Bemerkungen zu Namma und weiteren Wassergottheiten
The Babylonian Enūma eliš opens with the well-known motif of the primeval waters covering the world. Although this motif is very important in Enūma eliš itself and in other cosmogonies of the Ancient Near East, it is not attested in identified Mesopotamian creation accounts older than Enūma eliš and...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2017
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| In: |
Altorientalische Forschungen
Year: 2017, Volume: 44, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-8 |
| Further subjects: | B
Abzu
B Namma B water god B Tiāmtu B water goddess B literary motifs B combat motif |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Babylonian Enūma eliš opens with the well-known motif of the primeval waters covering the world. Although this motif is very important in Enūma eliš itself and in other cosmogonies of the Ancient Near East, it is not attested in identified Mesopotamian creation accounts older than Enūma eliš and it can be found just in the old Babylonian divine name d ama- tu -an-ki „Mother, creator of heaven and earth“, a byname of the goddess Namma, the personified ground waters. This paper provides a brief overview of the motifs of personified waters in Mesopotamian texts of the third and second millennia. The sources argue for the existence of a southern Mesopotamian tradition with the personified ground waters and a western tradition with the personified sea. These traditions were combined together in Enūma eliš , where the male god Apsû embodied the ground waters . Abzu/Apsû doesn’t appear to have been personified until the second half of the second millennium. The paper closes with a critique of Lambert’s etymology of the name Namma. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-6761 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Altorientalische Forschungen
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/aofo-2017-0001 |