Cosmic ocean

Or rather something far older and stranger than a cosmos.

A world before heaven and earth, before land and sky, where everything began in the dark mingling of primordial waters.

That phrase, the dark mingling of primordial waters, is not just poetic imagery.

It is the actual starting point of the Enuma Elish, before heaven had been named, before earth had been called into being.

before there were fields cities stars temples kings or human beings there were waters two waters apsu the fresh water and tiamat the salt water the opening lines of the poem introduce them as the first beings but they are also more than beings in the modern sense they are cosmic realities apsu represents the fresh waters beneath the earth the underground reservoirs springs channels and hidden sources that made agriculture possible in mesopotamia tiamat represents the salt-water sea the vast and dangerous waters beyond the settled land and at the beginning these two waters are mixed together not separated not organized not yet turned into a world that is one of the first major differences between the enuma ilish and the way many modern people imagine creation we often picture the beginning as empty space nothing at all a black void with no matter no motion no life but mesopotamian creation does not begin with nothingness it begins with something too much like everything water without boundaries water before rivers have banks water before sea and land are divided water before the sky is lifted above the earth an undifferentiated mass fertile and dangerous at the same time think of it like trying to imagine the world before anyone had drawn lines on a map no countries no cities no roads no fields no place where one thing ends and another begins now take that idea even further no land no sky no dry ground no fixed direction no names just the mingling of fresh water and salt water in the darkness before the universe has taken shape for the ancient babylonians this was not an abstract idea pulled out of nowhere water governed their lives mesopotamia was a land built between rivers especially the tigris and euphrates Those rivers brought mud, water, crops, transport, fish, reeds, and the possibility of cities.

Then comes Anu, the sky god, then Ea, also called Enki in Sumerian tradition, the god of wisdom, magic, craft, and the deep fresh waters.

And suddenly, the universe has generations.

that matters because the enuma elish is not just a creation story it is a family story a divine family story which means it is also a story about inheritance authority resentment and the terrifying moment when children become too powerful for their parents at first the younger gods are simply there multiplying and moving within the primordial waters but the poem describes them as restless active noisy they disturb apsu now we should be careful here ancient myth does not work like a modern novel where every character has a detailed psychological profile the poem does not pause to tell us exactly what apsu is feeling in a modern emotional sense but the point is clear enough The old order is being disrupted by the new generation.

It can mean the beginning of creation.

And this is where the Egyptian idea of the primeval waters becomes crucial.

Before there was land, before there was sky, before the sun crossed the heavens, before the gods took their places, and before human beings existed, Egyptian creation traditions often imagined an endless dark expanse of water.

This was none.

That is a very different idea.

In one major Egyptian creation tradition, associated especially with Heliopolis, the creator god Atum comes into being within none.

He rises from the primeval waters, often connected with the first mound of dry land, emerging from the deep.

From there creation unfolds, air is separated from moisture.