Tiamat was the primordial goddess who personified the saltwater ocean in Babylonian myth.
She is best known from the Enūma Eliš, the Babylonian creation epic. At the beginning of the story, Tiamat represents the saltwater sea, while Apsu represents the subterranean freshwater ocean. Their waters mingle, producing the first generations of gods before the ordered cosmos exists.
After Apsu is killed by the younger gods, Tiamat becomes their enemy. She takes the god Qingu as her consort, creates monstrous forces, and gives him the Tablet of Destinies, a symbol of cosmic authority. The storm god Marduk eventually fights and defeats her.
Marduk’s victory establishes Babylon’s supremacy in the epic’s theology. He cuts Tiamat’s body in two and uses the parts to organize the heavens and the earth. Tiamat is therefore both a motherly creative sea and a powerful embodiment of primordial chaos. Qingu and Mummu are associated with her story, but neither personifies the saltwater ocean itself; Apsu is the freshwater counterpart.