Abzu Apsu

The Primordial Water

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Dragons of Fame Apsu

Source: https://www.blackdrago.com/fame/apsu.htm

Over time, Apsu gained many names. In one of his original incarnations, the dragon was feminine, which was why he had the name Zigarun, which was Akkadian for "The Mother who has Begotten Heaven and Earth."

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Apsu was another Akkadian name, and he was also known as Apason and Rishtu. In Assyro-Babylonian mythology, he was known as Apzu, in Sumerian mythology, Abzu. To the Babylonians, he was Aphson.

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According to the ancient wisdom of Mesopotamia, all life came from the water. At first, Apsu was perceived as a feminine entity, but he later became a personal god, the husband-dragon of Tiamat and the father of the first deities. Apsu was the personification of the sweet water ocean that ran under the earth, for he was the ruler of all fresh water.

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In the great creation myth recounted in the Enuma Elish, in the beginning, there was no earth or sky, only the waste and confusion of the primordial oceans existed. Apsu was the sweet water that encircled the earth, and he fused with the female principle, Tiamat, the personification of salt water. This was the beginning of creation:

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“When sweet and bitter mingled together,
No reed was plaited, no rushes muddied the water,
The gods were nameless, natureless, futureless,
...from Apsu and Tiamat,
in the waters gods were created,
in the waters silt precipitated.” - Enuma Elish

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As their children, the gods, flourished, their numbers increased, and they attempted to make order from the primordial chaos.

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In some accounts, Apsu and Tiamat could not bear the noise and uproar caused by the younger gods, and so Apsu planned to eliminate them. But other versions claimed that the rebelliousness of the new deities angered Apsu and his wife or that Apsu overheard his children plotting to kill him.

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Whatever the cause for his alarm, Apsu decided to stop his children, and he and his wife called upon Mummu for assistance. Tiamat, despite her anger, declined to kill her descendants when Mummu and Apsu joined forces.

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Thus, the struggle between the old, primordial deities and the new order began. In the Babylonian creation epic, Enki killed Apsu with either magic weapons or a magic incantation, then locked Mummu away. In other versions, Enki cast a spell on Apsu, setting him into a deep sleep, so that the deity could kill the monstrous dragon-god.

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In wake of his victory, Enki established his new home on the corpse of Apsu. He lived in his new abode thereafter with his spouse, Damkina (Ninhursag), and there they became parents of the deity Marduk.

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“Pulled down the bar and posted guards.
He squared Apsu's quarter, the abode of Nudimmud,
As the lord measured the dimensions of Apsu.
The Great Abode, its likeness, he fixed as Esharra,
The Great Abode, Esharra, which he made as the firmament.
Anu, Enlil, and Ea he made occupy their places.” - Enuma Elish

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Other versions attribute the restructuring of Apsu to Marduk, who kept Apsu at his foot after defeating Tiamat in battle. Apsu's death caused his wife Tiamat to revolt with an army of monsters and renegade gods to avenge her spouse's death.

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Apsu as a Sacred Place

The word 'apsu' sometimes referred to a sacred place in the watery depths, where Apsu the dragon dwelled and later the god Enki resided. As a place name, apsu was used to refer to the extensive sweet waters that produced the southern Mesopotamian marshlands when it became the home to the wise god Enki and the birthplace of Marduk. In one Sumerian myth, apsu was a river or sea from which Enki gathered clay and shaped the deities; in another, it was where the goddesss Nammu formed the first human being from clay.

Martyrium - Into The Labyrinths Of The Absu

Lyrics

In a dream of a twisted reality...

A distorted vision of an unknown land

Blazed in darkness under deserts of sand

In the berth of all evil I pace, speechless

The winds speak my name

For I am the messenger of the Gods

The one who found the formula

To pass Arzir against all odds

One thousand moons I've seen

I'm the prophet

Alsi ku nushi ya! Kia mass ssaratu!

Chosen to seek the serpent's children

To battle forth the liers-in-wait

Int he spaces where no mortal walks

Where the old ones sleep, in chaos, in hate

Ensnared by the unwelcoming hand

Of he who made the stars!

Charms against my spellbound path

Enki protect your ones!

I descend with the Three Seals of Masshu

Into the labyrinths of the Absu...

A column of fire with a blazing head of stone

It watches me as in the pit I am blown

From felon winds abominations come forth

Plague-wielder Pazuzu and Magick Lord Azag Thoth!

Lord of all fevers angel with four wings

Controls the storms controls the four winds

They haul me down in their realm

And lunged their curses against my charm

I dive the depths of the ancient sea

Gods! Hear your servant and come for me

The ancient mother I witness sleeping

Awaiting the necromancer's calling

For Tiamat ever seeks to conquer the stars

For the Battle of Old has left its scars

Ensnared by the unwelcoming hand

Of he who made the stars!

Charms against my spellbound path

Enki protect your ones!

Descended with the Three Seals of Masshu

Into the labyrinths of the Absu...

Source: https://the-demonic-paradise.fandom.com/wiki/Abzu

Absu - Ontologically, It Became Time & Space

Lyrics

Yawning benthos came first, terra firma, next Desire

Erebus of old Night, Day of Aethyr

Neither of these were Being, reality, nor Non-being

Perdurability, neither of death

[Chorus:]

The Wanderers of the Waste infested plateaus:

Time and Space

Then, Sirius prearranged calendars of lone

Continuum

Astral sketch was not self-incandescent

Its light was produced by rays of the Sun

Eyeless void felt generations of heat

The first seed of Mind – The Light of the South

Breath by itself

Without wind, pyramids…

Concentrated

Cyclic flux, triangles…

Air nor Earth nor were protected as of yet.

