Tiamat

The word Tiamat is an Assyrian equivalent of the Hebrew tehom and is an Assyrian name both of the personified sea and of a female mythical sea-monster. There are three sources regarding conceptions of Tiamat: Damascius, Berosos, a Baal temple priest during the time of Alexander the Great, and the Babylonian account of creation. Damascius and Berosos both obtained their information from Babylonian sources. The Babylonian tablets stated that Marduk was offered to avenge the great gods against Tiamat’s deeds. It is learned from Assyrian and Babylonian sculptures and seals that Tiamat was regarded as the female water principle and as a sea dragon. The sea dragon was intended to signify both the power and the repulsion of this evil enemy of the great gods. Marduk eventually conquers Tiamat and divides her body into two, from which he creates the earth and heaven. There was an idea throughout the ancient Near East that evil is associated with the sea. This point is also displayed in Genesis 1.