Paper short abstract:

In Mesopotamian literature, the primeval ocean represented, simultaneously, the force from which life, and therefore time, came to be and the chaotic state which preceded the ordained world. Thus, I intend to explore the role of the primeval ocean as a maker and marker of time.

Paper long abstract:

In the opening lines of the epic of creation, enūma eliš, the reader is transported into a time where the world did not exist and life was yet to be created. In this chaotic atmosphere the only element present was the primeval ocean, composed of two intertwined and complementary parts: Apsû and Tiāmat. Before they begot the generations of gods that would follow, the two forces coexisted in a state of inactivity. If, at this moment, the world was not yet created and therefore time was not flowing, what did the ocean represented in the temporal conception of the Mesopotamian man? Or, in other words, what was the notion of time in this pre-world phase characterized by the primordial couple? We seem to be confronted with an idea of a time before Time, which we will try to explore in this communication. When does it all start? Is there a clear beginning?

Likewise, a similar dilemma is presented: was there a notion of and end? And, if so, how was it represented in Mesopotamian literature? What was the role played by the Sumerian story of the diluvium that so clearly announced the possibility of a return to the chaotic state where the world was once submerged?

In sum, with this presentation I intend to explore the different conceptions of time having in consideration the role played by the primeval ocean in the structure of the universe and in the construction of the ordained world.