TIAMAT AND KINGU AS CONSTELLATIONS
A lesser-known record surviving of the depiction of Tiamat and Kingu in the night sky occurs within a Babylonian calendar text from first millennium B.C. The published fragments (for which there are three versions7) are in King's translations from 1902. This omen-record indictates that Tiamat (Elam) and Kingu (Assyria) in the month of Tebetu are to attack Marduk (Babylon).
The text describes a great astra-mythological battle in which the powers assemble in the region of Tebetu (December-January, yet representing here an area in the night sky). Tiamat and Kingu are the same as Tebetu which means the Sea (Tiamat). In the region of the Goat-Fish constellation, Tiamat gathered to bring battle upon Marduk.
Tiamat and Kingu join as one; the Dark !
Mother takes the general post and makes all decisions. In this manifestation, she is the She-Goat Constellation. Traditionally, Asakku is equated with Kingu in Astrology. Asakku, a great demon who, like the Seven Sebitti/Maskim was born of the union of Anu and Ki and was a great warrior and disease-bringing demon-god.
As Tiamat and Kingu join as one, they become the She-Goat constellation, associated with the Sorceress Constellation. The Gizzanitu, the Angry Goat or ki-iz za-ni-tu and Pussanitu, being the Angry Mouth or pu-u-za-ni-tu are the She-Goat Constellation and Corpse Constellation within the Goat-Fish Constellation. The union of the Mouth Constellation and Star is equivalent to the Corpse Constellation, the associated Goddess being Tiamat. Tiamat is named as 'Female-Twin" which is tu-u am-tu as she has two faces, one female and one male (Kingu). This would easily explain why some depictions of Tiamat show her with a serpent-penis. This would be explainable by Kingu and Tiamat joined as one, fighting Mardulk.
Interestingly enough, the month name of TEBETU is scribed as tap-pat-tu or tappattu, 'Female Friend" which is applied in this calendar text as Kingu. Tiamat is thus one of the original manifestations of the Adversary, a balanced union of two aspects. The records of the Babylonian Priest Berosus supports this dual concept:
"There was a time in which there existed nothing but darkness and an abyss of waters, wherein resided most hideous beings, which were produced on a two1old principle. There appeared men, some of whom were furnished with two wings, others with four, and with two faces. They had one body but two heads; the one that of a man, the other of a woman; and likewise in their several organs both male and female. Other humanfigures were to be seen with the legs and horns of goats; some had horses' feet; while others united the hind-quarters of a horse with the body of a man, resembling in shape the hippo-centaurs. Bulls
likewise were bred there with the heads of men, and dogs with four told bodies, terminated in their extremities with the tails of fishes; horses also with the heads of dogs; men too and other animals, with the heads and bodies of horses and the tails of fishes." - The Legend of the Creation According to Berosus and Damascius
We see here the waters of chaos from which the primordial beings emerge, the goddess of these chaos-forms "The person, who presided over them, was a woman named OMUROCA; which in the Chaldean language is THALATTH; in Greek THALASSA, the sea; but which might equally be interpreted the Moon."8• Tiamat, joined with Kingu represents the Goat-Fish Constellation collectively, while as Tiamat she is the She-Goat and Kingu is the Scorpion constellation and also the Corpse Constellation. The adversary of Tiamat is Marduk, being sag.me.gar and the Arrow Star and Bow Constellations are his weapons against the forces of chaos.
Tiamat is the great power which shape-shifts according to her nede and desire. We can see this by her form as Ishtar, Kingu in the demon-god Asakku and partly Marduk. As Kingu joined with Tiamat (for they in union beget the monsters), becoming one great beast, one head male and the other female gives a clue to the name she bears, tu-am-tu, "The Female Twin".
As Ishtar of Nineveh is associated with the Upper Parts of Tiamat in one Assyrian record, Marduk and Ninlil were asciated with her lower parts. This presents foundation as why Ishtar was as powerful as both Marduk and Ninlil together and that Tiamat possesses an Adversarial, or dual nature.
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