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The Babylonian epic ''[[Enuma Elish]]'' is named for its [[incipit]]: "When above" the heavens did not yet exist nor the earth below, [[Apsu]] the subterranean ocean was there, "the first, the begetter", and Tiamat, the overground sea, "she who bore them all"; they were "mixing their waters". It is thought that female deities are older than male ones in [[Mesopotamia]] and Tiamat may have begun as part of the cult of [[Nammu]], a female principle of a watery creative force, with equally strong connections to the underworld, which predates the appearance of Ea-Enki.
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バビロニアの叙事詩『エヌマ・エリシュ』は、その序文にその名がある。「天がまだ存在せず、地がまだ存在しないとき、地底の海アプスーは「最初の、生みの親」であり、地上の海ティアマトは「すべてを産んだ女」であり、彼らは「水を混ぜ合わせていた」のである。メソポタミアでは、女性の神々は男性の神々よりも古く、ティアマトは、Ea-Enkiの登場以前に、同じく地下世界と強いつながりを持つ、水の創造力の女性原理であるNammuの信仰の一部として始まった可能性があると考えられている<ref>Steinkeller, Piotr, On Rulers, Priests and Sacred Marriage: Tracing the Evolution of Early Sumerian Kingship, Wanatabe K., Priests and Officials in the Ancient Near East , Heidelberg, Winter, 1999, pages103–38, isbn:3-8253-0533-3</ref>。
ハリエット・クロフォードは、この「水の混合」を、アラビア帯水層からの淡水と海の塩水が混ざり合い、混じり合うペルシャ湾中部の自然の姿であると見なしている。
[[Harriet Crawford]] finds this "mixing of the waters" to be a natural feature of the middle [[Persian Gulf]], where fresh waters from the Arabian aquifer mix and mingle with the salt waters of the sea.<ref>{{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Harriet E. W. |author-link=Harriet Crawford |year=1998 |title=Dilmun and Its Gulf Neighbours |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-58348-9 }}</ref> This characteristic is especially true of the region of [[Bahrain]], whose name in [[Arabic language|Arabic]] means "two seas", and which is thought to be the site of [[Dilmun]], the original site of the Sumerian creation beliefs.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Crawford |editor-first=Harriet |editor2-last=Killick |editor2-first=Robert |editor3-last=Moon |editor3-first=Jane |year=1997 |title=The Dilmun Temple at Saar: Bahrain and Its Archaeological Inheritance |publisher=Saar Excavation Reports / London-Bahrain Archaeological Expedition: Kegan Paul |isbn=0-7103-0487-0 }}</ref> The difference in density of salt and fresh water drives a perceptible separation.
