Editing Tiamat (section)

==Etymology==
[[Thorkild Jacobsen]] and [[Walter Burkert]] both argue for a connection with the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] word for sea, ''[[wikt:𒀀𒀊𒁀#Akkadian|tâmtu]]'' ({{cuneiform|𒀀𒀊𒁀}}), following an early form, ''ti'amtum''.{{sfn|Jacobsen|1968|p=105}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |title=The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influences on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=1992 |pages=92f |isbn=0-674-64363-1 }}</ref> Burkert continues by making a linguistic connection to [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]]. The later form {{langx|grc|Θαλάττη|translit=thaláttē|label=none}}, which appears in the Hellenistic [[Babylonia|Babylonian]] writer [[Berossus]]' first volume of universal history, is clearly related to Greek {{Langx|grc|Θάλαττα|thálatta|label=none}}, an Eastern variant of {{Langx|grc|Θάλασσα|[[thalassa]]|label=none|lit=sea}}. It is thought that the proper name ''ti'amat'', which is the [[vocative]] or [[Construct state|construct]] form, was dropped in secondary translations of the original texts, because some Akkadian copyists of ''[[Enûma Elish|Enuma Elish]]'' substituted the ordinary word ''tāmtu'' ('sea') for Tiamat, the two names having become essentially the same due to association.{{sfn|Jacobsen|1968|p=105}} ''Tiamat'' also has been claimed to be [[cognate]] with the [[Northwest Semitic]] word ''[[tehom]]'' (תְּהוֹם; 'the deeps, abyss'), in the [[Book of Genesis]] 1:2.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yahuda |first=A. |title=The Language of the Pentateuch in its Relation to Egyptian |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1933 }}</ref>

The Babylonian [[Epic poetry|epic]] ''Enuma Elish'' is named for its [[incipit]]: "When on high [or: When above]", the heavens did not yet exist nor the earth below, [[Abzu]] the subterranean ocean was there, "the first, the begetter", and Tiamat, the overground sea, "she who bore them all"; they were "mixing their waters".  It is thought that female deities are older than male ones in [[Mesopotamia]], and Tiamat may have begun as part of the cult of [[Nammu]], a female principle of a watery creative force, with equally strong connections to the underworld, which predates the appearance of Ea-Enki.<ref>{{cite book |last=Steinkeller |first=Piotr |chapter=On Rulers, Priests and Sacred Marriage: Tracing the Evolution of Early Sumerian Kingship |editor-last=Wanatabe |editor-first=K. |title=Priests and Officials in the Ancient Near East |location=Heidelberg |publisher=Winter |year=1999 |pages=103–38 |isbn=3-8253-0533-3 }}</ref>

[[Harriet Crawford]] finds this "mixing of the waters" to be a natural feature of the middle [[Persian Gulf]], where fresh waters from the Arabian aquifer mix and mingle with the salt waters of the sea.<ref>{{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Harriet E. W. |author-link=Harriet Crawford |year=1998 |title=Dilmun and Its Gulf Neighbours |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-58348-9 }}</ref> This characteristic is especially true of the region of [[Bahrain]], whose name in [[Arabic language|Arabic]] means "two seas", and which is thought to be the site of [[Dilmun]], the original site of the Sumerian creation beliefs.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Crawford |editor1-first=Harriet |editor2-last=Killick |editor2-first=Robert |editor3-last=Moon |editor3-first=Jane |year=1997 |title=The Dilmun Temple at Saar: Bahrain and Its Archaeological Inheritance |publisher=Saar Excavation Reports / London-Bahrain Archaeological Expedition: Kegan Paul |isbn=0-7103-0487-0 }}</ref> The difference in density of salt and fresh water drives a [[Halocline|perceptible separation]].