More...

Greek reports of Babylonia
Greek Reports of Babylonia, Chaldea, and Assyria
Herodotus: from The History of the Persian Wars, c. 430 BC
I.178: Assyria possesses a vast number of great cities, whereof the most renowned and strongest at this time was Babylon, where, after the fall of Nineveh, the seat of government had been removed.
The following is a description of the place: The city stands on a broad plain, and is an exact square, a hundred and twenty furlongs in length each way, so that the entire circuit is four hundred and eighty furlongs. While such is its size, in magnificence there is no other city that approaches to it. It is surrounded, in the first place, by a broad and deep moat, full of water, behind which rises a wall fifty royal cubits in width, and two hundred in height. (The royal cubit is longer by three fingers' breadth than the common cubit.)
I.179: And here I may not omit to tell the use to which the mold dug out of the great moat as turned, nor the manner wherein the wall was wrought. As fast as they dug the moat the soil which they got from the cutting was made into bricks, and when a sufficient number were completed they baked the bricks in kilns. Then they set to building, and began with bricking the borders of the moat, after which they proceeded to construct the wall itself, using throughout for their cement hot bitumen, and interposing a layer of wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of the bricks. On the top, along the edges of the wall, they constructed buildings of a single chamber facing one another, leaving between them room for a four-horse chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are a hundred gates, all of brass, with brazen lintels and side-posts. The bitumen used in the work was brought to Babylon from the Is, a small stream which flows into the Euphrates at the point where the city of the same name stands, eight days' journey from Babylon. Lumps of bitumen are found in great abundance in this river.
I.180: The city is divided into two portions by the river which runs through the midst of it. This river is the Euphrates, a broad, deep, swift stream, which rises in Armenia, and empties itself into the Erythraean sea. The city wall is brought down on both sides to the edge of the stream: thence, from thecorners of the wall, there is carried along each bank of the river a fence of burnt bricks. The houses are mostly three and four stories high; the streets all run in straight lines, not only those parallel to the river, but also the cross streets which lead down to the water-side. At the river end of these cross streets are low gates in the fence that skirts the stream, which are, like the great gates in the outer wall, of brass, and open on the water.
I.181: The outer wall is the main defense of the city. There is, however, a second inner wall, of less thickness than the first, but very little inferior to it in strength. The center of each division of the town was occupied by a fortress. In the one stood the palace of the kings, surrounded by a wall of great strength and size: in the other was the sacred precinct of Jupiter Belus [Bel], a square enclosure two furlongs each way, with gates of solid brass; which was also remaining in my time. In the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one is about half-way up, one finds a resting-place and seats, where persons are wont to sit some time on their way to the summit. On the topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the chamber occupied of nights by any one but a single native woman, who, as the Chaldaeans, the priests of this god, affirm, is chosen for himself by the deity out of all the women of the land.
I.182: They also declare---but I for my part do not credit it---that the god comes down in person into this chamber, and sleeps upon the couch. This is like the story told by the Egyptians of what takes place in their city of Thebes, where a woman always passes the night in the temple of the Theban Jupiter [Amon-Ra]. In each case the woman is said to be debarred all intercourse with men. It is also like the custom of Patara, in Lycia, where the priestess who delivers the oracles, during the time that she is so employed---for at Patara there is not always an oracle---is shut up in the temple every night.
I.183: Below, in the same precinct, there is a second temple, in which is a sitting figure of Jupiter [Marduk], all of gold. Before the figure stands a large golden table, and the throne whereon it sits, and the base on which the throne is placed, are likewise of gold. The Chaldaeans told me that all the gold together was eight hundred talents' weight. Outside the temple are two altars, one of solid gold, on which it is only lawful to offer sucklings; the other a common altar, but of great size, on which the full-grown animals are sacrificed. It is also on the great altar that the Chaldaeans burn the frankincense, which is offered to the amount of a thousand talents' weight, every year, at the festival of the God. In the time of Cyrus there was likewise in this temple a figure of a man, twelve cubits high, entirely of solid gold. I myself did not see this figure, but I relate what the Chaldaeans report concerning it. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, plotted to carry the statue off, but had not the hardihood to lay his hands upon it. Xerxes, however, the son of Darius, killed the priest who forbade him to move the statue, and took it away. Besides the ornaments which I have mentioned, there are a large number of private offerings in this holy precinct.
I.184: Many sovereigns have ruled over this city of Babylon, and lent their aid to the building of its walls and the adornment of its temples, of whom I shall make mention in my Assyrian history. Among them two were women. Of these, the earlier, called Semiramis, held the throne five generations before the later princess. She raised certain embankments well worthy of inspection, in the plain near Babylon, to control the river, which, till then, used to overflow, and flood the whole country round about.
I.185: The later of the two queens, whose name was Nitocris, a wiser princess than her predecessor, not only left behind her, as memorials of her occupancy of the throne, the works which I shall presently describe, but also, observing the great power and restless enterprise of the Medes, who had taken so large a number of cities, and among them Nineveh, and expecting to be attacked in her turn, made all possible exertions to increase the defenses of her empire. And first, whereas the river Euphrates, which traverses the city, ran formerly with a straight course to Babylon, she, by certain excavations which she made at some distance up the stream, rendered it so winding that it comes three several times in sight of the same village, a village in Assyria, which is called Ardericea; and to this day, they who would go from our sea to Babylon, on descending to the river touch three times, and on three different days, at this very place.
She also made an embankment along each side of the Euphrates, wonderful both for breadth and height, and dug a basin for a lake a great way above Babylon, close alongside of the stream, which was sunk everywhere to the point where they came to water, and was of such breadth that the whole circuit measured four hundred and twenty furlongs. The soil dug out of this basin was made use of in the embankments along the waterside. When the excavation was finished, she had stones brought, and bordered with them the entire margin of the reservoir. These two things were done, the river made to wind, and the lake excavated, that the stream might be slacker by reason of the number of curves, and the voyage be rendered circuitous, and that at the end of the voyage it might be necessary to skirt the lake and so make a long round. All these works were on that side of Babylon where the passes lay, and the roads into Media were the straightest, and the aim of the queen in making them was to prevent the Medes from holding intercourse with the Babylonians, and so to keep them in ignorance of her affairs.
I.186: While the soil from the excavation was being thus used for the defense of the city, Nitocris engaged also in another undertaking, a mere by-work compared with those we have already mentioned. The city, as I said, was divided by the river into two distinct portions. Under the former kings, if a man wanted to pass from one of these divisions to the other, he had to cross in a boat; which must, it seems to me, have been very troublesome. Accordingly, while she was digging the lake, Nitocris be. thought herself of turning it to a use which should at once remove this inconvenience, and enable her to leave another monument of her reign over Babylon. She gave orders for the hewing of immense blocks of stone, and when they were ready and the basin was excavated, she turned the entire stream of the Euphrates into the cutting, and thus for a time, while the basin was filling, the natural channel of the river was left dry. Forthwith she set to work, and in the first place lined the banks of the stream within the city with quays of burnt brick, and also bricked the landing-places opposite the river-gates, adopting throughout the same fashion of brickwork which had been used in the town wall; after which, with the materials which had been prepared, she built, as near the middle of the town as possible, a stone bridge, the blocks whereof were bound together with iron and lead. In the daytime square wooden platforms were laid along from pier to pier, on which the inhabitants crossed the stream; but at night they were withdrawn, to prevent people passing from side to side in the dark to commit robberies. When the river had filled the cutting, and the bridge was finished, the Euphrates was turned back again into its ancient bed; and thus the basin, transformed suddenly into a lake, was seen to answer the purpose for which it was made, and the inhabitants, by help of the basin, obtained the advantage of a bridge.
I.187: It was this same princess by whom a remarkable deception was planned. She had her tomb constructed in the upper part of one of the principal gateways of the city, high above the heads of the passers by, with this inscription cut upon it: "If there be one among my successors on the throne of Babylon who is in want of treasure, let him open my tomb, and take as much as he chooses---not, however, unless he be truly in want, for it will not be for his good." This tomb continued untouched until Darius came to the kingdom. To him it seemed a monstrous thing that he should be unable to use one of the gates of the town, and that a sum of money should be lying idle, and moreover inviting his grasp, and he not seize upon it. Now he could not use the gate, because, as he drove through, the dead body would have been over his head. Accordingly he opened the tomb; but instead of money, found only the dead body, and a writing which said: "Had you not been insatiate of money, and careless how you got it, you would not have broken open the sepulchers of the dead."
I.188: The expedition of Cyrus was undertaken against the son of this princess, who bore the same name as his father Labynetus, and was king of the Assyrians. The Great King, when he goes to the wars, is always supplied with provisions carefully prepared at home, and with cattle of his own. Water too from the river Choaspes, which flows by Susa, is taken with him for his drink, as that is the only water which the kings of Persia taste. Wherever he travels, he is attended by a number of four-wheeled cars drawn by mules, in which the Choaspes water, ready boiled for use, and stored in flagons of silver, is moved with him from place to place.
I.189: Cyrus on his way to Babylon came to the banks of the Gyndes, a stream which, rising in the Matienian mountains, runs through the country of the Dardanians, and empties itself into the river Tigris. The Tigris, after receiving the Gyndes, flows on by the city of Opis, and discharges its waters into the Erythraean sea. When Cyrus reached this stream, which could only be passed in boats, one of the sacred white horses accompanying his march, full of spirit and high mettle, walked into the water, and tried to cross by himself; but the current seized him, swept him along with it, and drowned him in its depths. Cyrus, enraged at the insolence of the river, threatened so to break its strength that in future even women should cross it easily without wetting their knees. Accordingly he put off for a time his attack on Babylon, and, dividing his army into two parts, he marked out by ropes one hundred and eighty trenches on each side of the Gyndes, leading off from it in all directions, and setting his army to dig, some on one side of the river, some on the other, he accomplished his threat by the aid of so great a number of hands, but not without losing thereby the whole summer season.
I.190: Having, however, thus wreaked his vengeance on the Gyndes, by dispersing it through three hundred and sixty channels, Cyrus, with the first approach of the ensuing spring, marched forward against Babylon. The Babylonians, encamped without their walls, awaited his coming. A battle was fought at a short distance from the city, in which the Babylonians were defeated by the Persian king, whereupon they withdrew within their defenses. Here they shut themselves up, and made light of his siege, having laid in a store of provisions for many years in preparation against this attack; for when they saw Cyrus conquering nation after nation, they were convinced that he would never stop, and that their turn would come at last.
I.191: Cyrus was now reduced to great perplexity, as time went on and he made no progress against the place. In this distress either some one made the suggestion to him, or he thought to himself of a plan, which he proceeded to put in execution. He placed a portion of his army at the point where the river enters the city, and another body at the back of the place where it issues forth, with orders to march into the town by the bed of the stream, as soon as the water became shallow enough: he then himself drew off with the unwarlike portion of his host, and made for the place where Nitocris dug the basin for the river, where he did exactly what she had done formerly: he turned the Euphrates by a canal into the basin, which was then a marsh, on which the river sank to such an extent that the natural bed of the stream became fordable.
Hereupon the Persians who had been left for the purpose at Babylon by the, river-side, entered the stream, which had now sunk so as to reach about midway up a man's thigh, and thus got into the town. Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus was about, or had they noticed their danger, they would never have allowed the Persians to enter the city, but would have destroyed them utterly; for they would have made fast all the street-gates which gave upon the river, and mounting upon the walls along both sides of the stream, would so have caught the enemy, as it were, in a trap. But, as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and so took the city. Owing to the vast size of the place, the inhabitants of the central parts (as the residents at Babylon declare) long after the outer portions of the town were taken, knew nothing of what had chanced, but as they were engaged in a festival, continued dancing and reveling until they learnt the capture but too certainly. Such, then, were the circumstances of the first taking of Babylon.
I.192: Among many proofs which I shall bring forward of the power and resources of the Babylonians, the following is of special account. The whole country under the dominion of the Persians, besides paying a fixed tribute, is parceled out into divisions, which have to supply food to the Great King and his army during different portions of the year. Now out of the twelve months which go to a year, the district of Babylon furnishes food during four, the other of Asia during eight; by the which it appears that Assyria, in respect of resources, is one-third of the whole of Asia. Of all the Persian governments, or satrapies as they are called by the natives, this is by far the best. When Tritantaechmes, son of Artabazus, held it of the king, it brought him in an artaba of silver every day. The artaba is a Persian measure, and holds three choenixes more than the medimnus of the Athenians. He also had, belonging to his own private stud, besides war horses, eight hundred stallions and sixteen thousand mares, twenty to each stallion. Besides which he kept so great a number of Indian hounds, that four large villages of the plain were exempted from all other charges on condition of finding them in food.
I.193: But little rain falls in Assyria, enough, however, to make the corn begin to sprout, after which the plant is nourished and the ears formed by means of irrigation from the river. For the river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the corn-lands of its own accord, but is spread over them by the hand, or by the help of engines. The whole of Babylonia is, like Egypt, intersected with canals. The largest of them all, which runs towards the winter sun, and is impassable except in boats, is carried from the Euphrates into another stream, called the Tigris, the river upon which the town of Nineveh formerly stood. Of all the countries that we know there is none which is so fruitful in grain. It makes no pretension indeed of growing the fig, the olive, the vine, or any other tree of the kind; but in grain it is so fruitful as to yield commonly two-hundred-fold, and when the production is the greatest, even three-hundred-fold. The blade of the wheat-plant and barley-plant is often four fingers in breadth. As for the millet and the sesame, I shall not say to what height they grow, though within my own knowledge; for I am not ignorant that what I have already written concerning the fruitfulness of Babylonia must seem incredible to those who have never visited the country. The only oil they use is made from the sesame-plant. Palm-trees grow in great numbers over the whole of the flat country, mostly of the kind which bears fruit, and this fruit supplies them with bread, wine, and honey. They are cultivated like the fig-tree in all respects, among others in this. The natives tie the fruit of the male-palms, as they are called by the Hellenes, to the branches of the date-bearing palm, to let the gall-fly enter the dates and ripen them, and to prevent the fruit from falling off. The male-palms, like the wild fig-trees, have usually the gall-fly in their fruit.
I.194: But that which surprises me most in the land, after the city itself, I will now proceed to mention. The boats which come down the river to Babylon are circular, and made of skins. The frames, which are of willow, are cut in the country of the Armenians above Assyria, and on these, which serve for hulls, a covering of skins is stretched outside, and thus the boats are made, without either stem or stern, quite round like a shield. They are then entirely filled with straw, and their cargo is put on board, after which they are suffered to float down the stream. Their chief freight is wine, stored in casks made of the wood of the palm-tree. They are managed by two men who stand upright in them, each plying an oar, one pulling and the other pushing. The boats are of various sizes, some larger, some smaller; the biggest reach as high as five thousand talents' burthen. Each vessel has a live ass on board; those of larger size have more than one. When they reach Babylon, the cargo is landed and offered for sale; after which the men break up their boats, sell the straw and the frames, and loading their asses with the skins, set off on their way back to Armenia. The current is too strong to allow a boat to return upstream, for which reason they make their boats of skins rather than wood. On their return to Armenia they build fresh boats for the next voyage.
I.195: The dress of the Babylonians is a linen tunic reaching to the feet, and above it another tunic made in wool, besides which they have a short white cloak thrown round them, and shoes of a peculiar fashion, not unlike those worn by the Boiotians. They have long hair, wear turbans on their heads, and anoint their whole body with perfumes. Every one carries a seal, and a walking-stick, carved at the top into the form of an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle, or something similar; for it is not their habit to use a stick without an ornament.
I.196: Of their customs, whereof I shall now proceed to give an account, the following (which I understand belongs to them in common with the Illyrian tribe of the Eneti) is the wisest in my judgment. Once a year in each village the maidens of age to marry were collected all together into one place; while the men stood round them in a circle. Then a herald called up the damsels one by one, and offered them for sale. He began with the most beautiful. When she was sold for no small sum of money, he offered for sale the one who came next to her in beauty. All of them were sold to be wives. The richest of the Babylonians who wished to wed bid against each other for the loveliest maidens, while the humbler wife-seekers, who were indifferent about beauty, took the more homely damsels with marriage-portions.
For the custom was that when the herald had gone through the whole number of the beautiful damsels, he should then call up the ugliest---a cripple, if there chanced to be one---and offer her to the men, asking who would agree to take her with the smallest marriage-portion. And the man who offered to take the smallest sum had her assigned to him. The marriage-portions were furnished by the money paid for the beautiful damsels, and thus the fairer maidens portioned out the uglier. No one was allowed to give his daughter in marriage to the man of his choice, nor might any one carry away the damsel whom he had purchased without finding bail really and truly to make her his wife; if, however, it turned out that they did not agree, the money might be paid back. All who liked might come even from distant villages and bid for the women. This was the best of all their customs, but it has now fallen into disuse. They have lately hit upon a very different plan to save their maidens from violence, and prevent their being torn from them and carried to distant cities, which is to bring up their daughters to be courtesans. This is now done by all the poorer of the common people, who since the conquest have been maltreated by their lords, and have had ruin brought upon their families.
I.197: The following custom seems to me the wisest of their institutions next to the one lately praised. They have no physicians, but when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease themselves or have known any one who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.
I.198: They bury their dead in honey, and have funeral lamentations like the Egyptians. When a Babylonian has consorted with his wife, he sits down before a censer of burning incense, and the woman sits opposite to him. At dawn of day they wash; for till they are washed they will not touch any of their common vessels. This practice is observed also by the Arabians.
