In the reason here given for man's creation, or for his rescue from
the Flood, we have an interesting parallel to the Sixth Tablet of
the Semitic-Babylonian Creation Series. At the opening of that tablet
Marduk, in response to "the word of the gods", is urged by his heart to
devise a cunning plan which he imparts to Ea, namely the creation of man
from his own divine blood and from bone which he will fashion. And the
reason he gives for his proposal is precisely that which, as we have
seen, prompted the Sumerian deity to create or preserve the human race.
For Marduk continues:
"I will create man who shall inhabit (. . .),
That the service of the gods may be established and that
their shrines may be built."(1)
(1) See _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, Vol. I, pp. 86 ff.
We shall see later, from the remainder of Marduk's speech, that the
Semitic Version has been elaborated at this point in order to reconcile
it with other ingredients in its narrative, which were entirely absent
from the simpler Sumerian tradition. It will suffice here to note that,
in both, the reason given for man's existence is the same, namely, that
the gods themselves may have worshippers.(1) The conception is in full
agreement with early Sumerian thought, and reflects the theocratic
constitution of the earliest Sumerian communities. The idea was
naturally not repugnant to the Semites, and it need not surprise us to
find the very words of the principal Sumerian Creator put into the mouth
of Marduk, the city-god of Babylon.
(1) It may be added that this is also the reason given for
man's creation in the introduction to a text which
celebrates the founding or rebuilding of a temple.
The deity's speech perhaps comes to an end with the declaration of his
purpose in creating mankind or in sanctioning their survival of the
Deluge; and the following three lines appear to relate his establishment
of the divine laws in accordance with which his intention was carried
out. The passage includes a refrain, which is repeated in the Second
Column:
The sublime decrees he made perfect for it.
It may probably be assumed that the refrain is employed in relation to
the same deity in both passages. In the Second Column it precedes
the foundation of the Babylonian kingdom and the building of the
Antediluvian cities. In that passage there can be little doubt that the
subject of the verb is the chief Sumerian deity, and we are therefore
the more inclined to assign to him also the opening speech of the First
Column, rather than to regard it as spoken by the Sumerian goddess whose
share in the creation would justify her in claiming mankind as her
own. In the last four lines of the column we have a brief record of the
Creation itself. It was carried out by the three greatest gods of the
Sumerian pantheon, Anu, Enlil and Enki, with the help of the goddess
Ninkharsagga; the passage reads:
When Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninkharsagga
Created the blackheaded (i.e. mankind),
The _niggil(ma)_ of the earth they caused the earth to
produce(?),
The animals, the four-legged creatures of the field, they
artfully called into existence.
The interpretation of the third line is obscure, but there is no doubt
that it records the creation of something which is represented as having
taken place between the creation of mankind and that of animals. This
object, which is written as _nig-gil_ or _nig-gil-ma_, is referred to
again in the Sixth Column, where the Sumerian hero of the Deluge assigns
to it the honorific title, "Preserver of the Seed of Mankind". It must
therefore have played an important part in man's preservation from the
Flood; and the subsequent bestowal of the title may be paralleled in
the early Semitic Deluge fragment from Nippur, where the boat in which
Ut-napishtim escapes is assigned the very similar title "Preserver of
Life".(1) But _niggilma_ is not the word used in the Sumerian Version
of Ziusudu's boat, and I am inclined to suggest a meaning for it in
connexion with the magical element in the text, of the existence of
which there is other evidence. On that assumption, the prominence given
to its creation may be paralleled in the introduction to a later magical
text, which described, probably in connexion with an incantation,
the creation of two small creatures, one white and one black, by
Nin-igi-azag, "The Lord of Clear Vision", one of the titles borne by
Enki or Ea. The time of their creation is indicated as after that
of "cattle, beasts of the field and creatures of the city", and the
composition opens in a way which is very like the opening of the present
passage in our text.(2) In neither text is there any idea of giving
a complete account of the creation of the world, only so much of the
original myth being included in each case as suffices for the writer's
purpose. Here we may assume that the creation of mankind and of animals
is recorded because they were to be saved from the Flood, and that of
the _niggilma_ because of the part it played in ensuring their survival.
(1) See Hilprecht, _Babylonian Expedition_, Series D, Vol.
V, Fasc. 1, plate, Rev., l. 8; the photographic reproduction
clearly shows, as Dr. Poebel suggests (_Hist. Texts_, p. 61
n 3), that the line should read: _((isu)elippu) i-i lu
(isu)ma-gur-gur-ma um-a lu na-si-rat na-pi-tim_, "That
ship shall be a _magurgurru_ (giant boat), and its name
shall be 'Preserver of Life' (lit. 'She that preserves
life')."
(2) See _Seven Tablets of Creation_, Vol. I, pp. 122 ff. The
text opens with the words "When the gods in their assembly
had made (the world), and had created the heavens, and had
formed the earth, and had brought living creatures into
being . . .", the lines forming an introduction to the
special act of creation with which the composition was
concerned.
The discussion of the meaning of _niggilma_ may best be postponed till
the Sixth Column, where we find other references to the word. Meanwhile
it may be noted that in the present passage the creation of man precedes
that of animals, as it did in the earlier Hebrew Version of Creation,
and probably also in the Babylonian version, though not in the later
Hebrew Version. It may be added that in another Sumerian account of the
Creation(1) the same order, of man before animals, is followed.
(1) Cf. _Sev. Tabl._, Vol. I, p. 134 f.; but the text has
been subjected to editing, and some of its episodes are
obviously displaced.