Enuma Elish

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Lore & Background

Over the seven tablets, Enūma Eliš describes the creation of the world, a battle between gods focused on the offering to Marduk, the creation of man destined for the service of the Mesopotamian deities, and it ends with a long passage praising Marduk. The rise of Marduk is generally viewed to have started from the Second Dynasty of Isin, triggered by the return of the statue of Marduk from Elam by Nebuchadnezzar I, although a late Kassite date is also sometimes proposed. It may have been recited during the Akitu festival. Some late Assyrian versions replace Marduk with Ashur. The earliest manuscript of the myth was excavated from Assur and dated to the 9th century BCE, though may have been recited as part of oral tradition prior to this date.

In Their Own Story

Before the tablets were discovered, substantial elements of the myth had survived via the writings of Berossus, a 3rd-century BCE Babylonian writer and priest of Bel (Marduk). These were preserved in Alexander Polyhistor's book on Chaldean History, which was reproduced by Eusebius in Book 1 of his Chronicon. In it are described the primeval state of an abyssal darkness and water, the two primeval beings existing therein, said to be of a twofold principle. 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, and her slaying by Bel, who cut her in half, forming Heaven of one part and Earth of the other. The text also describes the beheading of a god, and the mixing of the god's blood with the Earth's soil, leading to the creation of men. Finally, there is also reference to Bel's creation of the stars, Sun, Moon, and planets.

Reader's Guide

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. Smith worked through Rassam's find of around 20,000 fragments from 1852, and identified references to the kings Shalmaneser II, Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and other rulers mentioned in the Bible. Furthermore, he discovered versions of a Babylonian deluge myth (see Gilgamesh flood myth), as well as creation myths. On examination it became clear that the Assyrian myths were drawn from or similar to the Babylonian ones. By 1875 Smith had returned and began publishing accounts of these discoveries in the Daily Telegraph from 4 March 1875. Smith speculated that the creation myth might originally have spanned at least nine or ten tablets. 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. King concluded that the creation myth as known in Nineveh was originally contained on seven tablets. This collection was published 1901 as Part XIII of Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum. King published his own translations and notes in two volumes with additional material 1902 as The Seven Tablets of Creation, or the Babylonian and Assyrian Legends concerning the creation of the world and of mankind.

Did You Know?

• Enūma Eliš has about a thousand lines and is recorded in Akkadian on seven clay tablets, each holding between 115 and 170 lines of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform script.
• Most of Tablet V has never been recovered, but aside from this lacuna, the text is almost complete.
• The earliest manuscript of the myth was excavated from Assur and dated to the 9th century BCE.
• Some late Assyrian versions replace Marduk with Ashur.
• The myth may have been recited during the Akitu festival.