Tiamat
According to Assyro-Babylonian mythology, at the beginning of the world there were two primordial beings-Apsu, the male incarnation of fresh water and space; and Tiamat, the female incarnation of the sea and chaos.1
The coming of order-the division of light from darkness, of the heavens and the earth from the waters-required that the first dragons be conquered, since they were demons of disorder. Their foes were gods, not men, for these leviathans existed long before humankind appeared.2
On that very day when the Unicorn drew forth from barren rock a gushing spring of life, the seeds of doom were sown as well. For even as those shining waters spread their fertile moisture, they poured into unlighted fissures and trickled down to secret, burning caverns that wound among the mountains’ roots.
There, in those abysmal chambers, the sacred waters’ life-bestowing charge was first expended in raising up a living thing. And thus in fire and in darkness was the Dragon born. Her nature bears everlasting testimony to the uneasy birth, and ever after, no other creature has possessed the same measure of strength and cunning.
Now the first dragon was Yaldabaoth (though she is called Tliamat as well, and many other names besides). She was fearsomely wrought, with darting, lidless eyes; and the first sight caught in her unblinking gaze was her own image, reflected in the dark waters. She worshipped the sight, and a secret lust for that selfsame image consumed her heart for all time since.
And Yaldabaoth grew great and spawned others like herself: Nagamat and Kaliyet and Orkus, Tarasque and Serpens; and many more besides. Now while dragons are of many sizes and shapes, all are swift and sharp of intellect, and thirst after knowledge. While the Unicorn seeks to divine the secrets of creation that he may more perfectly know the Creator, the Dragon desires the same that it may gain dominion over all the world, and thereby conquer death.3
Poets of every ancient land spoke of the titanic patterns of their conflicts. From the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, formed by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, came the earliest tales. There, thousands of years ago, an unknown scribe in the land of Babylon set down on seven clay tablets a story of creation that had already descended through generations of his people by word of mouth.
In the beginning, wrote the scribe, when all was dark and formless, two primal beings came into existence. One was male, the spirit of fresh water and the void, and it was called Apsu. The other was female, the spirit of salt water and chaos, and it was a dragon, composed of elements of dangerous creatures yet to come: It possessed the jaws of a crocodile, the teeth of a lion, the wings of a bat, the legs of a lizard, the talons of an eagle, the body of a python, the horns of a bull. The dragon’s name was Tiamat.
The union of these two creatures, wrote the scribe, spawned the gods, and one of them killed his father, Apsu.2
ABSU rose up to slay the Elder Gods by stealth.
With magick charm and spell ABSU fought,
But was slain by the sorcery of the Elder Gods.
And it was their first victory.
His body was lain in an empty Space
In a crevice of the heavens
Hid He was lain,
But his blood cried out to the Abode of Heaven.4
Then in her dragon’s fury, Tiamat gave birth to a new kind of offspring, a menagerie of monsters to afflict her first brood. She brought forth scorpion men and demon lions, giant serpents and-lesser versions of herself-glittering dragons. Chaos reigned in the formless void.
In order to defend themselves, the gods called one of their own number as a champion.2 MARDUK was chosen of the Elders to fight KUR and wrest power from the Great Sleeping Serpent who dwells beneath the Mountians of the Scorpion. MARDUK was given a weapon, and a Sign, and Fifty Powers were given to him to fight the awful TIAMAT.4 This was Marduk, who would become lord of the universe. Armed with a net and a club, with poison, with bow and arrow and a quiver of lightning bolts, the god Marduk mounted a storm chariot drawn by four swift and violent steeds. He was escorted by the four winds and a mighty hurricane.
Thus arrayed in terror, Mardruk searched the universe for Tiamat, his dragon mother.2 Transported by the power of a tumultuous, raging tempest, he swiftly reached the appointed battlefield, and at once the massed forces of Tiamat arose to destroy him.1
She summoned the Viper, the Dragon, and the Winged Bull,
The Great Lion, the Mad-Dog, and the Scorpion-Man.
