Editing Typhon (section)

====Mesopotamia====
Three related god vs. monster combat myths from [[Mesopotamia]], date from at least the early second-millennium BC or earlier. These are the battles of the god Ninurta with the monsters Asag and Anzu, and the god Marduk's battle with the monstrous Tiamat.

=====Ninurta vs. Asag=====

''[[Lugal-e]]'', a late-third-millennium BC [[Sumer]]ian poem, tells the story of the battle between the [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion|Mesopotamian]] hero-god [[Ninurta]] and the terrible monster [[Asag]].<ref>Fontenrose, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA146 146–147], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA151 151], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA152 152], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA155 155], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA161 161]; Penglase, pp. 54–58; 163, 164; West 1997, p. 301; Ogden 2013a, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA11 11], [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA78 78].</ref> Like Typhon, Asag was a monstrous hissing offspring of Earth ([[Ki (goddess)|Ki]]), who grew mighty and challenged the rule of Ninurta, who like Zeus, was a storm-god employing winds and floods as weapons. As in Hesiod's account of the Typhonomachy, during their battle, both Asag and Ninurta set fire to the landscape.  And like Apollodorus' Typhon, Asag evidently won an initial victory, before being finally overcome by Ninurta.

=====Ninurta vs. Anzû=====
[[File:Chaos Monster and Sun God.png|thumb|220px|[[Ninurta]] with his thunderbolts battles the winged [[Anzû]], palace relief, [[Nineveh]].]]

The early second millennium BC [[Akkadian literature|Akkadian]] epic ''Anzû'' tells the story of another combat of Ninurta with a monstrous challenger.<ref>Penglase, pp. 44–47; West 1997, pp. 301–302; Ogden 2013a, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA78 p. 78]; Dalley 1989 (2000) [https://books.google.com/books?id=7ERp_y_w1nIC&pg=PA222 pp. 222 ff.].</ref> This second foe is the winged monster [[Anzû]], another offspring of Earth. Like Hesiod's Typhon, Anzû roared like a lion,<ref>West 1997, p. 301.</ref> and was the source of destructive storm winds. Ninurta destroys Anzû on a mountainside, and is portrayed as lashing the ground where Anzû lay with a rainstorm and floodwaters, just as Homer has Zeus lash the land about Typhon with his thunderbolts.<ref>West 1997, p. 301.</ref>

=====Marduk vs. Tiamat=====

The early second-millennium BC [[Babylonia]]n-[[Akkadian literature|Akkadian]] creation epic ''[[Enūma Eliš]]'' tells the story of the battle of the Babylonian supreme god [[Marduk]] with [[Tiamat]], the Sea personified.<ref>Fontenrose, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA148 pp. 148–151]; West 1966, pp. 22–24; West 1997, pp. 67–68, 280–282; Ogden 2013a, pp. 11–12.</ref>  Like Zeus, Marduk was a storm-god, who employed wind and lightning as weapons, and who, before he can succeed to the kingship of the gods, must defeat a huge and fearsome enemy in single combat.<ref>Fontenrose, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA150 150], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA158 158]; West 1966, pp. 23–24; West 1997, pp. 282, 302.</ref> This time the monster is female, and may be related to the Pythian dragoness [[Delphyne]],<ref>Penglase, pp. 87–88.</ref> or Typhon's mate Echidna, since like Echidna, Tiamat was the mother of a brood of monsters.<ref>Fontenrose, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA149 149], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA152 152]; West 1966, pp. 244, 379; West 1997, p. 468. Although Gaia's attitude toward Zeus in Hesiod's ''Theogony'' is mostly benevolent: protecting him as a child (479 ff.), helping him to defeat the Titans (626–628), advising him to swallow Metis, thereby protecting him from overthrow, (890–894). she also (apparently with malice) gives birth to Zeus' worst enemy Typhon; West 1966, p. 24, sees in the Tiamat story a possible explanation for this "odd little inconsistency".
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