Abzu

Abzu.

“	...She who was burned from cursed... turnest thy blade on me...? Though it be ages since I last fought, I shall not lose to thee...	„
	~ Abzu.

Abzu, also known as Apsu, Apzu or Engur, is the Primordial God of the Ocean and Wisdom. He also personifies the watery abyss, basically the deification of the vast primordial fresh water beneath the Earth that serves as the source of all lakes, rivers, springs, streams, and wells.

Description

He is the source of knowledge and was the lover of Tiamat, the primal goddess of the salt water, and together they created the gods in the Babylonian mythology. He is the father of Lahmu, Lahamu, Anu and Ki.

Abzu is depicted as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Elish, taken from the library of Ashurbanipal but which is about 500 years older. In this story, he was a primal being made of freshwater and a lover to the primal goddess Tiamat. Abzu could not quell the noise of the younger gods or their children. He colluded with his vizier Mummu to silence the gods and allow Tiamat to rest, after Tiamat rejected the idea.

Overview

The Enuma Elish begins: "When above the heavens did not yet exist nor the earth below, Apsu the freshwater ocean was there, the first, the begetter, and Tiamat, the saltwater sea, she who bore them all; they were still mixing their waters, and no pasture land had yet been formed, nor even a reed marsh."

This resulted in the birth of the younger gods, who later murder Apsu in order to usurp his lordship of the universe. Enraged, Tiamat gives birth to the first dragons, filling their bodies with "venom instead of blood", and made war upon her treacherous children, only to be slain by Marduk, the god of storms, who then forms the heavens and Earth from her corpse.

He is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilizing quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the Abzu.