I.199: The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in the country must once in her life go and sit down in the precinct of Venus [Ishtar], and there consort with a stranger. Many of the wealthier sort, who are too proud to mix with the others, drive in covered carriages to the precinct, followed by a goodly train of attendants, and there take their station. But the larger number seat themselves within the holy enclosure with wreaths of string about their heads---and here there is always a great crowd, some coming and others going; lines of cord mark out paths in all directions the women, and the strangers pass along them to make their choice. A woman who has once taken her seat is not allowed to return home till one of the strangers throws a silver coin into her lap, and takes her with him beyond the holy ground. When he throws the coin he says these words: "The goddess Mylitta prosper you" (Venus is called Mylitta by the Assyrians.) The silver coin may be of any size; it cannot be refused, for that is forbidden by the law, since once thrown it is sacred. The woman goes with the first man who throws her money, and rejects no one. When she has gone with him, and so satisfied the goddess, she returns home, and from that time forth no gift however great will prevail with her. Such of the women as are tall and beautiful are soon released, but others who are ugly have to stay a long time before they can fulfil the law. Some have waited three or four years in the precinct. A custom very much like this is found also in certain parts of the island of Cyprus.
I.200: Such are the customs of the Babylonians generally. There are likewise three tribes among them who eat nothing but fish. These are caught and dried in the sun, after which they are brayed in a mortar, and strained through a linen sieve. Some prefer to make cakes of this material, while others bake it into a kind of bread.
VII.63: The Assyrians went to war with helmets upon their heads made of brass, and plaited in a strange fashion which is not easy to describe. They carried shields, lances, and daggers very like the Egyptian; but in addition they had wooden clubs knotted with iron, and linen corselets. This people, whom the Hellenes call Syrians, are called Assyrians by the barbarians. The Chaldeans served in their ranks, and they had for commander Otaspes, the son of Artachaeus. .
Source:
From: Herodotus, The History, George Rawlinson, trans., (New York: Dutton & Co., 1862)
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof. Arkenberg has modernized the text.
• September 20, 2011
• 0
• Published in Ancient Babylon
• Written by LC Geerts

Erra and Ishum
Erra and Ishum
Source: Foster's (B.) From Distant Days: myths, tales and poetry from Ancient Mesopotamia, CDL Press, 1995
TABLET I
Narrator invokes Marduk, chief deity of Babylon, and Ishum, vanguard and companion of Erra. Erra is restless and breaks into a soliloquy. He is anxious to fight and campaign, but hesitates through natural inertia. Speaking of himself in the third person, Erra says that what he needs to stir him to action is Ishums encouragement
O king of all inhabited lands, creator of the world,O Hendursagga, first born of Enlil [ ] Holder of the sublime scepter, herdsman of the black-headed folk, shepherd of mankind, O Ishum, zealous slaughterer, whose hands are suited to brandish fierce weapons, And to make his sharp spear flash, Erra, warrior of the gods, was restless in his dwelling, His heart urged him to do battle! Says he to his weapons. "Smear yourselves with deadly venom!"
To the Seven, warriors unrivalled, "Let your weapons be girded!" He even says to you: "You are the torch, they will see your light "You are the vanguard, the gods will [ ] "You are the stanchion, [zealous] slaughterer! "(So) up, Erra, from laying waste the land "How cheerful your mood will be and joyful your heart!
"Erra's limbs are sluggish, like those of a mortal lacking sleep, "He says to himself, 'Shall I get up or go to sleep?' "He says to his weapons, 'Stay in the corners!' "To the Seven, warriors unrivalled, 'Go back to your dwellings!' "Until you rouse him, he will sleep in his bedrooms, "He will dally with Mami, his mate". (With a second invocation, now of Ishum, the narrator introduces the terrible Seven, who stand ready to massacre the "black-headed folk" or Mesopotamians)
O Engidudu, who patrols at night, ever guiding the noble, Who ever guides young men and women in safety, making light as day, The Seven, warriors unrivalled, their divine nature is different, Their origins are strange, they are terrifying, Whoever sees them is numbed with fear. Their breath of life is death, People are too frightened to approach it! Yet Ishum is the door, bolted before them.
When Anu, the king of the gods, sowed his seed in the earth, She bore him seven gods, he called them the Seven. They stood before him, that he ordain their destinies, He summoned the first to give his instructions, "Wherever you go and spread terror, have no equal."
He said to the second, "Burn like fire, scorch like flame".
He commanded the third, "Look like a lion, let him who sees you be paralysed with fear".
He said to the fourth, "Let a mountain collapse when you present your fierce arms".
He said to the fifth, "Blast like the wind, scan the circumference of the earth".
He said to the sixth. "Go out everywhere (like the deluge) and spare no one".
The seventh he charged with viperous venom," Slay whatever lives".
After Anu had ordained destinies for all of the Seven, He gave those very ones to Erra, warrior of the gods, saying: "Let them go beside you, when the clamor of human habitations becomes noisome to you, "And you resolve to wreak destruction, "To massacre the black-headed folk and fell the livestock, "Let these be your fierce weaponry, let them go beside you".
The Seven offer the encouragement that Erra needs. . In a rousing call to arms, they extol the heroic excitement of the campaign, the honor, prestige and gratification it brings.
The Seven claim vaguely that they are not respected enough, that others are growing more important than they.
They bring up the old charge that men make too much noise for the gods to sleep, although this was not the cause Erra had given for his own lack of sleep.
The Seven claim further that there are too many wild animals on the loose. Their final claim no doubt the most important one, is that they are bored and out of training.
These are the ones who are in a fury, holding their weapons aloft, They are saying to Erra, "Up, do your duty! "Why have you been sitting in the city like a feeble old man, "Why sitting at home like a helpless child? "Shall we eat woman food, like non-combatants? Have we turned timorous and trembling, as if we can't fight? "Going to the field for the young and vigorous is like to a very feast, "But the noble who stays in the city can never eat enough. "His people will hold him in low esteem, he will command no respect, "How could he threaten a campaigner? "However well developed is the strength of the city dweller, "How could he possibly best a campaigner? "However toothsome city bread, it holds nothing to the campfire loaf, "However sweet fine beer, it holds nothing to water from a skin, "The terraced palace holds nothing to the wayside sleeping spot! "Be off to the field, warrior Erra, make your weapons clatter, "Make loud your battle cry that all around they quake,"Let the Igigi-gods hear and extol your name,"Let the Anunna-gods hear and flinch at the mention of your,"Let all the gods hear and bend for your yoke,"Let sovereigns hear and fall prostrate before you,"Let countries hear and bring you their tribute,"Let the lowly hear and perish of their own accord,"Let the mighty hear and his strength diminish,"Let lofty mountains hear and their peaks crumble,"Let the surging sea hear and convulse, wiping out her increase!"Let the stalk be yanked from the tough thicket,"Let reeds of the impenetrable morass be shorn off,"Let men turn cowards and their clamor subside,"Let beasts tremble and return to clay,"Let the gods your ancestors see and praise your valor!
"Warrior Erra, why do you neglect the field for the city? "The very beats and creatures hold us in contempt! "O warrior Erra, we will tell you, thought that we say be offensive to you! "Ere the whole land outgrows us, "You must surely hear our words! "Do a kindly deed for the gods of hell, who delight in deadly stillness,"The Anunna-gods cannot fall asleep for the clamor of humankind, Beasts are overrunning the meadows, life of the land, "The farmer sobs bitterly for his field, "Lion and wolf are felling the livestock, "The shepherd, who cannot sleep day and night for the sake of his flocks, is calling upon you, "We too, who know the mountain passes, have forgotten how to go, "Cobwebs are spun over our field gear, "Our fine bow resists and is too strong for us, "The tip of our sharp arrow is bent out of true, "Our blade is corroded for want of a slaughter!"
The warrior Erra heard them, What the Seven said pleased him like finest oil.
He made ready to speak and said to Ishum: "Why, having heard, did you sit by silent? "Lead the way, let me begin my campaign! "[ ] the Seven, warriors without rival, Make my fierce weapons (the Seven) march by my side, But you be the vanguard and rear guard".
When Ishum heard what he said, he felt pity and said to the warrior Erra: "O Lord Erra, why have you plotted evil against the gods? "To lay waste the lands and decimate the people".
Erra made ready to speak and said to Ishum, his vanguard: "Keep quiet, Ishum, listen to what I say, as concerns the people of the inhabited world, whom you would spare. "O vanguard of the gods, wise Ishum, whose counsel is always for the best,"I am the wild bull in heaven, I am the lion on earth,"I am king in the land, I am the fiercest among the gods, "I am warrior among the Igigi-gods, mighty one among the Anunna-gods! "I am the smitter of wild beasts, battering ram against the mountain,"I am the blaze in the reed thicket, the broad blade against the rushes, "I am banner for the march, I blast like the wind, I thunder like the storm,"Like the sun, I scan the circumference of the world, "I am the wild ram striding forth in the steppe, "I invade the range and take up my dwelling in the fold, "All the gods are afraid of a fight, so the black-headed folk are contemptuous!
"As for me, since they did not fear my name, and I have disregarded Marduk's command, so he may act according to his wishes "I will make Marduk angry, stir him from his dwelling, and lay waste the people!"
The warrior Erra set out for Babylon, city of the king of the gods. He entered Esagila, palace of heaven and earth and stood before him.
He made ready to speak, saying to the king of the gods: "Why has your precious image, symbol of your lordship, lost its brilliance? "Your lordly diadem, which made the inner sanctum shine like the outside tower, why is it dimmed?"
The king of the gods (Marduk) made ready to speak, saying to Erra, these words, "O warrior Erra, concerning that deed you said you would do,
"Once, long ago indeed I grew angry, indeed I left my dwelling and caused the deluge! "When I left my dwelling, the regulation of heaven and earth disintegrated: "The shaking of heaven meant: the positions of the heavenly bodies changed, nor did I restore them, "The quaking of netherworld meant: the yield of the furrow diminished, being thereafter difficult to exploit. "The regulations of heaven and earth disintegrating meant: underground water diminished, high water receded. When I looked again, it was struggle to get enough. "Productivity of living offspring declined, nor did I renew it, "Such that were I a plowman, I could hold all seed in my hand.
"I built another house and settled therein "As to my precious image, which had been struck by the deluge that its appearance was sullied, "I commanded fire to make my features shine and cleanse my apparel. "When it had shined my precious image and completed the task,"I donned my lordly diadem and returned."Haughty were my features, terrifying my glare!
"The survivors of the deluge saw what was done,"Shall I raise my weapon and destroy the rest? "I sent those craftsmen down to the depths, I ordered them not to come up, "I removed the wood and gemstone and showed no one where,"Now then, warrior Erra, as concerns that deed you said you would do, "Where is the wood, flesh of the gods, suitable for the lord of the universe,
"The sacred tree, splendid stripling, perfect for lordship, "Whose roots thrust down an hundred leagues through the waters of the vast ocean to the depths of hell, "Whose crown brushed Anu's heaven on high? "Where is the clear gemstone that I reserved for [ ]?
"Where is Ninildum, great carpenter of my supreme divinity, "Wielder of the glittering hatchet, who knows that tool,"Who makes it shine like the day and puts it in subjection at my feet?
"Where is Kunig-banda, fashioner of god and man, whose hands are sacred?
"Where is Nin agal, wielder of the upper and lower millstone "Who grinds up hard copper like hide and who forges tools?
"Where are the choice stones, created by the vast sea, to ornament my diadem?
"Where are the seven sages of the depths, those sacred fish, who, like Ea their lord, are perfect in sublime wisdom, the ones who cleansed my person?
The warrior Erra heard him..... [ ] He made ready to speak, saying to noble Marduk, "[ craftsmen ], "[ tree ], "Clear gemstone [from] its place will I bring up."
When Marduk heard this, he made ready to speak, saying to the warrior Erra:
"(When) I rise from my dwelling, the regulation of heaven and earth will disintegrate, "The waters will rise and sweep over the land, "Bright day will turn to darkness, whirlwind will rise and the stars of heaven will be... "Ill winds will blow and the eyesight of living creatures will be darkened, "Demons will raise up and seize [ ], "They will .... the unarmed one who confronts them! "The gods of hell will rise up and smite down living creatures, "Who will keep them at bay till I gird on my weaponry once more?
When Erra heard this, he made himself ready to speak, saying to noble Marduk:
"O noble Marduk, while you enter the house, fire cleanses your apparel and you return to your palace, "For that time I will govern and keep strong the regulation of heaven and earth, "I will go up to heaven and issue instructions to the Igigi gods, "I will go down to the depths and keep the Anunna gods in order. "I will despatch the wild demons to the netherworld, "I will brandish my fierce weaponry against them, "I will truss the wings of the ill wind like a bird's. "At that house you shall enter, O noble Marduk, "I will station Anu and Enlil to the right and left, like bulls."
Noble Marduk heard him, the words which Erra spoke pleased him.
TABLET II
He arose from his dwelling, an inaccessible place, He set out for the dwelling of the Anunna-gods.
He entered that house and stood before them.
Shamash looked upon him and let his protective radiance fall...
Sin looked everywhere, and did not leave the Netherworld,
Ill winds rose and the bright daylight was turned to gloom, The clamor of the peoples throughout the land was stilled, The Igigi gods were terrified and went up to heaven, The Anunna gods were frightened and went down to the pit of hell, [ ] the entire circumference [ ] [ ] in the dust [ ] let us see". [ ] its doors. [ ] like the stars of heaven.
Gap
The gods convene to discuss the situation. Ea, intent upon restoring Marduk to his place, reasons that, even though the original sublime craftsmen cannot return, Marduk authorized reproduction of them to be made that are endowed with wondrous powers by Ea at Marduk's command.
The repairs are proceeding well.
Erra, while standing guard at the hour where the work is being done lest harm approach, is taking the opportunity to usurp Marduk's power by keeping everyone away from him.
So vainglorious is Erra's shouting that Ea resolves to see him humbled.
"The diadem [ ] "His heart [ ] "The governor's [ ] "The awe-inspiring radiance of his divine splendor [ ] his days [ ], "[ ] like rain,
"Let Ea in the depths [ ] his springs,
"Let Shamash see .... [ ] and let the people [ ]
"Let Sin behold, and at his sign, let him [ ] to the land.
"Concerning that work, Ea [ ] is expert".
"The warrior Erra became very angry, "Why, because of foam on the waters, the .... of mankind, "Which I myself created to bring offerings to he Anunna gods, "Did noble Marduk give up, not at the appointed time? "He plotted to lay waste the lands and destroy their people!"
Ea the king considered and said these words, "Even now that noble Marduk has arisen from his dwelling, he did not command those craftsmen to come up. "How can images of them, which I made among mankind, "Approach his sublime divinity, where no god has access?
"He himself gave those same human craftsmen great discretion and authority,
"He gave them wisdom and perfect dexterity,
"They have made his precious image radiant, even finer than before,
"Warrior Erra has stationed himself before him, night and day without ceasing, "Besetting the house for making radiant the precious image for the sovereignty of the king and saying, ' Don't come near the work! ' [He who draws] near it - I will cut short his life and prolong his death agony.' "[ ] let him hasten at the work, "[ ] has no equal. "[ ] Erra was speaking like a mortal, "[ ] was trying to rival the noble one, "[ ] may he be humbled."
The images of the craftsmen made his precious image radiant, [ ] ..... They set the.... at his door, [ ] king Shamash girds it on, [ ] he reoccupied his dwelling, [ ] brilliance was re-established, [All the gods....] were gathered, Erra [ noble] Marduk, "Noble Marduk,[ ] "Godlike, you [ ] "Small to great [ ] [ ] Erra.... [ ] ... his uproar was terrifying, "[ ] ... the image, "[ ] of your lordship are raised up and established".
The king of the gods made ready to speak and said, "[ ] and went up to heaven." [ ] he commanded, "Return to your dwellings!" [ ] ... his sign, "[ ] upon your face, "[ ] their peoples. "[ ] you did not turn your back."
He heard him, ... said to the king of the gods, "The word of Marduk [ ] of the day". He said to him [ ] "Come now, [ ] "To destroy the lands [ why did you plot?]?
Erra heard him [ ] ... He entered [ ].
Anu heard in heaven [ ], He bowed his lofty head [ ], Antu, mother of the gods, was aghast [ ], She entered her chamber, Enlil's [ ]
Gap
[ ] father of the gods [ ] [ ] Enlil [ ] Among the beasts, all of them [ ] Erra among all the gods [ ] Among the stars of heaven the Fox Star [ ] Was shining bright and its radiance [ ] for him, The stars of all the gods were dazzling [ ], Because they were angry with each other, and noble Marduk [ ] put [ ], "The star of Erra is shining bright and its radiant.... of warfare. "His awe-inspiring brilliance will..... and all people will perish.
• September 20, 2011
• 0
• Published in Ancient Babylon
• Written by LC Geerts

Seven Tablets of Creation, Intro
The Seven Tablets of Creation
by Leonard William King
Luzac's Semitic text and translation series. vol. xii-xiii
Luzac and Co.
London (1902)
Preface
PERHAPS no section of Babylonian literature has been more generally studied than the legends which record the Creation of the world. On the publication of the late Mr. George Smith's work, "The Chaldean Account of Genesis," which appeared some twenty-seven years ago, it was recognized that there was in the Babylonian account of the Creation, as it existed in the seventh century before Christ, much which invited comparison with the corresponding narrative in the Book of Genesis. It is true that the Babylonian legends which had been recovered and were first published by him were very fragmentary, and that the exact number and order of the Tablets, or sections, of which they were composed were quite uncertain; and that, although they recorded the creation of the heavens and of the heavenly bodies, they contained no direct account of the creation of man. In spite of this, however, their resemblance to the Hebrew narrative was unmistakable, and in consequence they at once appealed to a far larger circle of students than would otherwise have been the case.
