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THE BABYLONIAN LEGENDS OF THE CREATION
AND THE
FIGHT BETWEEN BEL AND THE DRAGON
TOLD BY ASSYRIAN TABLETS FROM NINEVEH
DISCOVERY OF THE TABLETS.
The baked clay tablets and portions of tablets which describe the
views and beliefs of the Babylonians and Assyrians about the Creation
were discovered by Mr. (later Sir) A.H. Layard, Mormuzd Rassam and
George Smith, Assistant in the Department of Oriental Antiquities in
the British Museum. They were found among the ruins of the Palace and
Library of Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 668-626) at Kuyunjik (Nineveh),
between the years 1848 and 1876. Between 1866 and 1870, the great
"find" of tablets and fragments, some 20,000 in number, which Rassam
made in 1852, was worked through by George Smith, who identified many
of the historical inscriptions of Shalmaneser II, Tiglath-Pileser III,
Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and other kings mentioned in the
Bible, and several literary compositions of a legendary character,
fables, etc. In the course of this work he discovered fragments of
various versions of the Babylonian Legend of the Deluge, and portions
of several texts belonging to a work which treated of the beginning of
things, and of the Creation. In 1870, Rawlinson and Smith noted
allusions to the Creation in the important tablet K.63, but the texts
of portions of tablets of the Creation Series at that time available
for study were so fragmentary that it was impossible for these
scholars to find their correct sequence. During the excavations which
Smith carried out at Kuyunjik in 1873 and 1874 for the proprietors of
the _Daily Telegraph_ and the Trustees of the British Museum, he
was, he tells us, fortunate enough to discover "several fragments of
the Genesis Legends." In January, 1875, he made an exhaustive search
among the tablets in the British Museum, and in the following March he
published, in the _Daily Telegraph_ (March 4th), a summary of the
contents of about twenty fragments of the series of tablets describing
the creation of the heavens and the earth. In November of the same
year he communicated to the Society of Biblical Archaeology [1]
copies of:--(1) the texts on fragments of the First and Fifth Tablets
of Creation; (2) a text describing the fight between the "Gods and
Chaos"; and (3) a fragmentary text which, he believed, described the
Fall of Man. In the following year he published translations of all
the known fragments of the Babylonian Creation Legends in his
"Chaldean Account of Genesis" (London, 1876, 8vo, with photographs).
In this volume were included translations of the Exploits of Gizdubar
(Gilgamish), and some early Babylonian fables and legends of the gods.
[Footnote 1: See the _Transactions_, Vol. IV, Plates I-VI, London,
1876.]
PUBLICATION OF THE CREATION TABLETS.
The publication of the above-mentioned texts and translations proved
beyond all doubt the correctness of Rawlinson's assertion made in
1865, that "certain portions of the Babylonian and Assyrian Legends of
the Creation resembled passages in the early chapters of the Book of
Genesis." During the next twenty years, the Creation texts were
copied and recopied by many Assyriologists, but no publication
appeared in which all the material available for reconstructing the
Legend was given in a collected form. In 1898, the Trustees of the
British Museum ordered the publication of all the Creation texts
contained in the Babylonian and Assyrian Collections, and the late
Mr. L. W. King, Assistant in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian
Antiquities, was directed to prepare an edition. The exhaustive
preparatory search which he made through the collections of tablets in
the British Museum resulted in the discovery of many unpublished
fragments of the Creation Legends, and in the identification of a
fragment which, although used by George Smith, had been lost sight of
for about twenty-five years. He ascertained also that, according to
the Ninevite scribes, the Tablets of the Creation Series were seven in
number, and what several versions of the Legend of the Creation, the
works of Babylonian and Assyrian editors of different periods, must
have existed in early Mesopotamian Libraries. King's edition of the
Creation Texts appeared in "Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in
the British Museum," Part XIII, London, 1901. As the scope of this
work did not permit the inclusion of his translations, and commentary
and notes, he published these in a private work entitled, "The Seven
Tablets of Creation, or the Babylonian and Assyrian Legends concerning
the creation of the world and of mankind," London, 1902, 8vo. A
supplementary volume contained much new material which had been found
by him since the appearance of the official edition of the texts, and
in fact doubled the number of Creation Texts known hitherto.
