Mummu (

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

: ) is a Mesopotamian deity. His name is an

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...

loanword from Sumerian "umun", which translates as "main body, bulk, life-giving force" and "knowledge", as the active part, in contrary to the more lethargic primordial forces of Tiamat and Apsû (Sumerian Abzu). He appeared in the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, as the

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...

of the primeval gods

Apsû The Abzu or Apsu ( Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ), also called (Cuneiform:, ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: — ='water' ='deep', recorded in Greek as ), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising qualit ...

, the fresh water, and

Tiamat In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( akk, or , grc, Θαλάττη, Thaláttē) is a primordial goddess of the sea, mating with Abzû, the god of the groundwater, to produce younger gods. She is the symbol of the chaos of primordial creati ...

, the salt water. and sometimes referred to as their son. Towards the middle of Enuma Elish, Ea locks Mummu and Apsu away. Mummu is also one of the names given to

Marduk Marduk (Cuneiform: dAMAR.UTU; Sumerian: ''amar utu.k'' "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) was a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon. When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of ...

, the ultimate victor over Tiamat. Mummu was sometimes also identified with

Papsukkal Papsukkal () was a Mesopotamian god regarded as the sukkal (attendant deity) of Anu and his wife Antu in Seleucid Uruk. In earlier periods he was instead associated with Zababa. He acquired his new role through syncretism with Ninshubur. Char ...

and

Ilabrat Ilabrat was a Mesopotamian god who in some cases was regarded as the sukkal (attendant deity) of the sky god Anu. Evidence from the Old Assyrian period indicates that he could also be worshiped as an independent deity. Name Multiple etymologies ...

. Mummu is a craftsman, the personification of practical knowledge and technical skill. As the third of the primordial gods, Mummu is said to symbolize the mental world, the

logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, wikt:λόγος, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive ...

, according to the

Neo-Platonist Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...

Damascius Damascius (; grc-gre, Δαμάσκιος, 458 – after 538), known as "the last of the Athenian Neoplatonists," was the last scholarch of the neoplatonic Athenian school. He was one of the neoplatonic philosophers who left Athens after laws ...

. Franz Böhl arrived at this association as well, deriving mummu as a participle of the root "to speak" and calling it a precursor of the Hellenistic logos, although Heidel disputed this etymology.

Name

In addition to being the name of the vizier of the primordial gods and an epithet of several major deities (such as Ea, Marduk, Tiamat, and

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in S ...

), the word "mummu" also has several other definitions. It can be an indefinite pronoun meaning "someone, something"; as well as a noun meaning "craftsman, creator"; "a school for scribes, workshop"; and "a curved stick or beam". N. K. Sandars' suggests that the meaning of the name could be interpreted as "mist or cloud", and, based on an episode in the Myth of Zu, Sandars argues that the term "mummu" could be understood in terms of the

second law of thermodynamics The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal experience concerning heat and Energy transformation, energy interconversions. One simple statement of the law is that heat always moves from hotter objects to colder objects ( ...

as "

entropy Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynam ...

", although this reading is idiosyncratic and not supported by other sources, which translate this occurrence as "frame f the bow. Sandars relates: "In the battle between them

Ningirsu , image= Cropped Image of Carving Showing the Mesopotamian God Ninurta.png , caption= Assyrian stone relief from the temple of Ninurta at Kalhu, showing the god with his thunderbolts pursuing Anzû, who has stolen the Tablet of Destinies from En ...

and Zu] an arrow speeding from the bow is ordered to return to its ''mummu'', which means that the shaft becomes again part of the living cane from which it was cut, the gut returns to the animal's rump and the feathers to the bird's winds." Whereas the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary has: "''mu-um-mu qashti ana qisatiki'' (return) frame of the bow, to your forests (beside: arrow to the canebrake, bowstring to the sheep's back, feather to the birds) RA 46 36:42 also ibid. 34:26, dupl. STT 19:79 (Epic of Zu), also RA 46 32:12."

In popular culture

* In

Robert Shea Robert Joseph Shea (February 14, 1933 – March 10, 1994) was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy ''Illuminatus!'' It became a cult success and was later turned ...

and

Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...

's ''

Illuminatus! Trilogy ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' is a series of three novels by American writers Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, first published in 1975.''Illuminatus!'' was written between 1969 and 1971, but not published until 1975 according to Robert Anto ...

'', Mummu is the patron of an ancient anarchist faction, the Justified Ancients of Mummu, that first rebels against and later joins the Illuminati. This inspired

The KLF The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing ...

, a British 1980s acid house band, to adopt "The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu" as an alias.

References

{{reflist Mesopotamian gods Crafts gods Characters in the Enūma Eliš