Babylon -Creation
Enuma Elish
"When on High..."
12th century BC
found on cuneiform tablets in Nineveh
Babylonian creation story, seasons
Marduk vs Tiamat
 Uproar of younger gods/ children upset Tiamat & Apsu
 Apsu suggests killing them to regain silence
 Tiamat argues against
 Apsu & Mummu plot in secret anyway
 Ea/Enki finds out; put Apsu to sleep & kills him [seizes crown & fire-cloak],
binds Mummu & takes his power
 Ea builds his own temple in water [Apsu's realm]; he & Damkina produce
Marduk
 Marduk: 4 eyes, 4 ears, tall, spoke/ breathed fire; 4 winds for toys, which
stirred up waters/ storms & disturbed peace of gods
 other gods mock Tiamat for not avenging her husband's [Apsu] death &
Mummu's binding
 Tiamat agrees to destroy Marduk -creates 11 dragons & other monsters,
["She set up the Viper, the Dragon, and the monster Lahamu, (140)The GreatLion, the Mad-Dog, and the Scorpion-Man,
Mighty lion-demons, the DragonFly, the Centaur"]puts them under Kingu's command, gave Kingu the Tablets
of Destiny
 Tablets of Destiny/ Tablet of Destinies: clay tablet, conferred/ confirmed
authority to rule universe; held at various times by Enlil, Enki, Kingu,
Marduk, & Anu
 younger gods panic; Ea tries to subdue Tiamat, but fails
 gods beg Marduk to fight Tiamat; he agrees, on condition that he gets to rule/
have authority over gods [kingship for security]
 Marduk stirs up winds, sends them into Tiamat's belly, inflating her; shoots
arrow & splits her open; binds her army with net, takes Tablet for his own
Marduk establishes Order
 M split T's body into 2 pieces- made them into sky & earth; built home
"Esharra" directly above Ea's
 established constellations, lunar cycle, made rainclouds from T's spit
 made Tigris & Euphrates rivers flow from T's eyes, turned breasts into
mountains with freshwater springs
 made statues around his temple from T's monsters
 commanded gods to build city of Babylon
Humanity
 Marduk used Kingu's [rebel leader's] blood, and some bones, to create
"Lullu" -mankind, to do gods' drudgery [so gods can hang out & chill]
OR
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Anunnakku: the 3 senior gods -Anu[sky], Enlil[earth], & Enki [water] forced
the Igigi [lesser gods] to dig Tigris, Euphrates, & irrigation
Igigi rebelled against toil [after 3600 years]; Anu & Enki suggest creating a
replacement for the Igigi to do their work
Enki & Mami [goddess of womb/ female fertility] select a rebel junior god to
die [Kingu?], mix his blood/ intelligence with clay; go to secret place and
make 7 males & 7 females [divine, but flawed because of rebellion]
600 years later, human population has grown, its noise bothers Enlil, so he
makes 3 attempts to reduce/ destroy humanity
1. tells Namtara [plague god] to kill large numbers of humans; Enki likes
humanity so he tells them to sacrifice to only Namtara; Namtara was
flattered so he spared them
2. arranged so that heaven, earth, & water conspired to withhold every
means of nourishment from people. 6 years -no rivers, salted fields,
barren wombs- results in selling & eating children; Enki [lord of water]
restored water
3. decides to send flood; prohibits Enki & other gods from communicating
with humanity; Enki addresses a wall, knowing Atra-hasis was on the
other side: "destroy a house & build a boat, leave, save life, roof & seal the
boat"' Atra-hasis was nervous, but built boat, gathered up local people &
pairs of animals; Adad [rain god] floods land for 7 days [gods suffer from
hunger due to lack of sacrifices; Atra-hasis' first action on landing after
flood was sacrificing to gods; Enlil outraged at survivors, Enki confesses
 Mami & Enki agree to create 3 kinds of beings to help reduce birthrate:
1. infertile women
2. demon who steals & kills young children
3. religious devotees not allowed to bear children