.C.
The God who is the source of wisdom, the bright intelligence that perceives and plans, Nudimmud-Ea, saw through it, he sounded the coil of chaos, and against it devised the artifice of the universe.
He spoke the word that charmed the waters, it fell upon Apsu, he lay asleep, the sweet waters slept, Apsu slept, Mummu was overcome, Apsu lay drowned, undone.
Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia, translated by N.K. Sandars, Penguin Books, 1971, p.75.
PLACE: Babylon
TIME: prehistory
CIRCUMSTANCE: from 'The Creation'
mss. dates from ca. 1000 B.C.
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