Tradition / Region: Sumerian Mythology, Mesopotamian mythology
Alternate Names: Associated with Lahmu, Lahamu; linked with Oannes and Kululu
Category: Mermaid
The Myth
In the earliest age of the world, when only the deep fresh waters of the Abzu existed beneath the earth, the god Enki, lord of wisdom and the waters, created beings to dwell within his domain. These beings were called the Lahama, and they belonged to the sacred depths from which life and order would rise.
They were many—fifty in number—and they moved through the watery abyss as servants of Enki. They were shaped like beings of the deep, often imagined with forms that joined man and fish, creatures suited to the hidden waters below the world.
Later tales spoke of ancient ancestors of these beings. From the first primordial waters came the twins Lahmu and Lahamu, monstrous children of the earliest oceanic forces. From them came further generations of gods, and through them the world took form. Thus the spirits of the waters stood close to the beginning of creation itself.
Among the companions of Enki were powerful beings who sometimes rose from the sea to meet humankind. One of these was Kululu, a fish-formed servant of the god who moved between the divine world and the human one.
But the most famous of the sea-beings was Oannes.
In ancient days, near the shores of Babylonia, a strange creature rose from the Persian Gulf. His body was that of a fish, yet beneath the fish’s head was the face of a man, and beside the tail were human legs. Though his form was uncanny, his voice was gentle and human.
By day he walked among people. He taught them writing, numbers, and the arts. He showed them how to build cities and temples, how to establish laws, how to measure the land, and how to plant grain and gather food. Everything needed for civilized life he revealed to them.
He took no food while he stayed among humans. At sunset he returned to the sea and vanished beneath the waves, for he belonged both to water and to land.
Thus the beings of the deep waters—the Lahama and those who rose from them—were remembered as ancient spirits of the abyss, close to the birth of the world, and as teachers who once emerged from the sea to guide humankind.
Gallery
Sources
Bestiary.us contributors. (n.d.). Lahama. In Bestiary.us, from https://www.bestiary.us/lahama/
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The Lahama