Across cultures and civilizations, the sea has always been an important figure both in the benefits it provides in daily life and its presence in storytelling. In consequence, sea monsters have been important figures in myths and stories whether it be in 1000 BCE Babylonian culture, or in 20th century America. The Babylonian Enuma Elish and Disney’s 1989 The Little Mermaid both feature a powerful female antagonist, Tiamat and Ursula, respectively, and these two figures bear many similarities. In both stories, the female antagonist holds strong relationship to the sea, and has supernatural abilities that aid her in her quest to defeat the heroic characters in the story. Additionally, Tiamat and Ursula engage in battle in their respective tales, and are defeated and killed in almost identical fashion.
The easiest comparison to see between Tiamat and Ursula is their connection to the ocean. In Enuma Elish, the goddess Tiamat is the physical
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In Enuma Elish, Tiamat marches to where the younger gods are, and waits for Marduk to engage in battle. When he declares to fight her one-on-one, Tiamat “[goes] wild, [and loses] her temper,” then “they [engage] in combat, they [close] for battle.” In Enuma Elish, Marduk is the hero, and though Ariel is the protagonist, her romantic interest, Eric, is the technical “hero” of this battle. Like the battle in Enuma Elish, the fight begins when the hero declares battle. In the case of The Little Mermaid, the declaration comes in the form a harpoon with which Eric attacks Ursula. Upon being hit, Ursula shrieks “Why you little troll!” and then to her eel henchmen orders: “After him!” By this point in the movie, in addition to her transformative powers, Ursula has gained the powers of King Triton and declares herself “ruler of all the ocean,” making her even more comparable to