Chaos Monster and Sun God – a drawing of a Mesopotamian bas-relief, often associated with the battle of Marduk and Tiamat (but variously interpreted) – ‘Monuments of Nineveh, Second Series’ plate 5, London, J. Murray, 1853, ditor Austen Henry Layard , drawing by L. Gruner

(10) TIAMAT

Like my special mention for Orcus and Demogorgon, Tiamat is a mythological villain raised in profile by her adaptation in Dungeons and Dragons.

In fairness, Tiamat started with a higher – and more defined – profile in mythology than Orcus or Demogorgon. She was the primordial sea in Mesopotamian mythology – essentially that recurring mythic archetype of chaos monster.

And yes, I said she – Tiamat was very much a female figure, indeed a maternal one, as mother of monsters as well as the first deities and creation itself, albeit that last was not by giving birth but by her bodily dismemberment by the god Marduk.

“It was once thought that the myth of Tiamat was one of the earliest recorded versions of a Chaoskampf, a mythological motif that generally involves the battle between a culture hero and a chthonic or aquatic monster, serpent, or dragon.”

Tiamat was reborn as an arch-villain of Dungeons and Dragons – distinctively as a multi-headed dragon.

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)