Tiámat e Gaia nas cosmogonias de Enūma Eliš e Teogonia

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the figuration of Tiamat and Gaia in two ancient works: Enūma Eliš (“When on High”, the Babylonian creation epic) and Hesiod’s Theogony. From a comparative perspective between the areas of Classical Studies and Assyriology, with an approach based on ecocritical and queer theories, I seek to investigate how these bodies are figured and procreate in the cosmological narratives in which they are inserted. Not only do these pieces belong to the Mediterranean and Near Eastern convergence zone, but also share, among other themes, the Succession Myth. Throughout my master’s thesis, I observe the corporalities and materialities of water — Tiamat —, and earth — Gaia —, in the cosmogonies. Moreover, I discuss how they compose the fabric of the cosmos. According to the cosmogonic principles, both, in different ways, express the edges of existence in these songs. My study highlights how these humid and telluric bodies outline a poetic cartography. In the analysis of the texts in which these entities occupy the center of cosmic disputes and the processes of engenderment, I compare the mutilation of the multiform body of Tiamat — the creative matter of the Babylonian world —, to the agency and suffering of Gaia in face of the violence that structures the Hesiodic cosmos. By opting for an approach that crosses cultural and disciplinary boundaries, I argue that what the textual artists developed are the result of historical confluences. Investigating the Succession Myth, presented in both the Mesopotamian and Greek traditions, highlights these cultural confluences that shaped the civilisations of the region. Finally, my dissertation proposes that Tiamat-Oceana and Gaia-Earth are the environment, medium and matter where life is constituted. Reflecting on their figurations allows us to grasp how, since the origins of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilisations, different peoples have sought to give meaning to the processes of transformation of the earth.