Thalassa (Θάλασσα)

Thalassa is the Greek word for sea. In Greek mythology, Thalassa was also a sea goddess and the personification of the Mediterranean Sea. She was the daughter of Aether and Hemera, and the mother of Halia and (according to one story) the nine Telchines. She was also sometimes thought of as the mother of Aphrodite, Uranus, and Zeus.



Some linguists suspect a linguistic tie between the Greek goddess Thalassa and the Babylonian/Sumerian Tiamat, a Babylonian sea goddess sometimes referred to as a "chaos monster." The Greek and Babylonian words for "sea" directly correspond to the names of sea goddesses in each respective language and civilization. Thalattē was another Babylonian variant of Tiamat. Thalattē, Thalatta, and Thalath were Greek variants of Thalassa.

Thalassa (gr.) = Thalatta (gr.) = Thalath (gr.) = Thalattē (gr./bab.) = Tiamat (bab.)

These linguistic ties are only theory, however they serve as a very convincing indication of cultural and linguistic cross-over.

Linguists Thorkild Jacobsen and Walter Burket further argue that there is a connection between Tiamat and tâmtu, the Akkadian word for sea. Tâmtu is derived from an earlier version, ti'amtum. Burket further argues for a linguistic connection to Tethys [background info: she was an aquatic goddess who in Greek mythology was considered the mother of major rivers such as the Nile, the Alpheus, the Maeander, and around three thousand daughters called the Oceanids (she was also the sister and wife of Oceanus, daughter of Uranus and Gaia)].

It is often thought that Tiamat and the the Hebrew תהום (tehom), meaning deep or abyss, share a common origin (Ugaritic t-h-m is also thought to be a cognate) The word tehom appears in the Torah/Hebrew Bible in Genesis 1:2:

"veharetz hayta tohu vavohu vekhoshekh al-pnei tehom veruach elohim merakhefet al-pnei hamayyim". "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.". (King James version)

Mesopotamian/Sumerian creation myths speak of a "mixing of waters" in what is now the Persian Gulf, where the mixing of fresh and salt water is a natural phenomenon even today (in these myths Tiamat represents saltwater and Apsu or Abzu represents fresh water). Another creation myth tells of the slaughter of Tiamat by the god Marduk (depicted below).