After the appearance of Mr. Smith's work, other scholars produced translations of the fragments which he had published, and the names of Oppert, Schrader, and Sayce will always be associated with those who were the first to devote themselves to the interpretation of the Creation Legends. Moreover, new fragments of the legends have from time to time been acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum, and of these the most important is the fine text of the Fourth Tablet of the Creation Series, containing the account of the fight between the god Marduk and the dragon Tiamat, which was published in 1887 by Dr. Wallis Budge, and translated by Professor Sayce in the same year. Professor Sayce's translation of the Creation Legends marked a distinct advance upon those of his predecessors, and it was the most complete, inasmuch as he was enabled to make use of the new tablet which restored so much of the central portion of the story. In the year 1890, in his important work Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, Professor Jensen of Marburg gave a translation of the legends together with a transliteration and commentary; in 1895 Professor Zimmern of Leipzig translated all the fragments then known, and a year later Professor Delitzsch of Berlin also published a rendering. Finally, two years ago, Professor Jensen issued a new and revised translation of the Creation Legends in the opening pages of the first part of his work Mythen and Epen, the second part of which, containing his notes and commentary, appeared some months ago.
In the course of the year 1900, the writer was entrusted with the task of copying the texts of a number of Babylonian and Assyrian legends for publication in the series of Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc., in the British Museum, and, among the documents selected for issue, were those relating to the Creation of the world. Several of the texts of the Creation Legends, which had been used by previous translators, had never been published, and one tablet, which Mr. George Smith had consulted in 1876, had not been identified by subsequent workers. During my work I was so fortunate as to recognize this tablet, and was enabled to make copies of all the texts, not only of those which were previously known, but also of a number of new duplicates and fragments which I had meanwhile identified. These copies appeared in Cuneiform Texts, Part XIII (1901), Plates 1-41. The most interesting of the new fragments there published was a tablet which restored a missing portion of the text of the Second Tablet of the Creation Series, and of this, on account of its interest, I gave a translation in a note to the plate on which the text appeared. It was not my intention at that time to publish anything further upon the subject of the Creation Legends.
While I was engaged, however, in searching for fragments of other Babylonian legends for publication officially, it was my good fortune to come across a fine duplicate of the Second Tablet of the Creation. Series. A further prolonged search was rewarded by the finding of other fragments of the poem, and a study of these showed me that the earlier portions of the text of the Creation Story, as already known, could be considerably augmented. Among them, moreover, was a fragment of the poem which refers to the Creation of Man; this fragment is extremely important, for in addition to its valuable contents it also settles the disputed question as to the number of Tablets, or sections, of which the Creation Series was composed. In view of the additional information as to the form and contents of the poem which this new material afforded, it was clearly necessary that a new translation of the Creation Legends should be made, and this I undertook forthwith.
The new fragments of the poem which I had identified up to the summer of last year are inscribed upon tablets of the Neo-Babylonian period. At the conclusion of the examination of tablets of this class, I lithographed the newly identified texts in a series of plates which are published in the second volume of the present work. These plates were already printed off, when, at the beginning of the present year, after my return from Assyria, I identified a fresh group of fragments of the poem inscribed, not upon Neo-Babylonian, but upon Assyrian tablets. At that time I was engaged on making a detailed catalogue, or hand-list, of the smaller fragments in the various collections of Assyrian tablets from Kuyunjik, and, as a result of previous study of the legends themselves and of the Assyrian commentaries to the Seventh Tablet of the series, I was enabled to identify ten new fragments of the poem which are inscribed upon tablets from the library of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh. In order to avoid upsetting the arrangement of the plates in Vol. II, the texts of the new Assyrian fragments are published by means of outline blocks in Appendices I and II to the present volume.
Those who have studied the published texts of the Creation Series will remember that the material used by previous translators of the legends has consisted of some twenty-one tablets and fragments inscribed with portions of the poem. The number of new tablets and fragments belonging to the Creation Series which are here used and translated for the first time reaches the total of thirty-four, but, as I have joined up six of these to other similar fragments, this total has been reduced to twenty-eight. Thus, in place of the twenty-one tablets previously known, forty-nine separate tablets and fragments have now been identified as containing portions of the text of the Creation Series.
The new information, furnished by the recently discovered material regarding the Story of Creation, may here be briefly summarized. Hitherto our knowledge of the contents of Tablets I and II of the series has been very fragmentary. After the narrative of the creation of the great gods in the opening lines of the poem, and a fragmentary reference to the first symptoms of revolt exhibited by the primeval monsters, Apsand Tiamat, and Mummu, the minister of Aps there occurred a great gap in the text, and the story began again with the account of how Tiamat prepared to wage war against the gods. Apsand Mummu have at this point entirely disappeared from the narrative, and the ally of Tiamat is the god Kingu, whom she appoints to command her forces. What followed the creation of the great gods, what was the cause of the revolt, what was the fate of Apsand Mummu, and what were the events which led up to Tiamat's preparations for battle, are questions that have hitherto remained unanswered. We now know that the account of the creation of the gods was no fuller than that which has come down to us from Damascius. After the birth of Lakhmu and Lakhamu, Anshar and Kishar, Anu, B (i.e., Enlil, or Illil), and Ea (Nudimmud), the text does not proceed to narrate in detail the coming forth of the lesser deities, but plunges at once into the story of the revolt of the primeval forces of chaos. We now know also that it was Aps and not Tiamat, who began the revolt against the gods; and that, according to the poem, his enmity was aroused, not by the creation of light as has been previously suggested, but by the disturbance of his rest in consequence of the new "way" of the gods, which tended to produce order in place of chaos.
One of the most striking facts which the new fragments furnish with regard to the contents of the legends is the prominent part played by the god Ea in the earlier episodes of the story. After Apsand Mummu had repaired to Tiamat and had hatched with her their plot against the gods, it was the god Ea, who, abounding in all wisdom, detected their plan and frustrated it. The details of Ea's action are still a matter of uncertainty, but, as I have shown in the Introduction, it is clear that Apsand Mummu were overthrown, and that their conqueror was Ea. Moreover, it was only after their downfall, and in order to avenge them, that Tiamat began her preparations for battle. She was encouraged in her determination by the god Kingu, and it was in consequence of the assistance he then gave her that she afterwards appointed him leader of her host.
Another point which is explained by the new fragments concerns the repetitions in Tablets I, II, and III of the lines containing the account of Tiamat's preparations for battle. The lines describing this episode are given no less than four times: in Tablet I, in Tablet II, and twice in Tablet III. We now know that the first description of Tiamat's preparations occurs after the account of her determination to avenge her former allies; and in the Second Tablet the lines are put into the mouth of Ea, who continues to play a prominent part in the narrative, and carries the tidings to Anshar. How Anshar repeated the lines to Gaga, his messenger, and how Gaga delivered the message to Lakhmu and Lakhamu, is already well known.
Perhaps the most striking of all the new fragments of the poem here published is that which contains the opening and closing lines of the Sixth Tablet, and, at last, furnishes us with a portion of the text describing the Creation of Man. We now know that, as in the Hebrew narrative, the culminating act of Creation was the making of man. Marduk is here represented as declaring to Ea that he will create man from his own blood, and from bone which he will form; it is important to note that the Assyrian word here used for "bone," issimtu, which has not hitherto been known, corresponds to the Hebrew word 'esem, "bone," which occurs in Gen. ii, 2 3, in connection with the account of the creation of woman. The text thus furnishes another point of resemblance between the Babylonian and the Hebrew stories of Creation. The new fragment also corroborates in a remarkable degree the account given by Berossus of the Babylonian version of the creation of man. According to the writer's rendering of the passage, Marduk declares that he will use his own blood in creating mankind, and this agrees with the statement of Berossus, that B directed one of the gods to cut off his (i.e. B's) head, and to form mankind from his blood mixed with earth. This subject is discussed at length and in detail in the Introduction, as well as a number of new points. of resemblance between the Babylonian and the Hebrew accounts of the Creation which are furnished by other recently identified fragments of the poem.
With regard to the extent and contents of the Creation Series, we now know that the Tablets of which the series was composed are seven in number; and we also possess the missing context or frame-work of the Seventh Tablet, which contains addresses to Marduk under his fifty titles of honour. From this we learn that, when the work of Creation was ended, the gods gathered together once more in Upshukkinakku, their council-chamber; here they seated themselves in solemn assembly and proceeded to do honour to Marduk, the Creator, by reciting before him the remarkable series of addresses which form the contents of the last Tablet of the poem. Many of the missing portions of the Seventh Tablet, including the opening lines, it has been found possible to restore from the new fragments and duplicates here published.
In the following pages a transliteration of the text of the Creation Series is given, which has been constructed from all the tablets and fragments now known to be inscribed with portions of the poem, together with a translation and notes. For comparison with the legends contained in the Creation Series, translations have been added of the other Babylonian accounts of the history of Creation, and of some texts closely connected therewith. Among these mention may be made of the extracts from a Sumerian text, and from a somewhat similar one in Babylonian, referring to the Creation of the Moon and the Sun; these are here published from a so-called "practice-tablet," or student's exercise. A remarkable address to a mythical river, to which the creation of the world is ascribed, is also given.
In the first Appendix the Assyrian commentaries to the Seventh Tablet are examined in detail, and some fragments of texts are described which bear a striking resemblance to the Seventh Tablet, and are of considerable interest for the light they throw on the literary history of the poem. Among the texts dealt with in the second Appendix one of the most interesting is a Babylonian duplicate of the tablet which has been supposed to contain the instructions given by Marduk to man after his creation, but is now shown by the duplicate to be part of a long didactic composition containing moral precepts, and to have nothing to do with the Creation Series. Similarly, in the fourth Appendix I have printed a copy of the text which has been commonly, but erroneously, supposed to refer to the Tower of Babel. The third Appendix includes some hitherto unpublished astrological texts of the period of the Arsacidae, which contain astrological interpretations and explanations of episodes of the Creation story; they indicate that Tiamat, in her astrological character, was regarded as a star or constellation in the neighbourhood of the ecliptic, and they moreover furnish an additional proof of the identification of her monster brood with at any rate some of the Zodiacal constellations.
During the preparation of this work I have, of course, consulted the translations and renderings of the Creation Legends which have been made by other workers on the subject, and especially those of Professors Jensen, Zimmern, and Delitzsch. I have much pleasure in expressing here my indebtedness to their published works for suggestions which I have adopted from them.
To Mr. R. Campbell Thompson I am indebted for the ready assistance he has afforded me during my search for new fragments and duplicates of the legends.
In conclusion, my thanks are due to Dr. Wallis Budge for his friendly suggestions which I have adopted throughout the progress of the work.
L. W. KING.
LONDON, July 31st, 1902
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION I. DESCRIPTION AND LITERATURE OF THE POEM ENUMA ELISH
II. CONTENTS OF THE POEM AND DISCUSSION OF NEW MATERIAL
III. COMPOSITION OF THE POEM
IV. DATE AND ORIGIN OF THE BABYLONIAN CREATION LEGENDS
V. INFLUENCE OF THE BABYLONIAN CREATION LEGENDS AND PARALLELS IN HEBREW LITERATURE
VI. AUTHORITIES FOR THE TEXT OF THE POEM ENUMA ELISH AND THE ASSYRIAN COMMENTARIES
VII. RECONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE TEXT
TRANSLITERATIONS AND TRANSLATIONS:
I. THE SEVEN TABLETS OF THE HISTORY OF CREATION.
I. THE FIRST TABLET
II. THE SECOND TABLET
III. THE THIRD TABLET
IV. THE FOURTH TABLET
V. THE FIFTH TABLET
VI. THE SIXTH TABLET
VII. THE SEVENTH TABLET
EPILOGUE
II. OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE HISTORY OF CREATION.
I. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE DRAGON-MYTH
II. A REFERENCE TO THE CREATION OF THE CATTLE AND THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD
III. A REFERENCE TO THE CREATION OF THE MOON AND THE SUN
IV. AN ADDRESS TO THE RIVER OF CREATION
V. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE CREATION OF THE WORLD BY MARDUK
VI. THE "CUTHAEAN LEGEND OF THE CREATION"
APPENDICES:
I. ASSYRIAN COMMENTARIES AND PARALLEL TEXTS TO THE SEVENTH TABLET OF THE CREATION SERIES
II. ON SOME FRAGMENTS OF THE SERIES ENUMA ELISH, AND ON SOME TEXTS RELATING TO THE HISTORY OF CREATION
III. ON SOME TRACES OF THE HISTORY OF CREATION IN RELIGIOUS AND ASTROLOGICAL LITERATURE
IV. SUPPOSED ASSYRIAN LEGENDS OF THE TEMPTATION AND THE TOWER OF BABEL
V. A "PRAYER OF THE RAISING OF THE HAND" TO ISHTAR
INDICES, GLOSSARY, ETC.:
I. INDEX TO TEXTS.
A. CUNEIFORM TEXTS FROM BABYLONIAN TABLETS, ETC., IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, PART XIII (1901), PLATES 1-41
B. SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS, PUBLISHED IN VOL. II, PLATES, I-LXXXIV
C. SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS, PUBLISHED IN APPENDICES I, II, AND III.
II. INDEX TO REGISTRATION NUMBERS
III. GLOSSARY OF SELECTED WORDS
IV. INDEX TO NAMES OF DEITIES, STARS, PLACES, ETC.
PLATES:
I. THE SIXTH TABLET OF THE CREATION SERIES
II. THE FIRST TABLET OF THE CREATION SERIES
III. THE SECOND TABLET OF THE CREATION SERIES
IV. THE FOURTH TABLET OF THE CREATION SERIES
V. THE FIFTH TABLET OF THE CREATION SERIES
VI. THE SEVENTH TABLET OF THE CREATION SERIES
INTRODUCTION.
THE great Assyrian poem, or series of legends, which narrates the story of the Creation of the world and man, was termed by the Assyrians and Babylonians Enuma elish, "When in the height," from the two opening words of the text. The poem consisted of some nine hundred and ninety-four lines, and was divided into seven sections, each of which was inscribed upon a separate Tablet. The Tablets were numbered by the Assyrian scribes, and the separate sections of the poem written upon them do not vary very much in length. The shortest Tablet contains one hundred and thirty-eight lines, and the longest one hundred and forty-six, the average length of a Tablet being about one hundred and forty-two lines.
The poem embodies the beliefs of the Babylonians and Assyrians concerning the origin of the universe; it describes the coming forth of the gods from chaos, and tells the story of how the forces of disorder, represented by the primeval water-gods Apsand Tiamat, were overthrown by Ea and Marduk respectively, and how Marduk, after completing the triumph of the gods over chaos, proceeded to create the world and man. The poem is known to us from portions of several Assyrian and late-Babylonian copies of the work, and from extracts from it written out upon the so-called "practice-tablets," or students' exercises, by pupils of the Babylonian scribes.
The Assyrian copies of the work are from the great library which was founded at Nineveh by Ashur-bani-pal, king of Assyria from B.C. 668 to about B.C. 626; the Babylonian copies and extracts were inscribed during the period of the kings of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods; and one copy of the Seventh Tablet may probably be assigned to as late a date as the period of the Arsacidae. All the tablets and fragments, which have hitherto been identified as inscribed with portions of the text of the poem, are preserved in the British Museum.
From the time of the first discovery of fragments of the poem considerable attention has been directed towards them, for not only are the legends themselves the principal source of our knowledge of the Babylonian cosmogony, but passages in them bear a striking resemblance to the cognate narratives in the Book of Genesis concerning the creation of the world.
The late Mr. George Smith, who was the first to publish an account of the poem, recognized this resemblance and emphasized it in his papers on the subject in 1875. 1 In the following year in his work "The Chaldean Account of Genesis" 1 he gave translations of the fragments of the poem which had been identified, and the copies which he had made of the principal fragments were published. 2 After Smith's death the interest in the texts which he had published did not cease, and scholars continued to produce renderings and studies of the legends.
In 1883 Dr. Wallis Budge gave an account of a fine Babylonian duplicate of what proved to be the Fourth Tablet of the Creation Series; this document restored considerable portions of the narrative of the fight between Marduk and the dragon Tiamat, and added considerably to our knowledge of the story of Creation and of the order in which the events related in the story took place. In the Hibbert Lectures for 1887 Professor Sayce translated the new fragment of the text, 2 and in the following year published a complete translation 3 of all fragments of the Creation Legends which had up to that time been identified. In 1890 Professor Jensen, in his studies on the Babylonian cosmogony, included a translation of the legends together with a transliteration and a number of valuable philological notes and discussion.
In 1895 Professor Zimmern published a translation of the legends, similar in plan to Sayce's earlier edition; in it he took advantage of some recently identified fragments and duplicates, and put forward a number of new renderings of difficult passages. In 1896 a third German translation of the legends made its appearance; it was published by Professor Delitzsch and included transliterations and descriptions of the various tablets and fragments inscribed with portions of the text. Finally, in 1900 Professor Jensen published a second edition of his rendering of the legends in his Mythen und Epen; 3 this work was the best which could be prepared with the material then available.
