t at the thought of the
evil plan which they had devised against "the gods their sons." The
inscription being very mutilated here, its full drift cannot be
gathered, but from the complete portions which come later it would
seem that Mummu's plan was not a remarkably cunning one, being simply
to make war upon and destroy the gods of heaven.

Tiawath's preparations.

The preparations made for this were elaborate. Restlessly, day and
night, the powers of evil raged and toiled, and assembled for the
fight. "Mother Hubur," as Tiawath is named in this passage, called her
creative powers into action, and gave her followers irresistible
weapons. She brought into being also various monsters--giant serpents,
sharp of tooth, bearing stings, and with poison filling their bodies
like blood; terrible dragons endowed with brilliance, and of enormous
stature, reared on high, raging dogs, scorpion-men, fish-men, and many
other terrible beings, were created and equipped, the whole being
placed under the command of a deity named Kingu, whom she calls her
"only husband," and to whom she delivers the tablets of fate, which
conferred upon him the godhead of Anu (the heavens), and enabled their
possessor to determine the gates among the gods her sons.

Kingu replaces Absu.

The change in the narrative which comes in here suggests that this is
the point at which two legends current in Babylonia were united.
Henceforward we hear nothing more of Apsu, the begetter of all things,
Tiawath's spouse, nor of Mummu, their son. In all probability there is
good reason for this, and inscriptions will doubtless ultimately be
found which will explain it, but until then it is only natural to
suppose that two different legends have been pieced together to form a
harmonious whole.

Tiawath's aim.

As will be gathered from the above, the story centres in the wish of
the goddess of the powers of evil and her kindred to retain creation--the
forming of all living things--in her own hands. As Tiawath means
"the sea," and Apsu "the deep," it is probable that this is a kind of
allegory personifying the productive power seen in the teeming life of
the ocean, and typifying the strange and wonderful forms found
therein, which were symbolical, to the Babylonian mind, of chaos and
confusion, as well as of evil.

The gods hear of the conspiracy.

Aa, or Ea, hav