A copy of the Babylonian Epic of Creation found in Kish. 700 BC. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
[ahtimeline-event-heading]
The Tablet
The Enuma Elish, otherwise known as the Babylonian Epic of Creation, was probably composed in the latter half of the 2nd millennium BC. It is comprised of 1091 lines written on 7 clay tablets. It was written primarily to explain how Marduk became the chief god of the Babylonian pantheon but in doing so, it offers insight into how the Babylonians thought about the cosmos.
The Tablet
Here are the opening lines of the epic:
When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name
And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both
Their waters were mingled together,
And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
When of the gods none had been called into being…
In the beginning, before the gods existed, Apsu and Tiamat, fresh water and sea water, mingled their waters together in a kind of watery chaos. They gave birth to Lahmu and Lahamu, silt in the ocean, which in turn gave rise to Anshar and Kishar, the horizons of heaven and earth respectively. These primordial entities are the raw and passive elements from which the world arose.
The text goes on to describe how generation of new gods came into being through sexual procreation. It concludes with a battle between the primordial gods and the young gods. Leading the primordial gods was Tiamat, the goddess of the watery chaos. Her power was so great that the none of the young gods wish to oppose her, not even An, the god of heaven. But then Marduk step forward. He is the storm god and a powerful magician. He goes into battle carrying a magical plant clamped in his mouth in order to counter the powerful sorcery of Tiamat. With wind, lightning and a net he destroys Tiamat, who is described as a great sea monster.
He then proceeds to creat the earth from the body of Tiamat. From her spittle, he creates the rain, her head becomes the earth, her two eyes become the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, and her breasts become mountains. Finally, Marduk creates the Bow Star which is elsewhere identified with the goddess Ishtar.
There are a few important points we can gather from this story. 1) The Enuma Elish begins with the primordial elements of the cosmos. The gods come later. 2) Marduk is a great magician who relies upon secret power embedded in the material world. Even the gods are subject to this magic. 3) The primary means of generation is through sexual procreation of the gods. Each generation of gods represents some new aspect of the natural world.
A copy of the Babylonian Epic of Creation found in Kish. 700 BC. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
[ahtimeline-event-heading]
The Tablet
The Enuma Elish, otherwise known as the Babylonian Epic of Creation, was probably composed in the latter half of the 2nd millennium BC. It is comprised of 1091 lines written on 7 clay tablets. It was written primarily to explain how Marduk became the chief god of the Babylonian pantheon but in doing so, it offers insight into how the Babylonians thought about the cosmos.
The Tablet
Here are the opening lines of the epic:
When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name
And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both
Their waters were mingled together,
And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
When of the gods none had been called into being…
In the beginning, before the gods existed, Apsu and Tiamat, fresh water and sea water, mingled their waters together in a kind of watery chaos. They gave birth to Lahmu and Lahamu, silt in the ocean, which in turn gave rise to Anshar and Kishar, the horizons of heaven and earth respectively. These primordial entities are the raw and passive elements from which the world arose.
The text goes on to describe how generation of new gods came into being through sexual procreation. It concludes with a battle between the primordial gods and the young gods. Leading the primordial gods was Tiamat, the goddess of the watery chaos. Her power was so great that the none of the young gods wish to oppose her, not even An, the god of heaven. But then Marduk step forward. He is the storm god and a powerful magician. He goes into battle carrying a magical plant clamped in his mouth in order to counter the powerful sorcery of Tiamat. With wind, lightning and a net he destroys Tiamat, who is described as a great sea monster.
He then proceeds to creat the earth from the body of Tiamat. From her spittle, he creates the rain, her head becomes the earth, her two eyes become the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, and her breasts become mountains. Finally, Marduk creates the Bow Star which is elsewhere identified with the goddess Ishtar.
There are a few important points we can gather from this story. 1) The Enuma Elish begins with the primordial elements of the cosmos. The gods come later. 2) Marduk is a great magician who relies upon secret power embedded in the material world. Even the gods are subject to this magic. 3) The primary means of generation is through sexual procreation of the gods. Each generation of gods represents some new aspect of the natural world.