Asbury College Inc.

Poblacion, Anda, Pangasinan

Name: Andrea Jane R. Gabarda

Course/Level: BSE 2nd year, Major in English
Instructress: Ma’am Sherilyn Nuesca
Subject : Mythology and Folklore
Report Title: Babylonia-The Enūma Eliš

I. Objectives

At the end of the discussion, the student will be able to:

• Understand the main point of the poem “Enūma Eliš”

II. Introduction

According to Wikipedia,The Enūma Eliš is the Babylonian creation myth. It was

recovered by English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in 1849 in the ruined Library
of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh.
Enuma Elish is the great creation epic of the Babylonians. It is the story of the
creation of the universe and serves as the justification of the supremacy of the god
Marduk, who defeats Tiamat, one of the two original divine beings in the world. Scholars
have recognized many simliarities between Marduk and Zeus. The Enūma Eliš is the
primary source for Mesopotamian cosmology. According to Heidel its main purpose was
as a praise of Marduk, and was important in making that Babylonian god head of the
entire pantheon, through his deeds in defeating Tiamat, and in creation of the universe.

III. Definition of Terms

 pantheon • \PAN-thee-ahn\ • noun. 1 : a temple dedicated to all the gods; also :
the gods of a people 2 : a group of illustrious persons.

IV. Discussion

The Enuma Elish in Babylon

The Babylonian Epic Of Creation, Enuma Elish is written on the 7 Clay Tablets of
Creation.
 It venerates the Babylonian God Marduk as the Conqueror of Chaos which
preceded the Order of Creation through a Cosmic Tale in which Marduk conquers
Tiamat the Dragon Godess of Chaos.

It was recited at the annual New Year Festival in Babylon as the Statue Of
Marduk was paraded on the streets to be placed in his place of residence at the Great
Ziggurat Temple.

The Enuma Elish is important because parts of the Old Testament of the Hebrew
Bible and Jewish Torah are thought to have borrowed from it.

The Enuma Elish (also known as The Seven Tablets of Creation) is the
Mesopotamian creation myth whose title is derived from the opening lines of the piece,
“When on High”. The myth tells the story of the great god Marduk’s victory over the
forces of chaos and his establishment of order at the creation of the world.

All of the tablets containing the myth, found at Ashur, Kish, Ashurbanipal’s library
at Nineveh, Sultantepe, and other excavated sites, date to c. 1200 BCE but their
colophons indicate that these are all copies of a much older version of the myth dating
from long before the fall of Sumer in c. 1750 BCE.

Characters
  Marduk
Sometimes called Bel, Marduk is begotten by his father, Ea, and borne by his mother,
Marduk is superior to all other gods.
 Tiamat
Tiamat, one of the two primordial Mesopotamian gods, is known as the maker. As a
deity, she is associated with water and with chaos.
 Nudimmud / Ea
Nudimmud, more often called Ea in the epic, is begotten of Anu. Originally a Sumerian
deity, he is also sometimes known as Enki or Enlil. Nudimmud is “superior to his
forefathers:
 Apsu
Apsu, one of the two primordial Mesopotamian gods, is known as the begetter. He
dwells with his consort, Tiamat, before anything else exists.
 Qingu
Qingu is Tiamat’s consort after Apsu’s slaying. Tiamat appoints him commander of her
army and grants him the Tablet of Destinies.
 Anshar
Anshar is the offspring of Apsu and Tiamat. He begets Anu, who begets Ea.

Summary of the Story

The story, one of the oldest, if not the oldest in the world, concerns the birth of
the gods and the creation of the universe and human beings. In the beginning, there
was only undifferentiated water swirling in chaos. Out of this swirl, the waters divided
into sweet, fresh water, known as the god Apsu, and salty bitter water, the goddess
Tiamat. Once differentiated, the union of these two entities gave birth to the younger
gods. These young gods, however, were extremely loud, troubling the sleep of Apsu at
night and distracting him from his work by day. Upon the advice of his Vizier, Mummu,
Apsu decides to kill the younger gods. Tiamat, hearing of their plan, warns her eldest
son, Enki (sometimes Ea) and he puts Apsu to sleep and kills him. From Apsu’s
remains, Enki creates his home.

Tiamat, once the supporter of the younger gods, now is enraged that they have
killed her mate. She consults with the god, Quingu, who advises her to make war on the
younger gods. Tiamat rewards Quingu with the Tablets of Destiny, which legitimize the
rule of a god and control the fates, and he wears them proudly as a breastplate. With
Quingu as her champion, Tiamat summons the forces of chaos and creates eleven
horrible monsters to destroy her children.
Ea, Enki, and the younger gods fight against Tiamat futilely until, from among
them, emerges the champion Marduk who swears he will defeat Tiamat. Marduk
defeats Quingu and kills Tiamat by shooting her with an arrow which splits her in two;
from her eyes flow the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Out of Tiamat’s
corpse, Marduk creates the heavens and the earth, he appoints gods to various duties
and binds Tiamat’s eleven creatures to his feet as trophies (to much adulation from the
other gods) before setting their images in his new home. He also takes the Tablets of
Destiny from Quingu, thus legitimizing his reign.
After the gods have finished praising him for his great victory and the art of his
creation, Marduk consults with the god Ea (the god of wisdom) and decides to create
human beings from the remains of whichever of the gods instigated Tiamat to war.
Quingu is charged as guilty and killed and, from his blood, Ea creates Lullu, the first
man, to be a helper to the gods in their eternal task of maintaining order and keeping
chaos at bay.
As the poem phrases it, “Ea created mankind/On whom he imposed the service of the
gods, and set the gods free” (Tablet VI.33-34). Following this, Marduk “arranged the
organization of the netherworld” and distributed the gods to their appointed stations
(Tablet VI.43-46). The poem ends in Tablet VII with long praise of Marduk for his
accomplishments.