Mighty rabid Demons, Feathered-Serpents, the Horse-Man,
Bearing weapons that spare not
Fearless in Battle,
Charmed with the spells of ancient sorcery,
…withal Eleven of this kind she brought forth
With KINGU as Leader of the Minions.4
But as Tiamat approached, with her troops in her wake, Marduk flung his net over this vast monster, enveloping her in an inextricable tangle of mesh that bound her so tightly she was unable to break free. Immediately, Marduk directed the wild fury of the hurricane into her face, and as expected, Tiamat opened her colossal jaws in a frenzied attempt to engulf her persecutor. The hurricane surged into her moth, exerting the full force of its raging power to prevent her from closing her jaws again, gripping her heart with chill fingers of ice and inflating her belly with its vigorous breath.1 Then, taking aim with his bow, Marduk shot an arrow between Tiamat’s open jaws, straight down into her heart.
“Her inner parts he cleft,” wrote the scribe. “He split her heart. He rendered her powerless and destroyed her life. He felled her body and stood upright on it.”
The death of Tiamat threw her beast-brood into confusion, and they fled for their lives. But Marduk caught them all in his net and put them in chains and threw them into the infernal regions.2
The old order was no more. Once he had annihilated all her panic-stricken followers, too, Marduk set about creating an entire world from the carcass of Tiamat. After cleaving her body in two, he fashioned one half into the heavens, and molded the other into the earth. He set the stars in the heavens and garnished the earth with fields, forests, rivers, and mountains, populating them with a teeming myriad of wildlife.1
From the Blood of KINGU he fashioned Man.
He constructed Watchtowers for the Elder Gods
Fixing their astral bodies as constellations
That they may watch the Gate of ABSU
The Gate of TIAMAT they watch
The Gate of KINGU they oversee
The Gate whose Guardian is IAK SAKKAK they bind.
All the Elder Powers resist
The Force of Ancient Artistry
The Magick Spell of the Oldest Ones
The Incantation of the Primal Power
The Mountain KUR, the Serpent God
The Mountain MASHU, that of Magick
The Dead KUTULU, Dead but Dreaming
TIAMAT, Dead but Dreaming
And shall their generation come again?4
The world turned dark and I believed I swooned, though somehow I did not fall. Mind reeling, I gained my wits, and saw that I stood no longer above a hissing sea, but in a craggy wilderness overlooking a shadowy plain! The ramparts above us were gone; there was not the slightest sign of human habitation. I turned in utmost confusion to my host, and he responded with a look of grave intensity.
“Behold Magh Dá Cheo, the Plain of the Two Mists,” he said. “Follow, if you wish to know the beginnings.”
I followed. The ground was moist, and a rich damp fragrance filled the air. Wild mountians rose beyond the plan, and the sun hung at the horizon just as in the world we had left behind us. My host moved quickly forward down a narrow defile, for light was waning. We threaded our way along a path between jagged outcroppings, all overgrown in places with a rich cloak of fern and moss glowing like jewels in the last golden rays of the sun. There seemed to be ancient languages writ in the delicate wrinkles that adorned the rocks, but I cannot say for sure. My spirit rose in gladness, for I had found my way into the magic hidden realm!
The dying light illuminated a great and convoluted thing hanging in the darkness. Along moment I regarded it in puzzlement, until with a start I saw it was a monstrous skull unlike any creature that I knew. Its forehead was fully three spans in width, and armed with horns and tusks. Yet it was also a thing of fierce and efficient beauty, and I knew suddenly that through the flesh was gone a refined and ancient will remained. Like a shining sword, it was both supremely rational and mystical. It would accept no obstacle; it would penetrate every opposing strategy in pursuit of higher purpose.3
- Dragons A Natural History by Dr. Karl Shuker, Simon & Schuster 1995
- DRAGONS (The Enchanted World) by the Editors of Time-Life Books 1984
- Quest: In Search of the Dragontooth by Michael Green, Running Press 1994
- Necronomicon by Simon, Avon Books 1980