Mummu
| Ancient Mesopotamian religion |
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Demigods and heroes
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| Other traditions |
Mummu is a Mesopotamian deity. In ancient Sumerian, his name translates to "the one who has awoken".
He appeared in the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish as the vizier of the primeval gods Apsû, the fresh water, and Tiamat, the salt water.[1] and sometimes referred to as their son.[citation needed] Towards the middle of Enuma Elish, Ea locks Mummu and Apsu away. Mummu is also one of the names given to Marduk, the ultimate victor over Tiamat.
Mummu is a craftsman, the personification of technical skill and, as the third of the primordial gods, Mummu symbolizes the mental world, the logos.[citation needed]
The word mummu appears also the Sumerian Myth of Zu where Imdugud, whose name is translated as 'flashing wind', steals the Tablets of Destiny but in turn is defeated by Ningirsu. In their battle an arrow in midair is ordered to return to its 'mummu', which in this case meant the shaft's return to the living reed from which it was cut, the guts return to the animal's rump and finally the feathers to the bird's wings. Therefore in a larger magnitude, mummu is detransformation, the return to chaos, demanifacturing.[citation needed]
In popular culture[edit]
In popular writing, Mummu is mentioned in Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! Trilogy as 'The Spirit of Pure Chaos'.[2]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Liebowitz Knapp, Bettina (1997). Women in myth. SUNY Press. p. 270. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
- ^ Shea, Robert; Robert Anton Wilson (1983). The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Dell. p. 805.[citation needed]
References[edit]
- Sandars, N. K. Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
