CHAPTER V SYMBOLISM OF THE MOTHER AND OF REBIRTH
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav) and Hinkle, Beatrice M.
To relate to him all that Tiâmat plotted.
Tiâmat, our mother, has taken an aversion to us,
Has prepared a riotous mob, furiously raging.”
The gods finally opposed Marduk, the god of spring, the victorious sun, against the fearful host of Tiâmat. Marduk prepared for battle. Of his chief weapon, which he created, it is said:
“He created the evil wind, Imḫullu, the south storm and the hurricane,
The fourth wind, the seventh wind, the whirlwind and the harmful wind,
Then let he loose the winds, which he had created, the seven:
To cause confusion within Tiâmat, they followed behind him,
Then the lord took up the cyclone, his great weapon;
For his chariot he mounted the stormwind, the incomparable, the terrible one.”
His chief weapon is the wind and a net, with which he will entangle Tiâmat. He approaches Tiâmat and challenges her to a combat.
“Then Tiâmat and Marduk, the wise one of the gods, came together,
Rising for the fight, approaching to the battle:
Then the lord spread out his net and caught her.
He let loose the Imḫullu in his train at her face,
Then Tiâmat now opened her mouth as wide as she could.
He let the Imḫullu rush in so that her lips could not close;
With the raging winds he filled her womb.
Her inward parts were seized and she opened wide her mouth.
He touched her with the spear, dismembered her body,
He slashed her inward parts, and cut out her heart,
Subdued her and put an end to her life.
He threw down her body and stepped upon it.”
After Marduk slew the mother, he devised the creation of the world.
“There the lord rested contemplating her body,
Then divided he the Colossus, planning wisely.
He cut it apart like a flat fish, into two parts,[530]
One half he took and with it he covered the Heavens.”
In this manner Marduk created the universe from the mother. It is clearly evident that the killing of the mother-dragon here takes place under the idea of a wind fecundation with negative accompaniments.
The world is created from the mother, that is to say, from the libido taken away from the mother through sacrifice. We shall have to consider this significant formula more closely in the last chapter. The most interesting parallels to this primitive myth are to be found in the literature of the Old Testament, as Gunkel[531] has brilliantly pointed out. It is worth while to trace the psychology of these parallels.
Isaiah li:9:
(9) “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in the generation of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
(10) “Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”
The name of Rahab is frequently used for Egypt in the Old Testament, also dragon. Isaiah, chapter xxx, verse 7, calls Egypt “the silent Rahab,” and means, therefore, something evil and hostile. Rahab is the well-known whore of Jericho, who later, as the wife of Prince Salma, became the ancestress of Christ. Here Rahab appeared as the old dragon, as Tiâmat, against whose evil power Marduk, or Jehovah, marched forth. The expression “the ransomed” refers to the Jews freed from bondage, but it is also mythological, for the hero again frees those previously devoured by the whale. (Frobenius.)
Psalm, lxxxix:10:
“Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain.”
Job xxvi:12–13:
“He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
“By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens, his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.”
Gunkel places Rahab as identical with Chaos, that is, the same as Tiâmat. Gunkel translates “the breaking to pieces” as “violation.” Tiâmat or Rahab as the mother is also the whore. Gilgamesh treats Ishtar in this way when he accuses her of whoredom. This insult towards the mother is very familiar to us from dream analysis. The dragon Rahab appears also as Leviathan, the water monster (maternal sea).