conception connected with T'hom are to be met with
in the poetry of the Old and New Testament.[694] The 'Rahab' and
'Leviathan' and the 'Dragon' of the apocalypse belong to the same order
of ideas that produced Tiamat. All these monsters represent a popular
attempt to picture the chaotic condition that prevailed before the great
gods obtained control and established the order of heavenly and
terrestrial phenomena. The belief that water was the original element
existing in the universe and the 'source' of everything, may also have
had its rise in the popular mind. It was suggested in the Euphrates
Valley, in part, by the long-continued rainy season, as a result of
which the entire region was annually flooded. The dry land and
vegetation appeared, only after the waters had receded. The yearly
phenomenon brought home to the minds of the Babylonians, a picture of
primaeval chaos.

In the schools of theology that arose with the advance of culture, these
two notions--water as the first element and a general conception of
chaos--were worked out with the result that Apsu and Tiamat became
mythical beings whose dominion preceded that of the gods. Further than
this the questionings of the schoolmen did not go. They conceived of a
time when neither the upper firmament nor the dry land existed and when
the gods were not yet placed in control, but they could not conceive of
a time when there was 'nothing' at all. This cosmological theory which
we may deduce from the fragment of the first tablet of the creation
series is confirmed by the accounts that have come down to us--chiefly
through Damascius--of the treatment of the subject by Berosus.[695]
Damascius explicitly places the Babylonians among those nations who fail
to carry back the universe to an ultimate single source. There is
nothing earlier than the two beings--Apsu and Tiamat.[696]

The massing together of the primaeval waters completes the picture of
chaos in the cuneiform account. From the popular side, the commingling
corresponds to the _Tohu wa Bohu_ of the Book of Genesis, but for the
Babylonian theologians, this embrace of Apsu and Tiamat becomes a symbol
of 'sexual' union.[697] As the outcome of this union, the gods are
produced. This dependence of the gods upon Apsu and Tiamat is but
vaguely indicated. Another theory appears to have existed according to
which the gods were contemporaneous with primaeval chaos. The vagueness
may therefore be the result of a compromi