In the most recent translations of the Creation Series, those of Delitzsch and Jensen, use was made in all of twenty-one separate tablets and fragments which had been identified as inscribed with portions of the text of the poem. In the present work thirty-four additional tablets and fragments, inscribed with portions of the text of the Creation Series, have been employed; but, as six of these join other similar fragments, the number of separate tablets and fragments here used for the first time is reduced to twenty-eight. The total number of separate fragments of the text of the Creation Series is thus brought up to forty-nine. The new material is distributed among the Seven Tablets of the Creation Series as follows:--To the four known fragments of the First Tablet may now be added eight others, 2 consisting of two fragments of an Assyrian tablet and four Babylonian fragments and two extracts inscribed upon Babylonian "practice-tablets." To the three known fragments of the Second Tablet may be added four others, consisting of parts of one Assyrian and of three Babylonian tablets. To the four known fragments of the Third Tablet may be added five other, consisting of fragments of one Assyrian and one Babylonian tablet and extracts inscribed upon three Babylonian "practice-tablets." To the five known fragments of the Fourth Tablet only one new duplicate can be added, which is inscribed upon a Babylonian "practice-tablet." To the three known fragments of the Fifth Tablet may be added two others, consisting of parts of two Assyrian tablets. Of the Sixth Tablet no fragment has previously been known, and its existence was only inferred from a fragment of the catch-line preserved on copies of the Fifth Tablet; fragments of the text of the Sixth Tablet are published for the first time in the present work from part of a Babylonian tablet. Finally, to the two known fragments of the Seventh Tablet may now be added seven other 4 inscribed upon five Assyrian fragments and portions of two Babylonian tablets.
The new fragments of the text of the First and Second Tablets of the Creation Series throw light on the earlier episodes in the story of Creation, and enable us to fill up some of the gaps in the narrative. By the identification of the Tablet K. 5,419 c, George Smith recovered the opening lines of the First Tablet, which describes the condition of things before Creation when the primeval water-gods, Apsand Tiamat, personifying chaos, mingled their waters in confusion. The text then briefly relates how to Apsand Tiamat were born the oldest of the gods, the first pair, Lahmu and Lahamu, being followed after a long interval by Anshar and Kishar, and after a second interval by other deities, of whose names the text of K. 5,419 c only preserves that of Anu. George Smith perceived that this theogony had been reproduced by Damascius in his summary of the beliefs of the Babylonians concerning the creation of the world. Now, since Damascius mentions Ἴλλινος and Ἀόσ along with Ἀνόσ, it was clear that the text of the poem included a description of the birth of the elder Bel (i.e. Enlil or Illil) and of Ea in the passage in which Anu's name occurs. But as the text inscribed upon the obverse of K. 5,419 c, and of its Neo-Babylonian duplicate 82-7-14, 402, breaks off at l. 15, the course of the story after this point has hitherto been purely a matter for conjecture. It appeared probable that the lines which followed contained a full account of the origin of the younger gods, and from the fact that Damascius states that Βῆλος, the Creator of the world, was the son of (i.e. Ea) and Δαύκη (i.e. Damkina), it has Seen concluded that at any rate special prominence was given to the birth of Bel, i.e. Marduk, who figures so prominently in the story from the close of the Second Tablet onwards.
The new fragments of the First Tablet show that the account of the birth of the gods in the Creation Series is even shorter than that given by Damascius, for the poem contains no mention of the birth and parentage of Marduk. After mentioning the birth of Nudimmud (i.e. Ea), 2 the text proceeds to describe his marvellous wisdom and strength, and states that he had no rival among the gods; the birth of no other god is recorded after that of Ea, and, when Marduk is introduced later on, his existence, like that of Mummu and of Gaga, appears to be tacitly assumed. It would seem, therefore, that the reference made by Damascius to Marduk's parentage was not derived from the text of the Creation Series, but was added by him to complete his summary of the Babylonian beliefs concerning the origin of the gods.
This omission of Marduk's name from the earlier lines of the First Tablet and the prominence given to that of Ea may at first sight seem strange, but it is in accordance with the other newly recovered portions of the text of the First and Second Tablets, which indirectly throw an interesting light on the composite character and literary history of the great poem. It will be seen that of the deities mentioned in these earlier lines Nudimmud (Ea) is the only god whose characteristics are described in detail; his birth, moreover, forms the climax to which the previous lines lead up, and, after the description of his character, the story proceeds at once to relate the rebellion of the primeval gods and the part which Ea played in detecting and frustrating their plans. In fact, Ea and not Marduk is the hero of the earlier episodes of the Creation story.
The new fragments of the text show, moreover, that it was Apsand not Tiamat who began the rebellion against the gods. While the newly created gods represented the birth of order and system in the universe, Apsand Tiamat still remained in confusion and undiminished in might. Aps however, finding the earlier part that his slothful rest was disturbed by the new order of beings whom he had begotten, summoned Mummu, 1 his minister, and the two went together to Tiamat, and lying down before her, took counsel with her regarding the means to be adopted to restore the old order of things. It may be noted that the text contains no direct statement that it was the creation of light which caused the rebellion of the primeval gods. 1 Apsmerely states his hatred of the alkatu or "way" of the gods, in consequence of which he can get no rest by day or night; and, from the fact that he makes use of the expressions "by day" and "by night," it may be inferred that day and night were vaguely conceived as already in existence. It was therefore the substitution of order in place of chaos which, according to the text of the poem, roused Aps#39;s resentment and led to his rebellion and downfall.
Our knowledge of the part played by Ea in the overthrow of Apsand Mummu is still fragmentary, but we know from l. 60 of the First Tablet that it was he who detected the plot against the gods; it is also certain that the following twenty lines recorded the fate of Apsand his minister, and there are clear indications that it was Ea to whom their overthrow was due. In Tablet II, ll. 53 E, Anshar, on learning from Ea the news of Tiamat's preparations for battle, contrasts the conquest of Mummu and Apswith the task of opposing Tiamat, and the former achievement he implies has been accomplished by Ea. It is clear, therefore, that Ea caused the overthrow of Apsand the capture of Mummu but in what way he brought it about, whether by actual fighting or by "his pure incantation," is still a matter for conjecture. In view of the fact that Anshar at first tried peaceful means for overcoming Tiamat before exhorting Marduk to wage battle against her, the latter supposition is the more probable of the two. The subjugation of Apsby Ea explains his subsequent disappearance from the Creation story. When Apsis next mentioned, it is as "the Deep," 5 and not as an active and Tiamat's malevolent deity.
After the overthrow of Aps Tiamat remained unconquered, and she continued to represent in her own person the unsubdued forces of chaos. 1 But, as at first she had not herself begun the rebellion, so now her continuation of the war against the gods was due to the prompting of another deity. The speech in which this deity urges Tiamat to avenge Apsand Mummu occurs in Tablet I, ll. 93-104, and, inasmuch as she subsequently promoted Kingu to be the leader of her forces ''because he had given her support," it may be concluded that it was Kingu who now prompted her to avenge her former spouse. Ea, however, did not cease his active opposition to the forces of disorder, but continued to play the chief re on the side of the gods. He heard of Tiamat's preparations for battle, he carried the news to Anshar, his father, and he was sent by him against the monster. It was only after both he and Anu had failed in their attempts to approach and appease Tiamat that Anshar appealed to Marduk to become the champion of the gods.
Another point completely explained by the new fragments of the text is the reason for the repetitions which occur in the first three tablets of the series. It will be seen that Tablet I, ll. 109-142, are repeated in Tablet II, ll. 15-48; that Tablet II, ll. 1. 1-48, are repeated in Tablet III, ll. 15-52; and that Tablet III, ll. 15-66, are repeated in the same Tablet, II. 73-124. The lines which are repeated have reference to Tiamat's preparations for battle against the gods, and to Anshar's summons of the gods in order that they may confer power on Marduk as their champion. From the new fragments of the text we now know that the lines relating to Tiamat's preparations occur on the First Tablet in the form of narrative, immediately after she had adopted Kingu's suggestion that she should avenge the overthrow of Apsand Mummu; and that in the Second Tablet they are repeated by Ea in his speech to Anshar, to whom he carried the news. The context of the repetitions in the Third Tablet is already known; Anshar first repeats the lines to his minister Gaga, when telling him to go and summon the gods to an assembly, and later on in the Tablet Gaga repeats the message word for word to Lahmu and Lahamu.
The constant repetition of these lines was doubtless intended to emphasize the terrible nature of the opposition which Marduk successfully overcame; and the fact that Berossus omits all mention of the part played by Ea in the earlier portions of the story is also due to the tendency of the Babylonian priests to exalt their local god at the expense of other deities. The account which we have received from Berossus of the Babylonian beliefs concerning the origin of the universe is largely taken up with a description of the mythical monsters which dwelt in the deep at a time when the world had not come into being and when darkness and water alone existed. Over these monsters, according to Berossus, reigned a woman named Ὀμόρκα, who is to be identified with Tiamat, while the creatures themselves represent the monster-brood which Tiamat formed to aid her in her fight against the gods. Compared with the description of the monsters, the summary from Berossus of the incidents related on the Fourth Tablet is not very full; the text states that Βῆλος (i.e. Bel) slew Ὀμόρκα, and having cleft her in twain, from one half of her he made the earth, and from the other the heavens, while he overcame the creatures that were within her, i.e. the monsters of the deep.
The actual account of the creation of the world by Marduk, as related in the Creation Series, begins towards the end of the Fourth Tablet, where the narrative closely agrees with the summary from Berossus. Marduk is there related to have split Tiamat into halves, and to have used one half of her as a covering for heaven. The text then goes on to state that he founded heaven, which is termed E-shara, a mansion like unto the Deep in structure, and that he caused Anu, B, and Ea to inhabit their respective districts therein. The Fifth Tablet does not begin with the account of the creation of the earth, but records the fixing of the constellations of the Zodiac, the founding of the year, and Marduk's charge to the Moon-god and the Sun-god, to the former of whom he entrusted the night, his instructions relating to the phases of the Moon, and the relative positions of the Moon and the Sun during the month. The new fragments of the Fifth Tablet contain some interesting variants to this portion of the text, but, with the exception of the last few lines of the text, they throw no light on what the missing portions of the Tablet contained. In view, however, of the statement of Berossus that from one half of Tiamat B formed the earth, we may conjecture that an account of the creation of the earth occurred upon some part of the Fifth Tablet. It is also probable that the Fifth Tablet recorded the creation of vegetation. That. this formed the subject of some portion of the poem is certain from the opening lines of the Seventh Tablet, where Marduk is hailed as "Asari, 'Bestower of planting,' '[Founder of sowing],' 'Creator of grain and plants,' 'who caused [the green herb to spring up]!'"; and the creation of plants and herbs would naturally follow that of the earth.
From the new fragment of the Sixth Tablet, No. 92,629, we know that this portion of the poem related the story of the creation of man. As at the beginning of his work of creation Marduk is said to have "devised a cunning plan" while gazing upon the dead body of Tiamat, so now, before proceeding to man's creation, it is said that "his heart prompted him and he devised [a cunning plan]." In the repetition of this phrase we may see an indication of the importance which was ascribed to this portion of the story, and it is probable that the creation of man was regarded as the culmination of Marduk's creative work. It is interesting to note, however, that the creation of man is not related as a natural sequel to the formation of the rest of the universe, but forms the solution of a difficulty with which Marduk has been met in the course of his work as Creator. To overcome this difficulty Marduk devised the "cunning plan" already referred to; the context of this passage is not very clear, but the reason for man's creation may be gathered from certain indications in the text.
We learn from the beginning of the Sixth Tablet that Marduk devised his cunning plan after he had "heard the word of the gods," and from this it is clear that the Fifth Tablet ends with a speech of the gods. Now in Tablet VI, l. 8, Marduk states that he will create man "that the service of the gods may be established"; in l. 9. f., however, he adds that he will change the ways of the gods, and he appears to threaten them with punishment. It may be conjectured, therefore, that after Marduk had completed the creation of the world, the gods came to him and complained that there were no shrines built in their honour, nor was there anyone to worship them. To supply this need Marduk formed the device of creating man, but at the same time he appears to have decided to vent his wrath upon the gods because of their discontent. It is possible, however, that Ea dissuaded Marduk from punishing the gods, though he no doubt assisted him in carrying out the first part of his proposal.
In ll. 5 ff. of the Sixth Tablet Marduk indicates the means he will employ for forming man, and this portion of the text corroborates in a remarkable manner the account given by Berossus of the method employed by B for man's creation. The text of the summary from Berossus, in the form in which it has come down to us, is not quite satisfactory, as the course of the narrative is confused. The confusion is apparent in the repetition of the description of man's creation and in the interruption of the naturalistic explanation of the slaying of Omorka. An ingenious but simple emendation of the text, however, was suggested by von Gutschmidt which removes both these difficulties. The passage which interrupts the naturalistic explanation, and apparently describes a first creation of man, he regarded as having been transposed; but if it is placed at the end of the extract it falls naturally into place as a summary by Eusebius of the preceding account of man's creation which is said by Alexander Polyhistor to have been given by Berossus in the First Book of his History. By adopting this emendation we obtain the text a clear and consecutive account of how B, after the creation of heaven and earth, perceived that the land was desolate; and how he ordered one of the gods to cut off his (i.e. B's) head, and, by mixing the blood which flowed forth with earth, to create men and animals.
This passage from Berossus has given rise to considerable discussion, and more than one scholar has attempted to explain away the beheading of B, the Creator, that man might be formed from his blood. Gunkel has suggested that in the original legend the blood of Tiamat was used for this purpose; Stucken, followed by Cheyne, has emended the text so that it may suggest that the head of Tiamat, and not that of Bel, was cut off; while Zimmern would take the original meaning of the passage to be that the god beheaded was not Bel, but the other deity whom he addressed. 1 In l. 5 of the Sixth Tablet, however, Marduk states that he will use his own blood for creating man; the text of this passage from Berossus is thus shown to be correct, and it follows that the account which he gave of the Babylonian beliefs concerning man's creation does not require to be emended or explained away.
Jensen has already suggested that the god whom Bel addressed was Ea, and the new fragment of. the Sixth Tablet proves that this suggestion is correct. In the Sixth Tablet Marduk recounts to Ea his intention of forming man, and tells him the means he will employ. We may therefore conclude that it was Ea who beheaded Marduk at his request, and, according to his instructions, formed mankind from his blood. Ea may thus have performed the actual work of making man, but he acted under Marduk's directions, and it is clear from Tablet VII, ll. 29 and 32, that Marduk, and not Ea, was regarded as man's Creator.
According to Berossus, man was formed from the blood of B mixed with earth. The new fragment of the Sixth Tablet does not mention the mixing of the blood with earth, but it is quite possible that this detail was recounted in the subsequent narrative. On the other hand, in the Babylonian poem Marduk declares that, in addition to using his own blood, he will create bone for forming man. Berossus makes no mention of bone, but it is interesting to note that issimtu, the Assyrian word here used for "bone," is doubtless the equivalent of the Hebrew word 'esem, "bone," which occurs at the end of the narrative of the creation of woman in Gen. ii, 23.
The blood of B, according to Berossus, was employed not only in man's creation but in that of animals also, and it is possible that this represents the form of the legend as it was preserved upon the Sixth Tablet. Though, in that case, the creation of animals would follow that of man, the opening lines of the Sixth Tablet prove that man's creation was regarded as the culmination of Marduk's creative work. The "cunning plan," which Marduk devised in order to furnish worshippers for the gods, concerned the creation of man, and if that of animals followed it must have been recorded as a subsidiary and less important act. 1 In this connection it may be noted that the expression τὰ δυμάμενα τὸν ἀέρα φέρειν, which Berossus applies to the men and animals created from the blood of Bel, was probably not based on any description or episode in the Creation story as recorded on the Seven Tablets, but was suggested by the naturalistic interpretation of the legend furnished by Berossus himself.
With reference to the creation of man, it was suggested by George Smith that the tablet K. 3,364 was a fragment of the Creation Series, and contained the instructions given to man after his creation by Marduk. This view has been provisionally adopted by other translators of the poem, but in Appendix II 1 I have shown by means of a duplicate, No. 33,851, that the suggestion must be given up. Apart from other reasons there enumerated, it may be stated that there would be no room upon the Sixth Tablet of the Creation Series for such a long series of moral precepts as is inscribed upon the tablets K. 3,364 and No. 33,851. It may be that Marduk, after creating man, gave him some instructions with regard to the worship of the gods and the building of shrines in their honour, but the greater part of the text must have been taken up with other matter.
The concluding lines of the Sixth Tablet are partly preserved, and they afford us a glimpse of the filial scene in the Creation story. As the gods had previously been summoned to a solemn assembly that they might confer power upon Marduk before he set out to do battle on their behalf, so now, when he had vanquished Tiamat and had finished his work of instructions to creation, they again gathered together in Upshukki-naku, their council-chamber, and proceeded to magnify him by every title of honour. We thus obtain the context or setting of the Seventh, and last, Tablet of the Creation Series, the greater part of which consists of the hymn of praise addressed by the gods to Marduk as the conqueror of Tiamat and the Creator of the world.
The hymn of the gods takes up lines 1-124 of the Seventh Tablet, and consists of a series of addresses in Creation which Marduk is hailed by them under fifty titles of honour. The titles are Sumerian, not Semitic, and each is followed by one or more Assyrian phrases descriptive of Marduk, which either explain the title or are suggested by it. Of the fifty titles which the hymn contained, the following list of eleven occur in the first forty-seven lines of the text:--
Asari: ilu Asar-ri, Tabl. VII, l. 1; p. 92 f.
Asaru-alim: ilu Asaru-alim, Tabl. VII, l. 3; p. 92 f.
Asaru-alim-nuna: ilu Asaru-alim-nun-na, Tabl. VII, l. 5; p. 92 f.
Tutu: ilu Tu-tu, Tabl. VII, l. 9; p. 92 f.
Zi-ukkina: ilu Zi-ukkin-na, var. ilu Zi-ukkin, Tabl. VII, l. 15; p. 94f.
Zi-azag: ilu Zi-azag, Tabl. VII, l. 19; p. 36 f.; var. ilu Na-zi-azag-g[a], p. 161.
Aga-azag: ilu Aga-azag, Tabl. VII, l. 25; p. 96 f.
Mu-azag: ilu Mu(i.e. KA+ LI)-azag, Tabl. VII, l. 33; var. ilu Mu(i.e. SHAR)-azag, p. 173.
