In the
Babylonian epic
Enuma Elish, Kishar () is the daughter of
Abzu and
Lahmu, the first children of
Tiamat
In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( or , ) is the primordial sea, mating with Abzû (Apsu), the groundwater, to produce the gods in the Babylonian epic '' Enûma Elish'', which translates as "when on high". She is referred to as a woman, an ...
and
Abzu. She is the female principle, sister and wife of
Anshar, the male principle, and the mother of
Anu.
Kishar may represent the earth as a counterpart to Anshar, the sky,
[Black, Jeremy and Anthony Green, 1992. ''Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary.'' London: British Museum Press. p. 34.] and can be seen as an
earth mother goddess. Her name also means "Whole Earth".
Kishar appears only once in Enuma Elish, in the opening lines of the epic, and then disappears from the remainder of the story. She appears only occasionally in other first millennium BCE texts, where she can be equated with the goddess
Antu.
References
External links
Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Anšar and Kišar (god and goddess)
Mesopotamian goddesses
Earth goddesses
Nature goddesses
Characters in the Enūma Eliš
Mother goddesses
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