In the blackness of the early days, in the days before time was recorded and before the tongues of men first spoke, a mighty chaos swirled throughout the void. Waters, both the salted and the pure, separated as Tiamat cleaved them apart with her gigantic serpentine body. From their waves sprang her consort, Apsu. Then, from her own flesh and with Apsu’s seed, she brought forth Lahmu and Lahamu, the river silt that would feed all life, then Anshar and Kishar, the horizons of the earth above and below, then An, Enki, and Ninhursag, the primordial gods of creation. In those days, a myriad of strange things came into being. The stars, prophecy, all emerged from Tiamat’s breath, the shake of her mighty head.
In the blackness of the early days, in the days before time was recorded and before th