Shag-zu: ilu Shag-zu, Tabl. VII, l. 35; p. 98 f.
Zi-si: ilu Zi-si, Tabl. VII, l. 41; p. 100 f.
Sub-kur: ilu Suh-kur, Tabl. VII, l. 43; p. 100 f .
In the gap in the text of the Seventh Tablet, between ll. 47 and 105, occur the following ten titles of Marduk, which are taken from the fragments K. 13,761 and K. 8,519 (and its duplicate K. 13,337), and from the commentary K. 4,406:--
Agi[l . . . . ]; ilu A-gi[l- . . . . ], Tabl. VII (K. 13,761); p. 102 f.; var. ilu Gil[ ], p. 163.
Zulummu: ilu Zu-lum-mu, Tabl. VII (K. 13,761); p. 102 f.
Mummu: ilu Mu-um-mu, Tabl. VII (K. 13,761); p. 102 f.
Mulil: ilu Mu-lil, Tabl. VII (K. 13,761); p. 102 f.
Gishkul: ilu Gish-kul, Tabl. VII (K. 13,761); p. 102 f.
Lugal-ab[ . . . . ]: ilu Lugad-ab-[ . . . . ], Tabl. VII (K. 13,761); p. 102 f.
Pap-[ . . . . ]: ilu Pap-[ . . . . ], Tabl. VII (K. 13,761); p. 102 f.
Lugal-durmah: ilu Lugal-dur-mah, Tabl. VII (K. 8,519), and K. 4,406, Rev., col. ii, l. 8; pp. 104f., 165.
Adu-nuna: ilu A-du-nun-na, Tabl. VII (K. 8,519) and K. 4,406, Rev., col. ii, l. 23; pp. 104f., 166.
Lugal-dul(or du)-azaga: ilu Lugal-dul-azag-ga, Tabl. VII (K. 8,519); p. 106 f.
Four other titles, occurring in the concluding portion of the text of the Seventh Tablet, are:--
Nibiru: ilu Ni-bi-ru, var. [ilu] Ne-bi-ri, Tabl. VII, l. 109; p. 108 f.
B-mi: be-el mi, var. ilu B mi, Tabl. VII, l. 116, p. 110 f.; cf. also EN KUR-KUR(i.e. b mi), p. 168.
Ea: ilu E-a, Tabl. VII, l. 120; p. 100 f.
 Hansha: HanshA-AN, var. Ha-an-sha-a, Tabl. VII, l. 123, p. 110 f.; cf. also ilu Hansh p. 178.
From the above lists it will be seen that the recovered portions of the text of the Seventh Tablet furnish twenty-five out of the fifty names of Marduk. From the list of the titles of Marduk preserved on K. 2,107 + K. 6,086, 1 and from No. 54,228, a parallel text to the Seventh Tablet, 2 seven other names may be obtained, which were probably among those occurring in the missing portion of the text; these are:--
Lugal-en-ankia: ilu Lugal-en-an-ki-a, K. 210, col. ii, l. 19; p. 173.
Gugu: ilu Gu-gu, K. 2,107, col. ii, l. 22; p. 173.
Mumu: ilu Mu-mu, K. 2,107, col. ii, l. 23; p. 173.
Dutu: ilu Du-tu, K. 2,107, col. ii, l. 24; p. 173.
Dudu: ilu Du-du, K. 2,107, col. ii, l. 25; p. 173.
Shag-gar(?): Shag-gar, No. 54,228, Obv., l. 13; p. 177.
En-bilulu: ilu En-bi-lu-lu, No. 54,228, Obv., l. 14; p. 178. 1
By these titles of honour the gods are represented as conferring supreme power upon Marduk, and the climax is reached in ll. 116 ff. of the Seventh Tablet, when the elder B and Ea, Marduk's father, confer their own names and power upon him. Marduk's name of Hansh "Fifty," by which he is finally addressed, in itself sums up and symbolizes his fifty titles. At the conclusion of these addresses there follows an epilogue of eighteen lines, in which the study of the poem is commended to mankind, and prosperity is promised to those that rejoice in Marduk and keep his works in remembrance.
The story of the Creation, in the form in which it has come down to us upon tablets of the seventh and later centuries before Christ, is of a distinctly composite character, and bears traces of a long process of editing and modification at the hands of the Babylonian priests. Five principal strands may be traced which have been combined to form the poem; these may be described as (1) The Birth of the gods; parts (2 ) The Legend of Ea and Aps (3) The Dragon-Myth; (4) The actual account of Creation; and (5) The Hymn to Marduk under his fifty titles. Since the poem in its present form is a glorification, of Marduk as the champion of the gods and the Creator of the world, it is natural that more prominence should be given to episodes in which Marduk is the hero than is assigned to other portions of the narrative in which he plays no part. Thus the description of Tiamat and her monster-brood, whom Marduk conquered, is repeated no less than four times, 1 and the preparations of Marduk for battle and his actual fight with the dragon take up the greater part of the Fourth Tablet. On the other hand, the birth of the older gods, among whom Marduk does not figure, is confined to the first twenty-one lines of the First Tablet; and not more than twenty lines are given to the account of the subjugation of Aps by Ea. That these elements should have been incorporated at all in the Babylonian version of the Creation story may be explained by the fact that they serve to enhance the position of prominence subsequently attained by Marduk. Thus the description of the birth of the older gods and of the opposition they excited among the forces of disorder, was necessarily included in order to make it clear how Marduk was appointed their champion; and the account of Ea's success against Apsserved to accentuate the terrible nature of Tiamat, whom he was unable to withstand. From the latter half of the Second Tablet onwards, Marduk alone is the hero of the poem.
The central episode of the poem is the fight between Marduk and Tiamat, and there is evidence to prove that this legend existed in other forms than that under which it occurs in the Creation Series. The conquest of the dragon was ascribed by the Babylonian priests to their local god, and in the poem the death of Tiamat is made a necessary preliminary to the creation of the world. On a fragment of a tablet from Ashur-bani-pal's library we possess, however, part of a copy of a legend which describes the conquest of a dragon by some deity other than Marduk. Moreover, the fight is there described as taking place, not before creation, but at a time when men existed and cities had been built. In this version men and gods are described as equally terrified at the dragon's appearance, and it was to deliver the land from the monster that one of the gods went out and slew him. This fragmentary tablet serves to prove that the Dragon-Myth existed in more than one form in Babylonian mythology, and it is not improbable that, many of the great cities of Babylonia possessed local versions of the legend in each of which the city-god figured as the hero. 1
In the Creation Series the creation of the world is narrated as the result of Marduk's conquest of the dragon, and there is no doubt that this version of the story represents the belief most generally held during the reigns of the later Assyrian and Babylonian kings. We possess, however, fragments of other legends in which the creation of the world is not connected with the death of a dragon. In one of these, which is written both in Sumerian and Babylonian, 2 the great Babylonian cities and temples are described as coming into existence in consequence of a movement in the waters which alone existed before the creation of the world. Marduk in this version also figures as the Creator, for, together with the goddess Aruru, 1 he created man by laying a reed upon the face of the waters and forming dust which he poured out beside it; according to this version also he is described as creating animals and vegetation. In other legends which have come down to us, not only is the story of Creation unconnected with the Dragon-Myth, but Marduk does not figure as the Creator. In one of these "the gods" generally are referred to as having created the heavens and the earth and the cattle and beasts of the field; while in another the creation of the Moon and the Sun is ascribed to Anu, Bel, and Ea.
From the variant accounts of the story of Creation and of the Dragon-Myth, which are referred to in the preceding paragraphs, it will be clear that the priests of Babylon made use of independent legends in the composition of their great poem of Creation; by assigning to Marduk the conquest of the Dragon and the creation of the world they justified his claim to the chief place among the gods. As a fit ending to the great poem they incorporated the hymn to Marduk, consisting of addresses to him under his fifty titles. This portion of the poem is proved by the Assyrian commentary, R. 366, etc., as well as by fragments of parallel, but not duplicate, texts to have been an independent composition which had at one time no connection with the series Enuma elish. In the poem the hymn is placed in the mouth of the gods, who at the end of the Creation have assembled together in Upshukkinaku; and to it is added the epilogue of eighteen lines, which completes the Seventh Tablet of the series.
In discussing the question as to the date of the Creation legends, it is necessary to distinguish clearly between the date at which the legends assumed the form in which they have come down to us upon the Seven Tablets of the series Enuma elish, and the date which may be assigned to the legends themselves before they were incorporated in the poem. Of the actual tablets inscribed with portions of the text of the Creation Series we possess none which dates from an earlier period than the seventh century B.C. The tablets of this date were made for the library of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh, but it is obvious that the poem was not composed in Assyria at this time. The legends in the form in which we possess them are not intended to glorify Ashur, the national god of Assyria, but Marduk, the god of Babylon, and it is clear that the scribes of Ashur-bani-pal merely made copies for their master of older tablets of Babylonian origin. T o what earlier date we may assign the actual composition of the poem and its arrangement upon the Seven Tablets, is still a matter for conjecture; but it is possible to offer a conjecture, with some degree of probability, after an examination of the various indirect sources of evidence we possess with regard to the age of Babylonian legends in general, and of the Creation legends in particular.
With regard to the internal evidence of date furnished by the Creation legends themselves, we may note that the variant forms of the Dragon-Myth and of the account of the Creation, to which reference has already been made, presuppose many centuries of tradition during which the legends, though derived probably from common originals, were handed down independently of one another. During this period we may suppose that the same story was related in different cities in different ways, and that in course of time variations crept in, with the result that two or more forms of the same story were developed along different lines. The process must have been gradual, and the considerable differences which can be traced in the resultant forms of the same legend may be cited as evidence in favour of assigning an early date to the original tradition from which they were derived.
Evidence as to the existence of the Creation legends at least as early as the ninth century B.C. may be deduced from the representations of the fight between Marduk and the dragon Tiamat, which was found sculptured upon two limestone slabs in the temple of Ninib at Nimr. 1 The temple was built by Ashur-nasir-pal, who reigned from B.C. 884 to B.C. 860, and across the actual sculpture was inscribed the text of a dedication to Ninib by this king. The slab therefore furnishes direct proof of the existence of the legend more than two hundred years before the formation of Ashur-bani-pal's library. Moreover, the fight between Marduk and Tiamat is frequently found engraved upon cylinder-seals, and, although the majority of such seals probably date from the later Assyrian and Persian periods, the varied treatment of the scene which they present points to the existence of variant forms of the legend, and so indirectly furnishes evidence of the early origin of the legend itself.
From an examination of the Babylonian historical inscriptions which record the setting up of statues and the making of temple furniture, we are enabled to trace back the existence of the Creation legends to still earlier periods. For instance, in a text of Agum, a Babylonian king who reigned not later than the seventeenth century B.C., we find descriptions of the figures of a dragon and of other monsters which he set up in the temple E-sagil at Babylon; and in this passage we may trace an unmistakable reference to the legend of Tiamat and her monster-brood. Agum also set up in the temple beside the dragon a great basin, or laver, termed in the inscription a ttu, or "sea." From the name of the laver, and from its position beside the figure of the dragon, we may conclude that it was symbolical of the abyss of water personified in the Creation legends by Tiamat and Aps Moreover, in historical inscriptions of still earlier periods we find allusions to similar vessels termed aps i.e. "deeps" or "oceans," the presence of which in the temples is probably to be traced to the existence of the same traditions.
The three classes of evidence briefly summarized above tend to show that the most important elements in the Creation legends were not of late origin, but must be traced back in some form or other to remote periods, and may well date from the first half of the third millennium B.C., or even earlier. It remains to consider to what date we may assign the actual weaving together of these legends into the poem termed by the Babylonians and Assyrians Enuma elish. Although, as has already been remarked, we do not possess any early copies of the text of the Creation Series, this is not the case with other Babylonian legends. Among the tablets found at Tell el-Amarna, which date from the fifteenth century B.C., were fragments of copies of two Babylonian legends, the one containing the story of Nergal and Ereshkigal, and the other inscribed with a part of the legend of Adapa and the South Wind. Both these compositions, in style and general arrangement, closely resemble the legends known from late Assyrian copies, while of the legend of Adapa an actual fragment, though not a duplicate, exists in the library of Ashur-bani-pal. Fragments of legends have also been recently found in Babylonia which date from the end of the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon, about B.C. 2100, and the resemblance which these documents bear to certain legends previously known from Assyrian copies only is not only of a general nature, but extends even to identity of language. Thus one of the recovered fragments is in part a duplicate of the so-called "Cuthaean Legend of Creation"; two others contain phrases found upon the legend of Ea and Atar-hasis, while upon one of them are traces of a new version of the Deluge-story. Still more recently the Trustees of the British Museum have acquired three fragments of Babylonian legends inscribed upon tablets which date from a still earlier period, i.e. from the period of the kings of the Second Dynasty of Ur, before B.C. 2200; and to the same period is to be assigned the fragment of a legend which was published a few weeks ago by Dr. Meissner, and probably also the new fragment of the Etana-myth, published last year by Father Scheil. These five fragments are of peculiar interest, for they show that early Semitic, as opposed to Sumerian, legends were in existence, and were carefully preserved and studied in other cities of Mesopotamia than Babylon, and at a period before the rise of that city to a position of importance under the kings of the First Dynasty.
The evidence furnished by these recently discovered tablets with regard to the date of Babylonian legends in general may be applied to the date of the Creation legends. While the origin of much of the Creation legends may be traced to Sumerian sources, it is clear that the Semitic inhabitants of Mesopotamia at a very early period produced their own versions of the compositions which they borrowed, modifying and augmenting them to suit their own legends and beliefs. The connection of Marduk with the Dragon-Myth, and with the stories of the creation of the world and man, may with considerable probability be assigned to the subsequent period during which Babylon gradually attained to the position of the principal city in Mesopotamia. On tablets inscribed during the reigns of kings of the First Dynasty we may therefore expect to find copies of the Creation legends corresponding closely with the text of the series Enuma elish. It is possible that the division of the poem into seven sections, inscribed upon separate tablets, took place at a later period; but, be this as it may, we may conclude with a considerable degree of confidence that the bulk of the poem, as we know it from late Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian copies, was composed at a period not later than B.C. 2000.
The political influence which the Babylonians exerted over neighbouring nations during long periods of their history was considerable, and it is not surprising that their beliefs concerning the origin of the universe should have been partially adopted by the races with whom they came in contact. That Babylonian elements may be traced in the Phoenician cosmogony has long been admitted, but the imperfect, and probably distorted, form in which the latter has come down to us renders uncertain any comparison of details. Some of the beliefs concerning the creation of the world which were current among the Egyptians bear a more striking resemblance to the corresponding legends of Babylonia. Whether this resemblance was due to the proto-Semitic strain which probably existed in the ancient Egyptian race, or is to be explained as the result of later Babylonian influence from without, is yet uncertain. But, whatever explanation be adopted, it is clear that the conception of chaos as a watery mass out of which came forth successive generations of primeval gods is common to both races. It is in Hebrew literature, however, that the most striking examples of the influence of the Babylonian Creation legends are to be found.
The close relation existing between the Babylonian account of the Creation and the narrative in Genesis i, 1-11, 4a has been recognized from the time of the first discovery of the former, and the old and new points of resemblance between them may here be briefly discussed. According to each account the existence of a watery chaos preceded the creation of the universe; and the Hebrew word teh, translated "the deep" in Gen. i, 2, is the equivalent of the Babylonian Tiamat, the monster of the deep personifying chaos and confusion. In the details of the Creation there is also a close resemblance between the two accounts. In the Hebrew narrative the first act of creation is that of light (Gen. i, 3-5), and it has been suggested that a parallel possibly existed in the Babylonian account, in that the creation of light may have been the cause of the revolt of Tiamat. From the new fragments of the poem we now know that the rebellion of the forces of disorder, which was incited by Apsand not Tiamat, was due, not to the creation of light, but to his hatred of the way of the gods which produced order in place of chaos A parallelism may still be found, however; in the original form of the Babylonian myth, according to which the conqueror of the dragon was undoubtedly a solar deity. Moreover, as has been pointed out above, day and night are vaguely conceived in the poem as already in existence at the time of Aps#39;s revolt, so that the belief in the existence of light before the creation of the heavenly bodies is a common feature of the Hebrew and the Babylonian account.
The second act of creation in the Hebrew narrative is that of a firmament which divided the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament (Gen. i, 6-8). In the Babylonian poem the body of Tiamat is divided by Marduk, and from one-half of her he formed a covering or dome for heaven, i.e. a firmament, which kept her upper waters in place. Moreover, on the fragment S. 2,013 we find mention of a Ti-amat e-Zi-ti and a Ti-amat shap-li-ti, that is, an Upper Tiamat (or Ocean) and a Lower Tiamat (or Ocean), which are the exact equivalents of the waters above and under the firmament.
The third and fourth acts of creation, as narrated in Gen. i, 9-13, are those of the earth and of vegetation. Although no portion of the Babylonian poem has yet been recovered which contains the corresponding account, it is probable that these acts of creation were related on the Fifth Tablet of the series. Berossus expressly states that Bel formed the earth out of one half of Omorka's body, and as his summary of the Babylonian Creation story is proved to be correct wherever it can be controlled, it is legitimate to assume that he is correct in this detail also. More- over, in three passages in the Seventh Tablet the creation of the earth by Marduk is referred to: l. 115 reads, "Since he created the heaven and fashioned the firm earth"; the new fragment K. 12,830 (restored from the commentary K. 8,299) states, "He named the four quarters (of the world)"; and another new fragment, K. 13,761 (restored from the commentary K. 4,4061, definitely ascribes to Marduk the title "Creator of the earth." That the creation of vegetation by Marduk was also recorded in the poem may be concluded from the opening lines of the Seventh Tablet, which are inscribed on the new fragment K. 2,854, and (with restorations from the commentary S. II, etc.) ascribe to him the titles "Bestower of planting," "Founder of sowing," " Creator of grain and plants," and add that he "caused the green herb to spring up."
