8. The Enûma Eliš tells the Babylonian creation story of primordial gods Aspu and Tiamet mixing together to form various gods into existence.
The tablets that form the Enûma Eliš are some of the oldest in existence. The first eight lines of the tablet go on to describe the nothingness that came before Aspu and Tiamet’s mixture and the creation of the gods afterwards: “When on high the heaven had not been named, Firm ground below had not been called by name, Naught but primordial Apsu, their begetter, (And) Mummu-Tiamat, she who bore them all, Their waters commingling as a single body; No reed hut had been matted, no marsh land had appeared, When no gods whatever had been brought into being, Uncalled by name, their destinies undetermined—Then it was that the gods were formed within them.”
Unfortunately, Tiamet disapproved of the new gods’ actions and sought to have them destroyed. The new gods discovered this was Tiamet’s plan and crafted a plan to thwart him. A net was cast upon Tiamet, trapping him, while another god maced Tiamet, cracking his skull and killing him. Half of Tiamet’s body was used to create the sky where the sky gods would reside, and the other half is used to create living beings, constellations, and land.