xperience, at a time before time (i.e., primeval)--before either the gods' identities or the physical were fully formed. But there were cosmic beings, personalities, and relationships more or less in place, or more exactly competing for place, which led to the generation of the gods. Thus the opening passage of Envma Elish:
When heaven above had not yet been named, nor the earth beneath; when the primal Apsu, their begetter, together with Mummu [the son and messenger of Apsu and Tiamat] and Tiamat herself, she who gave birth to all, still mingled their waters and no pasture land had yet been formed, nor was there even a reed marsh to be seen; when none of the generation of the gods had yet been brought into being, called by name, or given a destiny: at that time, within Apsu and Tiamat, the great gods were created (Envma Elish, quoted by Campbell 76).
Apsu is considered the Babylonian god "of the primeval freshwater sea" (Matthews 93), or as the primeval god of the Deep (Parrinder 118) or chaos--and, significantly, forefather of the more familiar Babylonian
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