To the fifth act of creation, that of the heavenly bodies (Gen. i, 14-15), we find an exceedingly close parallel in the opening lines of the Fifth Tablet of the series. In the Hebrew account, lights were created in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night, and to be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. In the Babylonian poem also the stars were created and the year was ordained at the same time; the twelve months were to be regulated by the stars; and the Moon-god was appointed "to determine the days." As according to the Hebrew account two great lights were created in the firmament of heaven, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night, so according to the Babylonian poem the night was entrusted to the Moon-god, and the Moon-god's relations to the Sun-god are described in detail. On the Seventh Tablet, also, the creation of heaven and the heavenly bodies is referred t o; in l. 16 Marduk is stated "to have established for the gods the bright heavens," and l. 111 f. read, "For the stars of heaven he upheld the paths, he shepherded all the gods like sheep!"
To the sixth and seventh acts of creation, i.e., the creation of creatures of the sea and winged fowl, and of beasts and cattle and creeping things (Gen. i, 20-25), the Babylonian poem as yet offers no parallel, for the portion of the text which refers to the creation of animals is still wanting. But since Berossus states that animals were created at the same time as man, it is probable that their creation was recorded in a missing portion either of the Fifth or of the Sixth Tablet. If the account was on the lines suggested by Berossus, and animals shared in the blood of Bel, it is clear that their creation was narrated, as a subsidiary and less important episode, after that of man. But, although this episode is still wanting in the poem, we find references on other Assyrian Creation fragments to the creation of beasts. Thus, for the creation of the creatures of the sea in Genesis, we may compare the fragmentary text K. 3445+R. 396, which records the creation of nahir "dolphins (?)." And for the creation of beasts of the earth and cattle, we may compare the tablet D.T. 41, which, after referring generally to the creation of "living creatures" by "the gods," proceeds to classify them as the cattle and beasts of the field, and the creatures of the city, the two of animals classes referring respectively to wild and domesticated animals.
The account of the creation of man, which is recorded as the eighth and last act of creation in the Hebrew account (Gen. i, 26-31), at length finds its parallel in the Babylonian poem upon the new fragment of the Sixth Tablet, No. 92,629. It has already been pointed out that the Babylonian account closely follows the version of the story handed down to us from Berossus, and it may here be added that the employment by Marduk, the Creator, of his own blood in the creation of man may perhaps be compared to the Hebrew account of the creation of man in the image and after the likeness of Elohim. Moreover, the use of the plural in the phrase "Let us make man" in Gen. i, 26, may be compared with the Babylonian narrative which relates that Marduk imparted his purpose of forming man to his father Ea, whom he probably afterwards instructed to carry out the actual work of man's creation.
A parallel to the charge which, according to the Hebrew account, Elohim gave to man and woman after their creation, has hitherto been believed to exist on the tablet K. 3,364, which was supposed to contain a list of the duties of man as delivered to him after his creation by Marduk. The new Babylonian duplicate of this text, No. 33,851, proves that K. 3,364 is not part of the Creation Series, but is merely a tablet of moral precepts, so that its suggested resemblance to the Hebrew narrative must be given up. It is not improbable, however, that a missing portion of the Sixth Tablet did contain a short series of instructions by Marduk to man, since man was created with the special object of supplying the gods with worshippers and building shrines in their honour. That to these instructions to worship the gods was added the gift of dominion over beasts, birds, and vegetation is possible, but it must be pointed out that the Babylonian version of man's creation is related from the point of view of the gods, not from that of man. Although his creation forms the culmination of Marduk's work, it was conceived, not as an end and aim in itself, but merely as an expedient to satisfy the discontented gods. This expedient is referred to in the Seventh
Tablet, l. 29, in the phrase "For their forgiveness (i.e., the forgiveness of the gods) did he create mankind," and other passages in the Seventh Tablet tend to show that Marduk's mercy and goodness are extolled in his relations, not to mankind, but to the gods. In one passage marl's creation is referred to, but it is in connection with the charge that he forget not the deeds of his Creator.
The above considerations render it unlikely that the Babylonian poem contained an exact parallel to the exalted charge of Elohim in which He placed the rest of creation under man's dominion. It is possible, however, that upon the new fragment of the Seventh Tablet, K. 12,830 (restored from the commentary K. 8,299) we have a reference to the superiority of man over animals, in the phrase "mankind [he created], [and upon] him understanding [he bestowed (?) . . .]"; and if this be so, we may compare it to Gen. i, 286. Moreover, if my suggested restoration of the last word in l. 7 of the Sixth Tablet be correct, so that it may read "I will create man who shall inhabit [the earth]," we may compare it to Gen. i, 28a in which man is commanded to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
A suggestion has been made that the prominence given to the word of the Creator in the Hebrew account may have found its parallel in the creation by a word in the Babylonian poem. It is true that the word of Marduk had magical power and could destroy and create alike; but Marduk did not employ his word in any of his acts of creation which are at present known to us. He first conceived a cunning device, and then proceeded to carry it out by hand. The only occasion on which he did employ his word to destroy and to create is in the Fourth Tablet, ll. 19-26, when, at the invitation of the gods, he tested his power by making a garment disappear and then appear again at the word of his mouth. The parallelism between the two accounts under this heading is not very close.
The order of the separate acts of creation is also not quite the same in the two accounts, for, while in the Babylonian poem the heavenly bodies are created immediately after the formation of the firmament, in the Hebrew account their creation is postponed until after the earth and vegetation have been made. It is possible that the creation of the earth and plants has been displaced by the writer to whom the present form of the Hebrew account is due, and that the order of creation was precisely the same in the original forms of the two narratives. But even according to the present arrangement of the Hebrew account, there are several striking points of resemblance to the Babylonian poem. These may be seen in the existence of light before the creation of the heavenly bodies; in the dividing of the waters of the primeval flood by means of a firmament also before the creation of the heavenly bodies; and in the culminating act of creation being that of man.
It would be tempting to trace the framework of the Seven Days of Creation, upon which the narrative in Genesis is stretched, to the influence of the Seven Tablets of Creation, of which we now know that the great Creation Series was composed. The reasons for the employment of the Seven Days in the Hebrew account are, however, not the same which led to the arrangement of the Babylonian poem upon Seven Tablets. In the one the writer's intention is to give the original authority for the observance of the Sabbath; in the other there appears to have been no special reason for this arrangement of the poem beyond the mystical nature of the number "seven." Moreover, acts of creation are recorded on all of the first six Days in the Hebrew narrative, while in the Babylonian poem the creation only begins at the end of the Fourth Tablet. The resemblance, therefore, is somewhat superficial, but it is possible that the employment of the number "seven" in the two accounts was not fortuitous. Whether the Sabbath was of Babylonian origin (as seems probable) or not, it is clear that the writer of the narrative in Genesis was keenly interested in its propagation and its due observance. Now in Exilic and post-Exilic times the account of the Creation most prevalent in Babylonia was that in the poem Enuma elish, the text of which was at this time absolutely fixed and its arrangement upon Seven Tablets invariable. That the late revival of mythology among the Jews was partly due to their actual study of the Babylonian legends at this period is sufficiently proved by the minute points of resemblance between the accounts of the Deluge in Genesis and in the poem of Gilgamesh. It is probable, therefore, that the writer who was responsible for the final form of Gen. i-ii, 4a, was familiar with the Babylonian legend of Creation in the form in which it has come down to us. The supposition, then, is perhaps not too fanciful, that the connection of the Sabbath with the story of Creation was suggested by the mystical number of the Tablets upon which the Babylonian poem was inscribed.
Further resemblances to the Babylonian Creation legends may be traced in the second Hebrew account of the Creation which follows the first in Gen. ii, 4b-7. According to this version man was formed from the dust of the ground, which may be compared to the mixing of Bel's blood with earth according to the account of Berossus, the use of the Creator's blood in the one account being paralleled by the employment of His breath in the other for the purpose of giving life to the dust or earth. Earth is not mentioned in the recovered portion of the Sixth Tablet, but its use in the creation of men is fully in accordance with Babylonian beliefs. Thus, according to the second Babylonian account of the Creation, Marduk formed man by pouring out dust beside a reed which he had set upon the face of the waters. Clay is also related to have been employed in the creation of special men and heroes; thus it was used in Ea-bani's creation by Arum, and it is related to have been mixed with divine blood for a similar purpose in the fragmentary legend Bu. 91-5-9, 269. To the account of the creation of woman in Gen. ii, 18 ff. we find a new parallel in l. 5 of the Sixth Tablet of the Creation Series, in the use of the word issimtu, " bone," corresponding to the Hebrew 'esem which occurs in the phrase "bone of my bones " in Gen. ii, 23.
In addition to the Babylonian colouring of much of the story of Paradise we may now add a new parallel from the Babylonian address to a mythical River of Creation, inscribed on S. 1704 and the Neo-Babylonian Tablet 82-9-18, 5311. This short composition is addressed to a River to whom the creation of all things is ascribed, and with this river we may compare the mythical river of Paradise which watered the garden, and on leaving it was divided into four branches. That the Hebrew River of Paradise is Babylonian in character is clear; and the origin of the Babylonian River of Creation is also to be found in the Euphrates, from whose waters southern Babylonia derived its great fertility. The life-giving stream of Paradise is met with elsewhere in the Old Testament, as, for instance, in Ezekiel xlvii, and it is probable that we may trace its influence in the Apocalypse.
It is unnecessary here to discuss in detail the evidence to prove that the Hebrew narratives of the influence on Creation were ultimately derived from Babylonia, and mythology. were not inherited independently by the Babylonians and Hebrews from a common Semitic ancestor. For the local Babylonian colouring of the stories, and the great age to which their existence can be traced, extending back to the time of the Sumerian inhabitants of Mesopotamia, are conclusive evidence against the second alternative. On the other hand, it is equally unnecessary to cite the well-known arguments to prove the existence among the Hebrews of Creation legends similar to those of Babylonia for centuries before the Exile. The allusions to variant Hebrew forms of the Babylonian Dragon-Myth in Amos ix, 3, Isaiah li, 9, Psalm lxxiv, 13 f., and lxxxix, 9 f., and Job xxvi, 12 f., and ix, 13, may be cited as sufficient proof of the early period at which the borrowing from Babylonian sources must have taken place; and the striking differences between the Biblical and the known Babylonian versions of the legends prove that the Exilic and post-Exilic Jews must have found ready to their hand ancient Hebrew versions of the stories, and that the changes they introduced must in the main have been confined to details of arrangement and to omissions necessitated by their own more spiritual conceptions and beliefs. The discovery of the Tell el-Amarna tablets proved conclusively that Babylonian influence extended throughout Egypt and Western Asia in the fifteenth century B.C., and the existence of legends among the letters demonstrated the fact that Babylonian mythology exerted an influence coextensive with the range of her political ties and interests. We may therefore conjecture that Babylonian myths had become naturalized in Palestine before the conquest of that country by the Israelites. Many such Palestinian versions of Babylonian myths the Israelites no doubt absorbed; while during the subsequent period of the Hebrew kings Assyria and Babylonia exerted a direct influence upon them. It is clear, therefore, that at the time of their of Babylonian exile the captive Jews did not find in Babylonian mythology an entirely new and unfamiliar subject, but recognized in it a series of kindred beliefs, differing much from their own in spiritual conceptions, but presenting a startling resemblance on many material points.
Now that the principal problems with regard to the contents, date, and influence of the Creation Series, Enuma elish, have been dealt with, it remains to describe in some detail the forty-nine fragments and tablets from which the text, transliterated and translated in the following pages, has been made up. After each registration-number is given a reference to the published copy of the text in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc., in the British Museum, pt. xiii, or in Vol. II of this work, or in Appendices I and II of this volume; a brief description of each tablet is added, together with references to any previous publication of the text. After the enumeration of the known copies of each tablet, a list is given of the authorities for the separate lines of the tablet, in order to enable the reader to verify any passage in the text with as little delay as possible.
The following twelve tablets and fragments are inscribed with portions of the text of the First Tablet of the series:--
1. K. 5,419c: Cuneiform Texts, pt. xiii (illegible), pl. I. Obverse: ll. 1-16; Reverse: catch-line and colophon.
Upper part of an Assyrian tablet, 34 in. by 1 7/8 in. For earlier publications of the text, see George Smith, T.S.B.A., vol. iv, the Creation Series, p. 363 f., pl. i; Fox Talbot, T.S.B.A., vol. v, pp. 428 ff.; Menant, Manuel de la langue Asyrienne, p. 378 f.; Delitzsch, Asyrische Lesestke, 1st ed., p. 40, 2nd ed., p. 78, 3rd ed., p. 93; Lyon, Assyrian Manual, p. 62; and my First Steps in Assyrian, p. 122 f.
2. No. 93,015 (82-7-14, 402): Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pls. 1 and 3. Obverse: ll. 1-16; Reverse: ll. 124-142 and colophon.
Upper part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 2 1/8 in. by 2 1/4 in. For an earlier publication of the text, see Pinches, Bab. Or. Rec., vol. iv, p. 26f. The fragment is probably part of the same tablet as that to which No. 10 belonged.
3. No. 45,528 + 46,614: Vol. II, pls. i-vi. Obverse: ll. 1-48; Reverse: ll. 111-142, catch-line, and colophon.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, formed from two fragments, which I have joined; 2 1/4 in. by 5 in. This text has not been previously published.
4. No. 35,134: Vol. II, pl. vii. Obverse: ll. 11-21; no reverse.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 1 3/8 in. by 2 in. This text has not been previously published.
5. No. 36,726: Vol. II, pl. viii. Obverse: ll. 28-33.
Neo-Babylonian "practice-tablet"; the text, which forms an extract, measures 2 7/8. by 1 1/4 in. This text has not been previously published.
6. 81-7-27, 80: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 2. Obverse: ll. 31-56; Reverse: ll. 118-142.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 25/8 in. by 3 in. This text, which was referred to by Pinches in the Bab. Or. Rec., vol. iv, p. 33, was used by Zimmern for his translation in Gunkel's Schfung und Chaos, p. 402 f.; it was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p. 25 f., and by Jensen, Mythen una Epen, pp. 2 ff.
7. K. 3,938: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 3. Obverse: ll. 33-42; Reverse: ll. 128-142.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 1/6 in. by 1 3/4 in. This fragment was used by George Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 93 f., and by subsequent translators; the text was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p. 27.
8. K. 7,871: Vol. I, Appendix II, pp. 183 ff. Obverse: ll. 33-47; no reverse.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 1/6 in. by 1 3/4 in. The fragment may belong to the same tablet as No. II. This text has not been previously published.
9. No. 36,688: Vol. II, pl. vii. Obverse: ll. 38-44.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian "practice-tablet"; the text, which forms an abstract, measures 1 in. by 1 1/8 in. This text has not been previously published.
10. No. 46,803: Vol. II, pls. ix-xi. Obverse ll. 46-67; Reverse: ll. 83-103.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 2 in. by 2 in. The fragment is probably part of the same tablet as that to which No. 2 belonged. This text has not been previously published.
11. K. 4,488: Vol. I, Appendix II, pp. 185 ff. Obverse: ll. 50-63; no reverse.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 3/4 in. by 1 in.; see above, No. 8. This text has not been previously published.
12. 82-9-18, 6,879: Vol. II, pls. xii and xiii. No obverse; Reverse: ll. 93-1 18.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 1 7/8 in. by 2 5/8 in. This text has not been previously published.
The authorities for the lines of the First Tablet are as follows:--
TABLET I.
ll. 1-10: Nos. 1, 2, and 3.
ll. 11-16: Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4.
ll. 17-21: Nos. 3 and 4.
ll. 22-27: No. 3.
ll. 28-30: Nos. 3 and 5.
ll. 31-32: Nos. 3, 5, and 6.
l. 33: Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
ll. 34-37: Nos. 3, 6, 7, and 8.
ll. 38-42: Nos. 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
l. 43: Nos. 3, 6, and 8.
1. 44: Nos. 3, 6, 8, and 9.
l. 45: Nos. 3, 6, and 8.
ll. 46-47: Nos. 3, 6, 8, and 10.
l. 43: Nos. 3, 6, and 10.
l. 49: Nos. 6 and 10.
ll. 53-56: Nos. 6, 10, and 11.
ll. 57-63: Nos. 10 and 11.
ll. 64-67: No. 10.
ll. 68-82: Wanting.
ll. 83-92: No. 10.
ll. 93-103: Nos. 10 and 12.
ll. 104-110: No. 12.
ll. 111-117: Nos. 3 and 12.
l. 118: Nos. 3, 6, and 12.
ll. 119-123: Nos. 3 and 6.
ll. 124-127: Nos. 2, 3, and 6.
ll. 128-142: Nos. 2, 3, 6, and 7.
The following seven tablets and fragments are inscribed with portions of the text of the Second Tablet of the series:--
13. No. 40,559: Vol. II, pls. xiv-xxi. Obverse: ll. 1-40; Reverse: ll. (111)-(140), catch-line, and colophon.
Upper part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 2 5/8 in. by 4 1/6 in. This text has not been previously published.
14. No. 38,396: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 4. Obverse: ll. 11-29; Reverse: ll. (105)-(132).
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 3 1/4 in. by 2 in. This text has not been previously published.
