Babylonian+creation+and+destruction+myths

=﻿Babylonian Creation and Destruction Myths=

The Babylonian creation, known as //Enûma Eliš//, is written on seven clay tablets. Each tablet contains between 115 and 150 lines although some tablets have been corrupted becuase they have been broken up.A recreation of Tablet V is located in Turkey because most of the tablet has been lost. The composition of the text probably dates to the Bronze Age, to the time of Hammurabi or perhaps the early Kassite era (roughly 18th to 16th centuries BCE), although some scholars favor a later date of 1100 BCE. When the 7 tablets that contain this were first discovered, evidence indicated that it was used as a "ritual", meaning it was recited during a ceremony or celebration. That celebration is now known to be the Akitu festival, or Babylonian new year. This tells of the creation of the world, and of Marduk's triumph over Tiamat, and how it relates to him becoming king of the gods. Then is followed by an invocation to Marduk by his fifty names.



The first tablet starts like this (translation on the right): The creation myth names two gods: Apsu and Tiamat. Other gods are later created that come from Tiamat's body. Apsu wants to kill the other gods but Tiamat warns his brother Ea, the most powerful of the gods, of his plan. Ea then kills Apsu then becomes the chief god and has a son who is even more powerful than himself. Tiamat is convincesd by other gods that she must take revenge for her husband's death. She gets remarried to Kingu, who becomes the supreme dominion. Murdak then leads a group that wants to remove Tiamat from power. Murdak degfeats Tiamat in combat and uses her torso to decorate the Earth and the skies.The gods who have pledged their allegiance to Tiamat are initially forced into labor in the service of the gods who sided with Marduk. But they are freed from these labors when Marduk then destroys Tiamat's husband, [|Kingu] and uses his blood to create humankind to do the work for the gods. Babylon is established as the residence of the chief gods. Finally, the gods confer kingship on Marduk, hailing him with fifty names. Most noteworthy is Marduk's symbolic elevation over [|Enlil], who was seen by earlier Mesopotamian civilizations as the king of the gods.
 * || //e-nu-ma e-liš la na-bu-ú šá-ma-mu////šap-liš am-ma-tum šu-ma la zak-rat//ZU.AB//-ma reš-tu-ú za-ru-šu-un////mu-um-mu ti-amat mu-al-li-da-at gim-ri-šú-un//A.MEŠ//-šú-nu iš-te-niš i-ḫi-qu-ú-šú-un////gi-pa-ra la ki-is-su-ru su-sa-a la she-'u-ú////e-nu-ma// [|dingir] [|dingir] //la šu-pu-u ma-na-ma// || When the sky above was not named, And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval [|Apsû], who begat them, And chaos, [|Tiamat], the mother of them both, Their waters were mingled together, And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; When of the gods none had been called into being. ||  ||   ||

A recurring myth though out the whole of the Middle East is that is that of a great flood or deluge. Indeed the theme is discovered as far as Western Europe and India. According to the Babylonian version the flood is caused by the great storm god Enlil to punish mankind. In a city called Shuruppak on the river Euphrates there lived a man called Uta-Napishtim. He was the favourite of Ea, the god of wisdom and was warned by the god. Uta-Napishtim built himself a great boat 120 cubits high and the same wide. He took inside it his family, many craftsmen and a great stock of food. For six days and six nights it rained. The sun was blocked out. Even the gods were frightened and all men except Uta-Napishtim were destroyed. The gods were distraught at man's destruction. The boat of Uta-Napishtim came to rest on Mount Nisir. On the seventh day of their resting on Mount Nisir he sent out a dove, which finding no place to land, returned and then he sent out a raven which did not return so he knew it was safe. When he went out of his boat he made a sacrifice to the gods. The goddess Ishtar came and created a rainbow: her necklace. When Enlil discovered that Uta-Napishtim had escaped him he was furious and would have killed him. Ea persuaded Enlil that complete destruction of mankind was wrong. He said that only the men who had done wrong should be killed and not all mankind. Enlil was persuaded but still turned Uta-Napishtim into a god so that no man had escaped him.

Joey Hockin

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