Ocean
The ocean denotes the primordial unfathomable waters, chaos and source of life at once, holding every possibility unmanifest and mothering what crawls from it.
Our paraphrase of what the sources say it carries.
At a glance
- Type
- Image
- Group
- Creation and Cosmos / Water
- Borne by
- 3 figures
- Traditions
- Aztec mythology (1)Jewish folklore (1)Mesopotamian mythology (1)
Figures that bear it
A model judged each figure against its own description, one term at a time. Is: the figure is a kind of this thing. Bears: it carries the thing or is marked by it. What a figure does is filed under motifs and powers. Open "why" for the sentence the judgement rests on.
- Cipactli is Aztec mythology
why
It thrashes about at the ocean's surface, its hunger so vast it eats everything, including itself at times.
- Rahab is Jewish folklore
why
That flexibility is why the same word can point to a monster, to the ocean, and to an empire, and why comparisons with the Mesopotamian and Canaanite sea-battles are made so often.
- Tiamat is Mesopotamian mythology
why
She embodies the concept of the cosmic ocean, a recurring motif in many ancient cultures' cosmologies.