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| Thalassa, badass mermaid. |
People from across the globe have always been
fascinated by stories of beautiful humanlike female beings living in an
enchanting world under the sea. Likewise, the ancient Greeks worshiped a vast
host of these deities. But before there were the sea celebrities Tethys, Doris,
Amphitrite, and even the redhead Ariel, there was this all-powerful chick who
dominated the rule of the deep.
Yes, she is Thalassa.
And yes, she is not your typical little mermaid.
Birth waters.
According to various ancient sources, Thalassa was the unica hija (meaning only
daughter… just testing my little existent Spanish XD) of the Protogenoi Aether and Hemera.
And although I believe that the Greek creation myth
was a reasonable story which can be explained by logic and science, I still
don’t understand how Light and Day together begot the Sea. I’ll really
appreciate it if somebody enlightens me about this.
Anyhow, she was also called Thalatta or Thalath by
her closest friends. (Source)
'Sea' the sign
The goddess Thalassa was of particular importance,
in contrast with the other merfolk of myths and legends. She was the primordial
female Essence of the Sea. She was waaayyyy more primitive and inhuman power
than other sea goddesses we know. As such, she was often represented as having
a body made of water itself.
(Science has already proven that the common mundane
body is composed of 75% water. But Thalassa’s case was different. Hers was
actually 100% saltwater!)
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| The Romans had good reason to call the Mediterranean their sea as shown in this map of the Roman Empire, obtained here. |
Her male counterpart was Pontus, the King of the
Sea, son of Gaea by herself (Yes). As his wife, Thalassa was honored as the
first Queen of the Sea. She must have been a very regal and stern ruler that people
later nicknamed her, “the Dragon Queen.” (Or
she could really transform herself into a dragon)
This title had further established her connection with the primeval Mesopotamian figure Tiamat, which I’ll be discussing later.
This title had further established her connection with the primeval Mesopotamian figure Tiamat, which I’ll be discussing later.
Anyway, she was referred to by the Romans as MARE, the female personification of the
Sea. They even named the Mediterranean Sea as Mare Nostrum, meaning Our
Sea (Not a very possessive lot, eh?). BTW, I read that bit in the glossary of The Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan.
Motherf***er.
Before you report me for using obscene language in this blog, let me clarify
that the title of this section meant MOTHER
FISHER, a title I personally gave to Thalassa as the creator of all sea
life. So no worries. No swearing.
Moving on, Thalassa got all ‘wet’ and ‘wild’ with
her mate, the equally ‘wet’ and ‘wild’ sea spirit Pontus. From their union came
the tribes of fish and all the sea mammals.
We now know who to thank for THE PLENTY OF FISH
IN THE SEA. (I just don't know about that online dating site). Thalassa’s the name, babies.
Aside from the fishy children that they've had, they
also spawned the nine sea daemons called the Telchines. What they really are is not totally definite. Some say
that they were priestly wizards; others they were demonic spirits. Either way,
they were said to know a lot about forbidden magic, and even use Stygian water
for their crops. The fact that they had dog heads and flipper hands would
probably making you think twice about messing with them. (They’re really
interesting, and I’m planning to put an article about them. In the distant
future, maybe.)
Rumors had it that she was also the mother of
Aphrodite. (Although, I personally believe it was Dione who was the goddess’
real mother. Read about her here.)
Thalasa is Tiamat is Thalassa
For us to understand this part, we’ll have to first
identify who this Tiamat was. The name might ring a bell to Dungeons and Dragons players out there, but for everybody’s benefit, I got this brief
description from the most accessible website we call Wikipedia:
Tiamat was a chaos monster, a primordial goddess of the ocean, mating with Abzû (the god of fresh water) to produce younger gods. It is suggested that there are two parts to the Tiamat mythos, the first in which Tiamat is 'creatrix', through a "Sacred marriage" between salt and fresh water, peacefully creating the cosmos through successive generations. In the second "Chaoskampf" Tiamat is considered the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos.
In trying to compare and reconcile various
mythologies (an effort I really admire), researchers were able to find out a
connection between the awesome Thalassa and the awful Tiamat. The Order ofTiamat says:
Tiamat was also known as Thalattē (as a variant of thalassa, the Greek word for “sea”) in the Hellenistic Babylonian Berossus’ first volume of universal history. It is thought that the name of Tiamat was dropped in secondary translations of the original religious texts (written in the East Semitic Akkadian language) because some Akkadian copyists of Enûma Elish substituted the ordinary word for “sea” for Tiamat, since the two names had become essentially the same, due to association.
However, whereas the Greeks saw Thalassa as a
beautiful sea formed woman, Tiamat was represented as:
- 300 miles long, circumference of 100 ft, and a mouth that opens 10 ft.
- Undulates 6 miles high. Huge scaled body, legs, forked tongue, head and forelegs of a lion, feathered wings and eagle's hind quarters. Her skin was immune to all weapons.
- Tiamat was the female water spirit of chaos
- Primordial mother of all that is living and not and was
- Occasionally referred to as a monster of Air. (As Thalassa, this could have been plausible, being a daughter of Aether)
- In some sources she is given the ability to shapeshift.
- Symbolic of salt water, in which she lived
- Marduk himself is occasionally represented with a horned dragon at his feet. Particularly on a Babylonian cylinder seal.
- Alexander Heidel in Babylonian Genesis questions the popular view of Tiamat as a dragon.
Thalassa may not have been very fond of the Babylonians that she
appeared in that form. Or Tiamat may have been Thalassa’s early form before
coming to the Greeks and starting life anew. Or mood swings cause her to change
in either form. Or they may not have been connected at all.
Possibilities are endless, my dears.
The 'ebbing' sea
After a long time serving as the female sovereign of the Sea (and
being identified with a female chaos monster), Thalassa retired almost in
obscurity.
I made up a story (read it here) where Cronus
seized Pontus’ Essence to use as his weapon during the Titanomachy. Thalassa
must have been very grief-stricken back then. Thus, she was not anymore seen with
the other marine deities. According to the Gods and Goddesses Blog:
While many of the sea deities were very social in their chaos, Thalassa became far more isolated.
And thus, she represented the vast, lonely sea on
unpopulated coasts. As time passed by, she was mostly remembered only as the
goddess of lonely shores. She slowly dissipated, and her body and her womb became
one with the sea itself.
Would you forgive me if I insert this song at this
point?
Teehee.
Thalassocracy, the sea goddess legacy
thal·as·soc·ra·cyn.pl. thal·as·soc·ra·ciesNaval or commercial supremacy on the seas.
Now this is a very fitting legacy from the Dragon
Queen of the Sea.
Examples of thalassocracies are the ancient
powerful mercantile kingdoms of Phoenicia and Carthage, as well as the early
modern empires of Portugal and Spain having the greatest navies of their time.
Thanks The Free Dictionary and Wikipedia!
Thalassa also made it to our science (astronomy,
geology, medicine, etc.) books and journals as:
- Thalassa, or Neptune IV, the second innermost satellite of planet Neptune (the salty connection between the names);
- Panthalassa was the vast global ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea, during the late Paleozoic and the early Mesozoic years (It’s interesting to note the Gaea’s name was also used in the name Pangaea. Go primeval goddesses in science!); and
- Thalassemia, a form of inherited blood disorder that originated in the Mediterranean region (Yes! From Mare Nostrum itself!).
So much for being a low-profile sea queen, eh?