15. No. 92,632 + 93,048: Vol. II, pls. xxii-xxiv. Obverse: ll. 14-29; Reverse: ll. (104)-(138).
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, formed from two fragments which I have joined; 1 7/8 in. by 1 6/8 in. This text has not been previously published.
16. K. 4,832: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 5. Obverse: ll. 32-58; Reverse: ll. (104)-(138).
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 in. by 3 1/4 in. This tablet was known to George Smith, see Chald. Acc. of Gen., p. 92; its text was published by S. A. Smith, Miscellaneous Texts, pl. 8 f.
17. 79-7-8, 178: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 6. Obverse: ll. (69)-(75); Reverse: ll. (76)-(85).
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 3 1/8 in. by 1 3/4 in. This text, which was identified by Pinches, was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p. 30, and by Jensen, Mythen und Epen, p. 10 f.
18. K. 10,008: Vol. I, App. II, pp. 187 ff. No obverse; Reverse: probably between 11.85 and 104.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 5/8 in. by 2 1/4 in This text has not been previously published.
19. K. 292: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 6. No obverse; Reverse: ll. (131)-( 140).
Lower part of an Assyrian tablet, 2 in. by 2 1/4 in. The text of this tablet, which was known to George Smith, was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p. 31, and by Jensen, Mythen and Epen, p. 10.
The authorities for the lines of the Second Tablet are as follows:--
TABLET II.
ll. 1-10: No. 13.
ll. 11-13: Nos. 13 and 14.
ll. 14-29: Nos. 13, 14, and 15.
ll. 30-31: No. 13.
ll. 32-40: Nos. 13 and 16.
ll. 41-58: No. 16.
ll. 59-(68): Wanting.
ll. (69)-(85): No. 17.
between ll. (86) and (103): No. 18.
l. (104): No. 16.
ll. (105)-(110): Nos. 14 and 16.
ll. (111)-(113): Nos. 13, 14, and 16.
ll. (114)-(126): Nos. 13, 14, 15, and 16.
l. (127): Nos. 13, 15, and 16.
ll. (128)-(129): Nos. 13, 14, 15, and 16.
l. (130): Nos. 13, 15, and 16.
l. (131): Nos. 13, 15, 16, and 19.
l. (13-2): Nos. 13, 14, 16, and 19.
ll. (133)-(138): Nos. 13, 16, and 19.
ll. (139)-(140): Nos. 13 and 19.
The following nine tablets and fragments are inscribed with portions of the text of the Third Tablet:--
20. K. 3,473 + 79-7-8, 296 + R. 615: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pls. 7-9. Obverse: ll. 1-85; Reverse: ll. 86-138.
Parts of an Assyrian tablet, 2 in. by 8 3/8 in. The three fragments of this tablet, which have been recovered, join, but, as they are much warped by fire, they have not been stuck together. For earlier publications of the text, see S. A. Smith, Miscellaneous Texts, pls. 1-5, and my First Steps in Assyrian, pp. 124 ff. The text of K. 3,473 had been already recognized by George Smith, see Chald. Acc. Gen., p. 92 f.
21. No. 93,017 [88-4-19, 13]: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pls. 10 and 11. Obverse: ll. 47-77; Reverse: ll. 78-105.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 2 in. by 3 5/8 in. This text, which was identified by Pinches, was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p. 35 f., and by Jensen, Mythen und Epen, pp. 14 ff.
22. 82-9-18, 1,403+6,316 [No. 61,429]: Vol. II, pls. xxv-xxviii. Obverse: ll. 5-15, 52-61; Reverse: ll. 62-76, 124-128.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian "practice-tablet," inscribed with a series of five-line extracts from the text; 2 in. by 3 in. A copy of the text of 82-9-18, 1,403, is given in Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 13: since then I have joined to it the fragment 82-9-18, 6,316, and the text is therefore repeated in Vol. II. This text has not been previously published.
23. K. 8,524: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 12. Fragment from the end of Obv. or beginning of Rev.: ll. 75-86.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 7/8 n . by 1 3/8 in. The text was referred to by Pinches in the Bab. Or. Rec., vol. iv, p. 30, and was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p. 31.
24. 82-9-18, 6,950+83-1-18, 1,868: Vol. II, pl. xxix. Duplicate of ll. 19-26 and 77-84; variants are noted in the text under ll. 19-26.
Neo-Babylonian "practice-tablet"; the text forms an extract measuring 2 5/8 in. by 1 1/4 in. A copy of the text of 83-1-18, 1,868, is given in Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 12; since then I have joined to it the fragment 82-9-18, 6,950, and the text is therefore repeated in Vol. II. This text has not been previously published.
25. K. 6,650: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 9. Duplicate of ll. 38-55 and 96-113; variants are noted in the text under ll. 38-55.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 3 in. by 3 3/8 in. This text has not been previously published.
26. No. 42,285: Vol. II, pls. xxx-xxxiii. Obverse: ll. 46-68; Reverse: ll. 69-87.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 2 in. by 2 5/8 in. This text has not been previously published.
27. 82-9-18, 5,448+83-1-18, 2,116: Vol. II, pl. xxxiv. Obverse: ll. 64-72.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian "practice-tablet"; the text, which forms an extract, measures 2 3/4 in. by 1 in. A copy of the text of 83-1-18, 2,116, is given in Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 12; since then I have joined to it the fragment 82-9-18, 5,448, and the text is therefore repeated in Vol. II. This text has not been previously published.
28. K. 8,575: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 12. Obverse: ll. 69-76; Reverse: ll. 77-85.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 2 5/8 in. by 2 1/6 in. This text, which was identified by Bezold, Catalogue, p. 941, was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p. 38.
The authorities for the lines of the Third Tablet are as follows:--
TABLET III.
ll. 1-4: No. 20.
ll. 5-15: Nos. 20 and 22.
ll. 16-18: No. 20.
ll. 29-26: Nos. 20 and 24.
ll. 38-45: Nos. 20 and 25.
l. 46: Nos. 20, 25, and 26.
ll. 47-51: Nos. 20, 21, 25, and 26.
ll. 52-55: Nos. 20, 21, 22, 25, and 26.
ll. 56-63: Nos. 20, 21, 22, and 26.
ll. 64-68: Nos. 20, 21, 22, 26, and 27.
ll. 69-72: Nos. 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, and 28.
ll. 73-74: Nos. 20, 21, 22, 26, and 28.
ll. 75-76: Nos. 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, and 28.
ll. 77-84: Nos. 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, and 28.
l. 85: Nos. 20, 21, 23, 26, and 28.
l. 86: Nos. 20, 21, 23, and 26.
l. 87: Nos. 20, 21, and 26.
ll. 88-95: Nos. 20 and 21.
ll. 96-105: Nos. 20, 21, and 25.
ll. 106-113: Nos. 20 and 25.
ll. 124-128: Nos. 20 and 22.
ll. 27-37: No. 20.
ll. 114-123: No. 20.
ll. 129-138: No. 20.
The following six tablets and fragments are inscribed with portions of the text of the Fourth Tablet:--
29. No. 93,016 [82-9-18, 3,737]: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pls. 14-15. Obverse: ll. 1-44; Reverse: ll. 116-146.
Upper part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 3 3/8 in. by 4 7/8 in. For an earlier publication of the text, see Budge, P.S.B.A., vol. x, p. 86, pls. 1-6.
30. K. 3,437 + R. 641: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pls. 16-19. Obverse: ll. 36-83; Reverse: ll. 84-119.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 3 in. by 5 in. For an earlier publication of' the text of K. 3,437, see George Smith, T.S.B.A., vol. iv, p. 363 f., pls. 5 and 6; and of K. 3,437+R. 641, see Delitzsch, Asyrische Lesestke, pp. 97 ff., and my First Steps in Assyrian, pp. 137 ff.
31. 79-7-8, 25 I: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 20. Obverse: ll. 35-49; Reverse: ll. 103-107.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 in. by 2 1/8 in. The text, which was identified by Pinches, was used in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, pp. 41 ff., and by Jensen, Mythen und Epen, pp. 22 ff. This fragment probably belongs to the same tablet as No. 34.
32. No. 93,051: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 20. Obverse: ll. 42-54; Reverse: ll. 85-94.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian "practice-tablet," inscribed with the text divided into sections of five lines; 2 1/4 in. by 1 3/4 in. This text has not been previously published.
33. K. 5,420c: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 21. Obverse: ll. 74-92; Reverse: ll. 93-119.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 3 3/8 in. by 3 1/8 in. Restorations and variants were taken from this tablet by George Smith for his edition of K. 3,437; see above, No. 30.
34. R. 2, 83: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 19. No obverse; Reverse: ll. 117-129.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 2 1/4 in, by 1 5/8 in. The text, which was identified by Pinches, was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p. 45. This fragment probably belongs to the same tablet as No. 31.
The authorities for the lines of the Fourth Tablet are as follows:--
TABLET IV.
l. 35: Nos. 29 and 31.
ll. 36-41: Nos. 29, 30, and 31.
ll. 42-44: Nos. 29, 30, 31, and 32.
ll. 45-49: Nos. 30, 31, and 32.
ll. 50-54: Nos. 30 and 32.
ll. 55-73: No. 30.
ll. 74-84: Nos. 30 and 33.
ll. 85-94: Nos. 30, 32, and 33.
ll. 95-102: Nos. 30 and 33.
ll. 103-107: Nos. 30, 31, and 33.
ll. 108-115: Nos. 30 and 33.
l. 116: Nos. 29, 30, and 33.
ll. 117-119: Nos. 29, 30, 33, and 34.
ll. 120-129: Nos. 29 and 34.
ll. 130-146: No. 29.
ll. 1-34: No. 29.
The following five tablets and fragments are inscribed with portions of the text of the Fifth Tablet:--
35. K. 3,567 + K. 8,588: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 22. Obverse: ll. 1-26; Reverse: catch-line.
Upper part of an Assyrian tablet, 3 1/8 in. by 2 7/8 in. For earlier publications of the text, see George Smith, T.S.B.A., vol. iv, p. 363 f., pl. 2; Delitzsch, Assyrische Lesestke, 3rd ed., p. 94; and my First Steps in Assyrian, pp. 158 ff.
36. K. 8,526: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 23. Obverse: ll. 1-18; Reverse: ll. (138)-( 140).
Upper part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 in. by 2 1/4 in. The text was used by George Smith for his edition of No. 35, and in the other copies of that tablet mentioned above; it was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p. 48 f.
37. K. 13,774: Vol. I, Appendix II, pp. 190 ff. Obverse: ll. 6-19; no reverse.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 1/4 in. by 1 in. This text has not been previously published.
38. K. 11,641: Vol. I, Appendix II, pp. 192 ff. Obverse: ll. 14-22; Reverse: ll. (128)-(140), catch-line, and colophon.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 2 3/4 in. by 3 3/8 in. This text has not been previously published.
39. K. 3,449a: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 23. Obverse: ll. (66)-( 74); Reverse: ll. (75)-(87).
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 2 in. by 1 in. This text, which was first identified and translated by George Smith, Chald. Acc. of Gen., p. 94 f., was given in transliteration by Delitzsch, Weltschfungsepos, p, 50, and the reverse by Jensen, Mythen and Epen, p. 32.
The authorities for the lines of the Fifth Tablet are as follows:--
TABLET V.
ll. 1-5: Nos. 35 and 36.
ll. 6-13: Nos. 35, 36, and 37.
ll. 14-18: Nos. 35, 36, 37, and 38.
1. 19: Nos. 35, 37, and 38.
ll. 20-22: Nos. 35 and 38.
ll. 23-26: No. 35.
ll. 27-(65): Wanting.
ll. (66)-(87): No. 39.
ll. (88)-( I 27): Wanting.
ll. (138)-(140): Nos. 36 and 38.
ll. (128)-( 137): No. 38.
The following fragment is inscribed with a portion of the text of the Sixth Tablet:--
40. No. 92,629: Vol. II, pls. xxxv and xxxvi. Obverse: ll. 1-21; Reverse: ll. 138-146, catch-line, and colophon,
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 2 1/8 in. by 2 1/4 in. This text has not been previously published.
The following nine tablets and fragments are inscribed with portions of the text of the Seventh Tablet:--
41. K. 2,854: Vol. I, Appendix I, p. 159. Obverse: ll. 1-18; Reverse uninscribed.
Upper part of an Assyrian tablet, 2 in. by 1 3/4 in. This text has not been previously published.
42. No. 91, 139 + 93,073: Vol. II. pls. xxxviii-xlv. Obverse: ll. 3-40; Reverse: ll. 106-141.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 2 3/4 in. by 4 7/8 in. This text is made up of two fragments which I have joined; it has not previously been published.
43. K. 8,522: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pls. 26 and 27. Obverse: ll. 15-45; Reverse: ll. 105-137.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 2 in. by 3 1/4 in. For earlier publications of the text, see George Smith, T.S.B.A., vol. iv, p. 363 f., pls. 3 and 4, and Delitzsch, Assyrische Lesestke, 3rd ed., p. 95 f.
44. No. 35,506: Vol. II, pls. xlvi-xlviii. Obverse: ll. 14-36; Reverse: ll. 105-142.
Part of a Neo-Babylonian tablet, 2 1/4 in. by 4 1/4 in. This text, which probably dates from the period of the Arsacidae, has not been previously published.
45. K. 9,267: Cun. Texts, pt. xiii, pl. 28. Obverse: ll. 40-47; Reverse: ll. 109-138.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 3 5/8 in. by 2 in. Restorations and variants were taken from this tablet by George Smith for his edition of K. 8,522; see above, No. 43.
46. K. 12,830: Vol. I, Appendix I, p. 163. Obverse or Reverse: between ll. 47 and 105.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 7/8 in. by 7/8 in. This text has not been previously published.
47. K. 13,761: Vol. I, Appendix I, p. 164. End of Obverse and beginning of Reverse: between ll. 47 and 105.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 1/8 in. by 1 5/8 in. This text has not been previously published.
48. K. 8,519: Vol. I, Appendix I, p. 165. End of Obverse and beginning of Reverse: between ll. 47 and 105.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 1 3/4 in. by 1 3/8 in. This text has not been previously published. 1
49. K. 13,337: Vol. I, Appendix I, p. 166. Duplicate of No. 48; between ll. 47 and 105.
Part of an Assyrian tablet, 7/8 in. by 1 in. This text, which is a duplicate of K. 8,519, has not been previously published.
The authorities for the lines of the Seventh Tablet are as follows:--
TABLET VII.
ll. 1-2: No. 41.
ll. 3-13: Nos. 41 and 42.
l. 14: Nos. 41, 42, and 44.
ll. 15-18: Nos. 41, 42, 43, and 44.
ll. 19-36: Nos. 42, 43, and 44.
ll. 37-39: Nos. 42 and 43.
l. 40: Nos. 42, 43, and 45.
ll. 41-45: Nos. 43 and 45.
between ll. 47 and 105: Nos. 46, 47, 48, and 49.
l. 105: Nos. 43 and 44.
ll. 46-47: No. 45.
ll. 106-108: Nos. 42, 43, and 44.
ll. 109-137: Nos. 42, 43, 44, and 45.
l. 138: Nos. 42, 44, and 45.
ll. 139-141: Nos. 42 and 44.
l. 142: No. 44.
The above forty-nine tablets and fragments, inscribed with portions of the text of the Creation Series, belong to two distinct periods. The older class of tablets were made for the library of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh, and they are beautifully written in the Assyrian character upon tablets of fine clay. The Neo-Babylonian tablets, on the other hand, are, as a rule, less carefully written; they vary considerably in size and shape, and were made at different periods for private individuals, either for their own use, or that they might be deposited in the temples as votive offerings. Some of these Babylonian copies are fine specimens of their class, e.g. Nos. 3, 13, 21, 29, and 42, and the characters and words upon them are carefully written and spaced; others, however, consist of small, carelessly made tablets, on to which the poem is crowded. On all the tablets, whether Assyrian or Babylonian, which possess colophons, the number of the Tablet in the Series is carefully given. The extracts from the text, which were written out by students upon "practice-tablets," no doubt in order to give them practice in writing and at the same time to enable them to learn the text by heart, are naturally rather rough productions. One characteristic which applies to all the tablets, whether Assyrian or Neo-Babylonian, is that the text is never written in columns, but each line of the poem is written across the tablet from edge to edge. 1 As a result, the tablets are long and narrow in shape, and are handled far more conveniently than broader tablets inscribed with two or more columns of writing on each side.
The forms of the text of the poem, which were in use in the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, are identical, and it is incorrect to speak of an Assyrian and a Babylonian "recension." At the time of Ashur-bani-pal the text had already been definitely fixed, and, with the exception of one or two phrases, the words of each line remained unchanged from that time forward. It is true that on the Babylonian tablets the words are, as a rule, written more syllabically, but this is a general characteristic of Babylonian copies of historical and literary texts. Moreover, upon several of the more carefully written tablets, the metre is indicated by the division of the halves of each verse, an arrangement which is not met with on any of the Assyrian tablets. But both the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian copies represent the same "recension" of the text, and, as has already been indicated, are probably the descendants of a common Babylonian original. The following table will serve to show the number of Assyrian and Neo- Babylonian copies of each of the Seven Tablets under which the forty-nine separate fragments of the text may be arranged:--
TABLET.	ASSYRIAN TEXT.	NEO-BAB. TEXT.	NEO-BAB. EXTRACTS.
I	Four copies (Nos. 1, 6, 7, 8, 11). Nos. 8 and 11 are probably parts of the same tablet.	Four copies (Nos. 2, 3, 4, 10, 12). Nos. 2 and 10 are probably parts of the same tablet.	Two "practice-tablets"(Nos. 5, 9).
II	Four copies (Nos. 16, 17, 18, 19) Nos. 18 and 19 are probably not parts of the same tablet.	Three copies (Nos. 13, 14, 15).
