APSU. - It is a Semitized Sumerian word, which in Sumerian was written ZU-AB and read abzu, with the meaning of "house of wisdom" (?). This etymology (ab "house," zu "wisdom"?) is necessarily connected with the fact that the a. is the dwelling of Ea, god of wisdom. The a., dwelling of the wise god, is the mass of water on which the earth rests and which surrounds it. The a. is both above and below the earth; from the a. above, from the sky, come the rains; from the a. below, the waters of the rivers and streams that give fertility to the earth. An analogous cosmogonic conception is found in Genesis. There are those who suppose that the Greek abyssa and the derivatives in the Indo-European languages also go back to this Sumerian word.

A. is also a male divinity, "the ocean of fresh water," whose mother is the goddess Tiamat, "the ocean of salt water." The god A. is then killed by the god Ea. It is perhaps from this legend that a. becomes the dwelling of the god Ea.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: G. Furlani, La religione babilonese-assira, I, Bologna 1928, pp. 123-25, and passim; II, ibid. 1929, pp. 2-4, and passim.

Giustino Boson

@incollection{ec1_apsu, author = {Boson, Giustino}, title = {Apsu}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1717}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/apsu} }

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