The Mesopotamian primordial ocean(s): changes and continuities on the creative agency of the primeval aquatic deities (3rd and 2nd millennia BC)

The Mesopotamian literary traditions dated to the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC depict a conception regarding the primeval substance, from which all deities and aspects of nature came to exist, as divine ocean(s). The simultaneous cosmogonic and theogonic processes were thus attributed to the agency of the primeval aquatic deities, who alone, in the case of the Sumerian goddess Namma, or in pair, in the case of the Akkadian divine couple Tiāmat and Apsû, set time and cosmic life in motion. Having in mind the cumulative nature of the Mesopotamian religious system, where tradition and innovation were encompassed to accommodate mythical (re)elaborations, this paper will address the differences and continuities that one can identify in the agency of these divine figures.