The water was not deep, yet unfathomable

Nonentity occurred

Darkness swathed in darkness: unmanifestation

[Decree:]

Chaos never dies

Sothis hides beyond the aeon

Locked forever

Unfaltering

The Sun behind the Sun spawns twin aspects of tide

Up, down was beginning to frame itself

Casters of the second seed gained control (of the Deep)

Energy was beneath - impulse above.

[Chorus]

Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/b5Xneg

Pictures Videos Music and Additional Reading

ABZU OST / Soundtrack from the Video Game ➜ http://www.abzugame.com/

Abzu

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abzu

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The Abzu or Apsu (Sumerian: 𒀊𒍪 abzu; Akkadian: apsû), also called engur (Cuneiform:𒇉, LAGAB×HAL; Sumerian: engur; Akkadian: engurru—lit. ab='water' zu='deep', recorded in Greek as Ἀπασών Apasṓn), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising 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. In Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, it is referred to as the primeval sea below the void space of the underworld (Kur) and the earth (Ma) above.

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Sumerian culture

In the city of Eridu, Enki's temple was known as E-abzu (house of the deep waters) and was located at the edge of a swamp, an abzu. Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called abzu (apsû). Typical in religious washing, these tanks were similar to Judaism's mikvot, the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches.

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Sumerian Cosmology

The Sumerian god Enki (Ea in the Akkadian language) was believed to have lived in the abzu since before human beings were created. His wife Damgalnuna, his mother Nammu, his advisor Isimud and a variety of subservient creatures, such as the gatekeeper Lahmu, also lived in the abzu.

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As a Deity

Abzu (apsû) is depicted as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic, the Enūma Eliš, taken from the library of Assurbanipal (c. 630 BCE) but which is about 500 years older. In this story, he was a primal being made of fresh water and a lover to another primal deity, Tiamat, a creature of salt water. The Enūma Eliš begins:

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"When above the heavens (e-nu-ma e-liš) 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."

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This resulted in the birth of the younger gods, who later murdered 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.

Sinister - Awaiting The Absu

Lyrics

I invoke thee, nameless beings

Children of the underworld

Covered with blood

Embraced by fire, ANNU spawned

Call upon the dead

They were and once more will be

Warriors of KUR

Rulers of the black earth

Screaming demons

Children of the serpent god

VENGEANCE IS SWORN!

Wreak vengeance upon them

Secret covenant will have revenge

From the depths the nameless will rise

The seven lords reborn in UR

The cold burning sword beholds the wrath

Suffer - in pain

Suffer - bleeding

Suffer - to dream

Covered with blood

Embraced by fire, ANNU spawned

Screaming demons

Children of the serpent god

VENGEANCE IS SWORN!

Call upon the dead

They were and once more will be

Warriors of KUR

Rulers of the black earth

Secret covenant will have revenge

From the depths the nameless will rise

The seven lords reborn in UR

The cold burning sword beholds the wrath

Suffer - in pain

Suffer - bleeding

Suffer - to dream

AWAITING THE ABSU

VENGEANCE IS SWORN!

Invocation in unknown words

Screamed in forgotten tongue

Ruins of UR rumbling

The seed of rebellion reborn

Necromantic art from the kingdom of Woe

CTHULHU sleeps and dreams the burning pain

PAZUZU plague gods, shaped from the blood of KINGU

Calling of the spirits who dwell in the lost

Dark shining world of the ancient horde

Covered with blood

Embraced by fire, ANNU spawned

Screaming demons

Children of the serpent god

VENGEANCE IS SWORN!

Wreak vengeance upon them

Secret covenant will have revenge

From the depths the nameless will rise

The seven lords reborn in UR

The cold burning sword beholds the wrath

Suffer - in pain

Suffer - bleeding

Suffer - to dream

AWAITING THE ABSU

Noctem - Apsu Dethroned

Lyrics

("And the forgotten gods will rise again, forever kings of the empty world, forever kings of everything in everywhere, taking of belongs to them, overthrowing every thing remains today")

Inglorious creator of the primordial earth,

God of the temple of tears,

unleash the hell from the abyss

The sordidness will gobern the earth

You wander on the edge of the void,

destined to defeat the skies,

you have sullied the sanctuary of blood,

lord of dishonorable sepulchers,

king of the black cript of pragmatism,

guardian of the spiritual beliefs.

Seeds of darkness, planted in the chasm,

cultivated between pagan rites

The wind crawl the stench of the death deity

Apsu take my voice, my will,

spread the truth across humanity

Lord of the great twelve kingdoms,

bless me with the breath of the eternal life

by fire or by sword , darkness light my way,

bring me the head of God.

The wind crawl the stench of the death deity

Berossus cites fish-man, Oannes, who imparted "wisdom and knowledge" to mankind (rather like Adam imparts knowledge of good and evil to mankind), is Sumerian U-an, Adapa's Sumerian name:

"...Adapa (Read More Adapa Son of Enki First Apkallu Click), one of the Seven Sages ...They often appear in magic texts and incantations as the abgal (Akkadian apkallu), fish-like creatures under the command of Enki/Ea. The masks worn by some priests represented on seals and a number of Assyrian reliefs are connected with the power of the Apkallu to ward off evil. They were personified as traditionally seven 'culture heroes', sent by Ea to teach mankind the arts of civilization. In the late Babylonian compositon known as the Erra epic. they are called 'the seven sages' of the Apsu, the pure paradu fish, who, just as their lord Ea, have been endowed with sublime wisdom.”