III.	Four copies (Nos. 20, 23, 25, 28). Nos. 23 and 25 are probably not parts of the same tablet; it is possible, however, that No. 23 is part of a copy of Tabl. II, its text corresponding to ll. 13-24.	Two copies (Nos. 21, 26).	Three "practice-tablets" (Nos. 22,24, 27).
IV	Three copies (Nos. 30, 31, 33, 34). Nos. 31 and 34 are probably parts of the same tablet.	One copy (No. 29).	One "practice-tablet" (No. 32).
V	Four, or five, copies (Nos. 35, 36, 37, 38, 39). Nos. 35 and 39 are possibly parts of the same tablet.
VI		One copy (No. 40).
VII	Four, or five, copies (Nos. 41, 43, 451 46, 47, 48, 49). Nos. 41 and 46 are probably parts of the same tablet, and Nos. 47 and 49 are probably parts of another tablet; it is possible that No. 45 is a part of the same tablet as Nos. 41 and 46.	Two copies (Nos. 42, 44).
In the arrangement and interpretation of the text of the Seventh Tablet we receive considerable assistance from some fragments of Assyrian commentaries which have come down to us. These were compiled by the Assyrian scribes in order to explain that composition, and they are of the greatest value for the study of the text. The contents of these documents, and their relation to the text of the Seventh Tablet, are described in detail in Appendix I, but the following facts with regard to the size of the tablets inscribed with the commentaries, and to previous publications of portions of them, may here be conveniently given.
The most important class of commentary takes the form of a bilingual list, and, as has been pointed out elsewhere, 2 presupposes the existence of a Sumerian version of part of the text of the Seventh Tablet of the Creation Series. The text of the commentary is inscribed in a series of double columns; in the left half of each column it gives a list of the Sumerian words, or ideograms, and, in the right half, opposite each word is added its Assyrian equivalent. It is noteworthy that the list is generally arranged in the order in which the words occur in the Assyrian text of the Seventh Tablet. The columns of the commentary are divided into a number of compartments, or sections, by horizontal lines impressed upon the clay, and the words within each compartment refer either to separate couplets, or to separate lines, of the Seventh Tablet. Of this class of commentary we possess six fragments of two large tablets which were inscribed with five or six double columns of writing on each side; the two tablets are duplicates of one another, having been inscribed with the same version of the commentary. The following is a description of the six separate fragments, the two large tablets, to which they belong, being headed respectively A and B:--
A. (1) S. II + S. 980+ S. 1,416. For the text, see Vol. II, pls. li-liii and lv; cf. also App. I, pp. 158 ff., 167f.
The fragment is the top left hand portion of the tablet; it measures 4 in. by 7 in. The text of S. II + S. 980 was published in V R., pl. 21, No. 4. The fragment S. 1,416, which I have joined to the other two, has not been previously published.
(2) K. 4,406. For the text, see Vol. II, pls. liv-lv; cf. also App. I, pp. 163 ff.
The fragment is the top right hand portion of the tablet; it measures 4 1/4 in. by 4 7/8 in. The text has been previously published in II R., pl. 31, No. 2.
(3) 82-3-23, 151. For the text, see Vol. II, pl. liv; cf. also App. I, p. 162.
The fragment measures 1 3/8 in. by 2 1/8 in.; it has not been previously published.
B. (1) R. 366+80-7-19, 288t-293. For the text, see Vol. II, pls. lvi-lviii; cf. also App. I, pp. 160, 168 f.
The fragment is from the left side of the tablet; it measures 2 1/8 in. by 5 1/8 in. The fragment R. 366 was published in V R., pl. 21, No. 3; 80-7-19, 293, was joined to it by Bezold, Catalogue, p. 1,608. The third fragment, 80-7-19, 288, was identified by Zimmern and published in the Zeits. f Assyr., xii, p. 401 f.
(2) K. 2,053. For the text, see Vol. II, pls. lix-lx; cf. also App. I, pp. 161, 167 f.
This fragment measures 2 3/8 in. by 2 in.; it has long been known to be a duplicate of S. I I + S. 980 (see Bezold, Catalogue, p. 396), but its text has not been previously published.
(3) E(. 8,299. For the text, see Vol. II, pl. lx; cf. also App. I, p. 162 f.
This fragment measures 3 in. by 1 in.; it has not been previously published.
In addition to the above commentary in the form of a bilingual list, we possess single specimens of a second and a third class of explanatory text. The second class contains a running commentary to passages selected from other Tablets of the Creation Series in addition to the Seventh, and is represented by the tablet S. 747. The third class, represented by the obverse of the tablet K. 2,1.07 + K. 6,086, gives explanations of a number of titles of Marduk, several of which occur in the recovered portions of the text of the Seventh Tablet. Each of these two commentaries furnishes information on various points with regard to the interpretation of the Seventh Tablet, but, as may be supposed, they do not approach in interest the six fragments of the commentary of the first class.
The transliteration of the text of the Creation Series, which is given in the following pages, has been made up from the tablets, fragments, and extracts enumerated on pp. xcvii ff.; while several passages in the Seventh Tablet have been conjecturally restored from the Assyrian Commentaries just described. In the reconstruction of the text preference has usually been given to the readings found upon the Assyrian tablets, and the variant readings of all duplicates, both Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian, are given in the notes at the foot of the page. The lines upon each tablet of the Series have been numbered, and, where the numbering of a line is conjectural, it is placed within parentheses. Great assistance in the numbering of the lines of detached fragments of the text has been afforded by the fact that upon many of the, Neo-Babylonian copies every tenth line is marked with a figure "10" in the left-hand margin; in but few instances can the position of a detached fragment be accurately ascertained by its shape. The lines upon the Second and Fifth Tablets have been conjecturally numbered up to one hundred and forty. Upon the Sixth Tablet the total number of lines was one hundred and thirty-six or one hundred and forty-six; and, in view of the fact that the scribe of No. 92,629 has continued the text to the bottom of the reverse of the tablet, the larger number is the more probable of the two. The following is a list of the total number of lines inscribed upon each of the Seven Tablets of the Series:--
Tablet	I, 142	lines.
"	II, (140)	"
"	III, 138	"
"	IV, 146	"
"	V, (140)	"
"	VI, 146	"
"	VII, 142	"
Although it is now possible to accurately estimate the number of lines contained by the Creation Series, there are still considerable gaps in the text of several of the Tablets. The only Tablets in which the whole or portions of every line are preserved are the Third and Fourth of the Series. Gaps, where the text is completely wanting, occur in Tablet I, ll. 68-82, and in Tablet II, ll. 59-(68). 1 The greater part of the text of Tablet V is wanting, but by roughly estimating the position of the fragment K. 3,449a, which occurs about in the centre of the text, we obtain two gaps, between ll. 26 and (66) and between ll. (87) and (128). Of Tablet VI we possess only the opening and closing lines, the rest of the text, from l. 22 to l. 137, being wanting. Finally, the gap in the text of
Tablet VII, between ll. 47 and 105, is partly filled up by the fragments KK. 12,830, 13,761, 8,519, 13,337, which together give portions of thirty-nine lines.
Upon some of the Babylonian copies the metre is indicated in writing by the division of the halves of each verse, 1 and, wherever this occurs upon any tablet or duplicate, the division has, as far as possible, been retained in the transliteration of the text. In accordance with the rules of Babylonian poetry, the text generally falls into couplets, the second verse frequently echoing or supplementing the first; each of the two verses of a couplet is divided into halves, and each half-verse may be further subdivided by an accented syllable. 2 This four-fold division of each verse will be apparent from the following connected The metre of transliteration of the first half-dozen lines of the poem, in which the subdivisions of the verses are marked in accordance with the system of the Babylonian scribes as found upon the tablet Sp. ii, 265a :--


1. f. enuma	| elish	|| la nabu	| shamamu
shaplish	| ammatum	|| shuma	| la zakrat
3. f. Apsuma	| ristu	|| zaru-	shun
mummu	| Tiamat	|| muallidat	| gimrishun
5. f. me	shunu	|| ishtenish	| ihukuma
gipara	| la kissura	|| susa	| la she'i
It will be seen that the second verse of each couplet balances the first, and the caesura, or division, in the centre of each verse is well marked. The second half of verse 3 and the first half of verse 5, each of which contains only one word, may appear rather short for scansion, but the rhythm is retained by dwelling on the first part of the word and treating the suffix almost as an independent word. It is unnecessary to transliterate more of the text of the poem in this manner, as the simple metre, or rather rhythm, can be detected without difficulty from the syllabic transliteration which is given in the following pages.
Sources :
Mr. Smith Daily Telegraph, published on March 4th, 1875, No. 6,158, p. 5, col. 4. He there gave a summary of the contents of the fragments, and on November and in the same year he read a paper on them before the Society of Biblical Archlogy. In noting the resemblance between the Babylonian and the Hebrew legends it was not unnatural that he should have seen a closer resemblance between them than was really the case. For instance, he traced allusions to "the Fall of Man" in what is the Seventh Tablet of the Creation Series; one tablet he interpreted as containing the instructions given by "the Deity" to man after his creation, and another he believed to represent a version of the story of the Tower of Babel. Although these identifications were not justified, the outline which he gave of the contents of the legends was remarkably accurate. It is declared by some scholars that the general character of the larger of the Creation fragments was correctly identified by Sir H. C. Rawlinson several years before.
The Chaldean Account of Genesis, London, 1876; German edition, edited by Delitzsch, Leipzig, I 876. New English edition, edited by Sayce, London, 1880.
Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archlogy, vol. iv (1876), and appeared after his death.
H. Fox Talbot in T.S.B.A., vol. iv, pp. 349 ff., and vol. v, pp. I ff., 426 ff., and Records of the Past, vol. ix (1877), pp. 115 ff., 135 ff.; and the translations made by Oppert in an appendix to Ledrain's Histoire d'Israel, premie partie (1879), pp. 411 ff., and by Lenormant in Les origines de l'histoire (1880), app. i, pp. 494ff. The best discussion of the relations of the legends to the early chapters of Genesis was given by Schrader in the second edition (1883) of his Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, English translation, 1885-1888; I hear from Professor Zimmern that the new edition of this work, a portion of which he is editing, will shortly make its appearance.
Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians(Hibbert Lectures for 1887), pp. 379. ff.
In Records of the Past, new series, vol. i (1888), pp. 122 ff.
Die Kosmologie der Babylonier(Strassburg, 1890), pp. 263 ff.
Gunkel's Schfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit (Gottingen, 1895), pp. 401 ff.
Babylonische Weltschfungsepos, published in the Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Classe der Kigl. Shsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaffen, xvii, No. ii.
Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen, published as the sixth volume of Schrader's Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek; part I, containing transliterations and translations (1900); part 2, containing commentary (1901).
Berossus in his history of Babylonia
Ein altbabylonisches Fragment des Gilgamosepos, in the Mitteilungen der Voderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1902,
Cf. Budge, History of Egypt, vol. i, pp. 39 ff.
• September 20, 2011
• 0
• Published in Ancient Babylon
• Written by LC Geerts

Seven Tablets of Creation 7
The Seven Tablets of Creation
by Leonard William King
Luzac's Semitic text and translation series. vol. xii-xiii
Luzac and Co.
London (1902)
The Seventh Tablet
1. O Asari, "Bestower of planting," "[Founder of sowing],"
2. "Creator of grain and plants," "who caused [the green herb to spring up]!"
3. O Asaru-alim, "who is revered in the house of counsel," "[who aboundeth in counsel],"
4. The gods paid homage, fear [took hold upon them]!
5. O Asaru-alim-nuna, "the mighty one," "the Light of [the father who begat him],"
6. Who directeth the decrees of Anu, Bel, [and Ea]!"
7. He was their patron, he ordained [their . . . . ];
8. He, whose provision is abundance, goeth forth [...]!
9. Tutu [is] "He who created them anew;"
10. Should their wants be pure, then are they [satisfied];
11. Should he make an incantation, then are the gods [appeased];
12 . Should they attack him in anger, he withstandeth [their onslaught]!
13. Let him therefore be exalted, and in the assembly of the gods [let him ...];
14. None among the gods can [rival him]!
15. Tutu is Zi-ukkina, "the Life of the host [of the gods],"
16. Who established for the gods the bright heavens.
17. He set them on their way, and ordained [their path (?)]
18. Never shall his [...] deeds be forgotten among men.
19. Tutu as Zi-azag thirdly they named, "the Bringer of Purification,"
20. "The God of the Favouring Breeze," "the Lord of Hearing and Mercy,"
21. "The Creator of Fulness and Abundance," "the Founder of Plenteousness,"
22. "Who increaseth all that is small."
23. "In sore distress we felt his favouring breeze,"
24. Let them say, let them pay reverence, let them bow in humility before him!
25. Tutu as Aga-azag may mankind fourthly magnify!
26. "The Lord of the Pure Incantation," "the Quickener of the Dead,"
27. "Who had mercy upon the captive gods,"
28. "Who removed the yoke from upon the gods his enemies,"
29. "For their forgiveness did he create mankind,"
30. "The Merciful One, with whom it is to bestow life!"
31. May his deeds endure, may they never be forgotten
32. In the mouth of mankind whom his hands have made!
33. Tutu as Mu-azag, fifthly, his "Pure Incantation" may their mouth proclaim,
34. "Who through his Pure Incantation hath destroyed all the evil ones!"
35. Shag-zu, "who knoweth the heart of the gods," "who seeth through the innermost part!"
36. "The evil-doer he hath not caused to go forth with him!"
37. "Founder of the assembly of the gods," "[who ...] their heart! "
38. "Subduer of the disobedient," "[...]!"
39. "Who rebellion and [...]!"
41. Tutu as Zi-si, "the [...],
42. "Who put an end to anger," "[who ...]!"
43. Tutu as Suh-kur, thirdly, "the [Destroyer of the foe],"
44. "Who put their plans to confusion," "[...],"
45. "Who destroyed all the wicked," "[...],"
46. [...] let them [...]!
47. [...] ... [...]
The following lines are taken from the fragment K. 12,830, but their position in the text is uncertain.
[He named the four quarters (of the world)], mankind [he created],
[And upon] him understanding [...]
[...] ... [...]
[...] Tiamat [...]
[...] ... [...]
[...] distant [...]
[...] may [...].
The following lines are taken from the fragment K. 13,761.
[...]
(10) [...]
"The mighty one [...]!"
... Agi[l ...],
"The Creator of [the earth ...]!"
Zulummu ... [...],
"The Giver of counsel and of whatsoever [...]!"
Mummu, "the Creator [of ...]!"
Mulil, the heavens [...], "Who for ... [...]!"
Gishkul, let [...],
(10) "Who brought the gods to naught[...]!"
Lugal-ab-[...],
"Who in [ ............ ]!"
Pap-[...],
"Who in [...]!"
[...]
The following lines are taken from the fragment K. 8,519 and its duplicate K. 13,337; this portion of the text was not separated by much from that preserved by K. 13,761.
[...].
[...] ...
[... the Chief (?) of] all lords,"
[... supreme] is his might!
[Lugal-durmah, "the King] of the band of the gods," "the Lord of rulers,"
"Who is exalted in a royal habitation,"
"[Who] among the gods is gloriously supreme!"
[Adu-nuna], "the Counsellor of Ea," who created the gods his fathers,
Unto the path of whose majesty
[No] god can ever attain!
[... in] Dul-azag he made it known,
[...] pure is his dwelling!
[... the ...] of those without understanding is Lugal-dul-azaga!
[...] supreme is his might!
[...] their [...] in the midst of Tiamat,
[...] ... of the battle!
The numbering of the following lines is based on the marginal numbers upon No. 91,139. + 93,073.
105. [...] ... [...] him,
106. [...] ... the star, which [shineth in the heavens].
107. May he hold the Beginning and the Future , may they pay homage unto him,
108. Saying, "He who forced his way through the midst of Tiamat [without resting],
109. "Let his name be Nibiru, 'the Seizer of the Midst'!
110. "For the stars of heaven he upheld the paths,
111. "He shepherded all the gods like sheep!
112. "He conquered Tiamat, he troubled and ended her life,"
113. In the future of mankind, when the days grow old,
114. May this be heard without ceasing, may it hold sway for ever!
115. Since he created the realm (of heaven) and fashioned the firm earth,
116. "The Lord of the World," the father B hath called his name.
117. (This) title, which all the Spirits of Heaven proclaimed,
118. Did Ea hear, and his spirit was rejoiced, (and he said):
119. "He whose name his fathers have made glorious,
120. "Shall be even as I, his name shall be Ea!
121. "The binding of all my decrees shall he control,
122. "All my commands shall he make known! "
123. By the name of "Fifty" did the great gods
124. Proclaim his fifty names, they made his path pre-eminent."
Epilogue
125. Let them be held in remembrance, and let the first man proclaim them;
126. Let the wise and the understanding consider them together!
127. Let the father repeat them and teach them to his son;
128. Let them be in the ears of the pastor and the shepherd!
129. Let a man rejoice in Marduk, the Lord of the gods,
130. That he may cause his land to be fruitful, and that he himself may have prosperity!
131. His word standeth fast, his command is unaltered;
132. The utterance of his mouth hath no god ever annulled.
133. He gazed in his anger, he turned not his neck;
134. When he is wroth, no god can withstand his indignation.
135. Wide is his heart, broad is his compassion;
136. The sinner and evil-doer in his presence [...].
137. They received instruction, they spake before him,
138. [...] unto [...].
139. [...] of Marduk may the gods [...].
140. [May] they [... his ] name [...]!
141. [...] they took and [...];
142. [...]!
• September 20, 2011
• 0
• Published in Ancient Babylon
• Written by LC Geerts