Enūma Eliš
Enūma Eliš (Akkadian Cuneiform: 𒂊𒉡𒈠𒂊𒇺, also spelled "Enuma Elish"), meaning "When on High", is a Babylonian creation myth (named after its opening words) from the late 2nd millennium BCE and the only complete surviving account of ancient near eastern cosmology.
It was recovered by English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in 1849 (in fragmentary form) in the ruined Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq).
A form of the myth was first published by English Assyriologist George Smith in 1876; active research and further excavations led to near completion of the texts and improved translation.
Before the tablets were discovered, substantial elements of the myth had survived via the writings of Berossus, primarily his Babyloniaca, a 3rd-century BCE Babylonian writer and priest of Bel (Marduk).
The description then relates the creation of further beings, partly human but with variants of wings, animal heads and bodies, and some with both sex organs.
The text also describes a female being leading over them, named as Omoroca, called Thalatth in Babylonian (derived from Greek), and her slaying by Bel, who cut her in half, forming Heaven of one part and Earth of the other.
[5][6] The neo-Platonist Damascius also gave a short version of the Babylonian cosmological view, which closely matches Enūma Eliš.
[7] Clay tablets containing inscriptions relating to analogues of biblical stories were discovered by A. H. Layard, Hormuzd Rassam, and George Smith in the ruins of the Palace and Library of Ashurbanipal (668–626 BCE) during excavations at the mound of Kuyunjik, Nineveh (near Mosul) between 1848 and 1876.
There he found further tablets describing the deluge as well as fragmentary accounts of creation, a text on a war between good and evil 'gods', and a fall of man myth.
[10][11] Smith speculated that the creation myth, including a part describing the fall of man, might originally have spanned at least nine or ten tablets.
[16][17] In 1898, the trustees of the British Museum ordered publication of a collection of all the Assyrian and Babylonian creation texts held by them, a work which was undertaken by L. W. King.
[21] Thus King's composition of Enūma Eliš consisted of five parts: the birth of gods, legend of Ea and Apsu, Tiamat primeval serpent myth, account of creation, and finally a hymn to Marduk using his many titles.
[24] The Ashur texts uncovered by the Germans necessitated some corrections: it was Kingu, not Marduk, who was killed and whose blood made men.
Significant publications include: The Standard Babylonian Creation Myth Enūma Eliš (Talon 2005); Das Babylonische Weltschöpfungsepos Enuma Elis (Kämmerer & Metzler 2012); Babylonian Creation Myths (Lambert 2013); enūma eliš: Weg zu einer globalen Weltordnung (Gabriel 2014); and other works still.
[30] While it used to be viewed that Enuma Elish was composed in the reign of Hammurabi,[31] most scholars now believe it is unlikely[32] and accept a dating to the Second Dynasty of Isin.
[40] Sommerfield's suggestion that Enuma Elish should be dated instead to the Kassite period,[41] was countered by Lambert,[42] but the god list An = Anum does give the number 50, which traditionally belongs to Enlil, to Marduk.
The following per-tablet summary is based on the translation in Akkadian Myths and Epics (E. A. Speiser), in Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Pritchard 1969).
He spoke to his grandfather Anshar, telling that many gods had gone to Tiamat's cause, and that she had created eleven monstrous creatures fit for war, and made Kingu their leader, wielding the 'Tablet of Destinies'.
Anshar spoke to Gaga, who advised him to fetch Lahmu and Lahamu and tell them of Tiamat's war plans, and of Marduk's demand for overlordship if he defeats her.
all delightful, on tablets I wrote, I studied, I observed, and for the inspection of my people within my palace I placed Due to the nature of Enuma Elish, it is generally advised to be wary of simply taking the text as a representative of Mesopotamian creation myths.
Most analysts consider that the festival concerned and included some form of re-enactment of Tiamat's defeat by Marduk, representing a renewal cycle and triumph over chaos.
However a more detailed analysis by Jonathan Z. Smith led him to argue that the ritual should be understood in terms of its post-Assyrian and post-Babylonian imperial context, and may include elements of psychological and political theater legitimizing the non-native Seleucid rulers; he also questions whether Enūma Eliš read during that period was the same as that known to the ancient Assyrians.
[72][73] It has been suggested that ritual reading of the poem coincided with spring flooding of the Tigris or Euphrates following the melting of snow in mountainous regions upstream.
[74] Enūma Eliš contains numerous parallels with passages of the Old Testament, which has led some researchers to conclude that these were based on the Mesopotamian work.
[77] As to the seven tablets and seven days of each system, the numbered itineraries in general do not closely match, but there are some commonalities in order of the creation events: first darkness, then light, the firmament, dry land, and finally man, followed by a period of rest.
[80] According to this theory, Enūma Eliš elaborated the interconnections between the divine and inert matter, while the aim of Genesis was to state the supremacy of the Hebrew God Yahweh Elohim over all creation (and all other deities).
A contextual restoration contains the rarely attested Sapattum or Sabattum as the full moon, cognate or merged with Hebrew Shabbat (cf.
Genesis 2:2–3), but monthly rather than weekly; it is regarded as a form of Sumerian sa-bat ("mid-rest"), attested in Akkadian as um nuh libbi ("day of mid-repose").
"[81] The 'Ain Samiya goblet, found in a tomb near modern Ramallah, is believed to depict scenes similar to Enūma Eliš and illustrates a clear influence from Mesopotamia on Canaan during the Middle Bronze Age.
The depictions of a double headed god and the creation of the world from a dragon provide the earliest evidence of the epic's composition.