Dénouement

Marduk defeats Quingu and kills Tiamat by shooting her with an arrow which
splits her in two; from her eyes flow the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

Theme

 Order, Civilization, and Religion

In the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic likely written in the second millennium
BCE, the reader is quickly thrown into the midst of a community of gods, their identities
hard to distinguish, and often at enmity with each other. Before long, the hero-god
Marduk emerges to subdue chaos and establish order among the gods, soon bringing
into existence the recognizable forms of the heavens, the earth, and the rudiments of
human civilization—the city.
 The Sovereignty of Marduk
Marduk, or “Lord” in much of the text of the Enuma Elish, is the patron god of Babylon.
The central argument of the Enuma Elish as a whole is thus to elevate Marduk as the
sovereign deity—to demonstrate that out of the Babylonian pantheon, he is the
supremely powerful god; and not only that, he displaces older gods, like the Sumerian
Ea, in importance. By portraying Marduk as a figure whose will.
 Chaos vs. Council
Like many ancient texts giving accounts of creation, the Enuma Elish suggests patterns
for how human beings should live their lives in imitation of the gods. The structure of
this particular text highlights several gatherings, or councils, of the gods, leading up to
the showdown between Tiamat (the sea-goddess, representing chaos) and the
champion Marduk, whose emergence as the head of the Babylonian pantheon is central
to the epic. Early in the text, councils.
 Feminine Power and Subjugation
In the Enuma Elish, much of the action is driven by the primordial goddess Tiamat,
whose traits are associated with irritability, reactivity, and deception. This is because
Tiamat is the sea-goddess—associated with a force (water) that, for ancient
Babylonians, was unpredictable and prone to behave in ways that were hostile to
human life. Therefore, the creation epic portrays Marduk’s battle with her as key to the
founding of human civilization.

The Enuma Elish would later be the inspiration for the Hebrew scribes who
created the text now known as the biblical Book of Genesis. Prior to the 19 th century CE,
the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world and its narratives were thought to
be completely original. In the mid-19th century CE, however, European museums, as
well as academic and religious institutions, sponsored excavations in Mesopotamia to
find physical evidence for historical corroboration of the stories in the Bible. These
excavations found quite the opposite, however, in that, once cuneiform was translated,
it was understood that a number of biblical narratives were Mesopotamian in origin.
The Enuma Elish as a mythological work is timeless, but some scholars have
argued that, in its day, it would have resonated with an audience who understood
Babylon as a city breaking with the traditions of the past to create a new and better
future. Scholar Thorkild Jacobsen, for example, notes:
“Babylon warred with the territory of ancient Sumer and all its renowned and
venerable ancient cities and their gods. It waged an upstart’s war with its own parent
civilization. And that this was a live issue, that [Babylon] was keenly aware of being heir
to and continuer of Sumerian civilization, is clear from the fact that its kings, especially
those of the latter half of the [Sealand] dynasty, sport elaborate Sumerianize names.
Understandably, therefore, Babylon might have felt – consciously or unconsciously – its
victory to be in some sense patricidal. (190)”
The story, then, can be read not only as a grand tale of the triumph of order over
chaos and light over darkness but as a parable of the rise of Babylon and Babylonian
culture over the old Sumerian model of civilization. Further, the tale can be understood
as an illustration of the concept of life as perpetual change.
The old static gods in the story are replaced by the younger and more dynamic
gods who then introduce the concept of change and mutability to the universe through
their creation of mortal beings who are subject to death. These creatures are tasked
with helping the gods maintain their creation and so, although they are not themselves
eternal, play an integral role in the eternal work of the gods.
The story, then, can be read not only as a grand tale of the triumph of order over
chaos and light over darkness but as a parable of the rise of Babylon and Babylonian
culture over the old Sumerian model of civilization. Further, the tale can be understood
as an illustration of the concept of life as perpetual change.

The old static gods in the story are replaced by the younger and more dynamic
gods who then introduce the concept of change and mutability to the universe through
their creation of mortal beings who are subject to death. These creatures are tasked
with helping the gods maintain their creation and so, although they are not themselves
eternal, play an integral role in the eternal work of the gods.
 V. Reflection/ Recommendation

The Enūma Eliš teaches lessons that we, people of today , can benefit from. The
idea that one should avoid emotions of selfishness and revenge are key components in
this story. This lesson can help us living in a variety of societies and will continue to be
relevant for a long time.

VI. Bibliography

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/225/enuma-elish---the-babylonian-epic-of-creation---fu/

https://poets.org/glossary/epic#:~:text=An%20epic%20is%20a%20long,of%20lyrical
%20and%20dramatic%20traditions.