[Illustration: Babylonian map of the world, showing the ocean
surrounding the world and making the position of Babylon on the
Euphrates as its centre. It shows also the mountains as the source of
the river, the land of Assyria, Bit-Iakinu, and the swamps at the
mouth of the Euphrates. [No. 92,687.]]
THE OBJECT OF THE BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE CREATION.
A perusal of the texts of the Seven Tablets of Creation, which King
was enabled, through the information contained in them, to arrange for
the first time in their proper sequence, shows that the main object of
the Legend was the glorification of the god Marduk, the son of Ea
(Enki), as the conqueror of the dragon Tiamat, and not the narration
of the story of the creation of the heavens, and earth and man. The
Creation properly speaking, is only mentioned as an exploit of Marduk
in the Sixth Tablet, and the Seventh Tablet is devoted wholly to the
enumeration of the honorific titles of Marduk. It is probable that
every great city in Babylonia, whilst accepting the general form of
the Creation Legend, made the greatest of its local gods the hero of
it. It has long been surmised that the prominence of Marduk in the
Legend was due to the political importance of the city of Babylon. And
we now know from the fragments of tablets which have been excavated in
recent years by German Assyriologists at Kal'at Sharkat (or Shargat,
or Shar'at), that in the city of Ashur, the god Ashur, the national
god of Assyria, actually occupied in texts[1] of the Legend in use
there the position which Marduk held in four of the Legends current in
Babylonia. There is reason for thinking that the original hero of the
Legend was Enlil (Bel), the great god of Nippur (the Nafar, or Nufar
of the Arab writers), and that when Babylon rose into power under the
First Dynasty (about B.C. 2300), his position in the Legend was
usurped at Babylon by Marduk.
[Footnote 1: See the duplicate fragments described in the Index to
Ebeling, _Keilschrifttexte aus Assur_, Leipzig, 1919 fol.]
[Illustration: Excavations in Babylonia and Assyria.]
VARIANT FORMS OF THE BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE CREATION.
The views about the Creation which are described in the Seven Tablets
mentioned above were not the only ones current in Mesopotamia, and
certainly they were not necessarily the most orthodox. Though in the
version of the Legend already referred to the great god of creation
was Enlil, or Marduk, or Ashur, we know that in the Legend of
Gilgamish (Second Tablet) it was the goddess Aruru who created Enkidu
(Eabani) from a piece of clay moistened with her own spittle. And in
the so-called "bilingual" version[1] of the Legend, we find that this
goddess assisted Marduk as an equal in the work of creating the seed
of mankind. This version, although Marduk holds the position of
pre-eminence, differs in many particulars from that given by the Seven
Tablets, and as it is the most important of all the texts which deal
directly with the creation of the heavens and the earth, a rendering
of it is here given.
[Footnote 1: The text is found on a tablet from Abu Habbah, Brit.
Mus., No. 93,014 (82-5-22, 1048).]
THE "BILINGUAL" VERSION OF THE CREATION LEGEND.
1. "The holy house, the house of the gods in the holy place had not
yet been made.
2. "No reed had sprung up, no tree had been made.
3. "No brick had been laid, no structure of brick had been erected.
4. "No house had been made, no city had been built.
[Illustration: The Bilingual Version of the Creation Legend. [No. 93,014.]]
5. "No city had been made, no creature had been constituted.
6. "Enlil's city, (i.e., Nippur) had not been made, E-kur had not been
built,
7. "Erech had not been made, E-Aena had not been built,
8. The Deep[1] (or Abyss) had not been made, Eridu had not been built.
[Footnote 1: APSU. It is doubtful if APSU here really means the great
abyss of waters from out of which the world was called. It was, more
probably, a ceremonial object used in the cult of the god, something
like the great basin, or "sea," in the court of the temple of King
Solomon, mentioned in I Kings, vii, 23; 2 Kings, xxv, 13, etc.]
9. "Of the holy house, the house of the gods, the dwelling-place had
not been made.
10. "All the lands were sea
11. "At the time that the mid-most sea was [shaped like] a trough,
12. "At that time Eridu was made, and E-sagil was built,
13. "The E-sagil where in the midst of the Deep the god
Lugal-dul-azaga [1] dwelleth,
[Footnote 1: This is a name under which Marduk was worshipped at
Eridu.]
14. "Babylon was made, E-sagil was completed.
15. "The gods the Anunnaki he created at one time.
16. "They proclaimed supreme the holy city, the dwelling of their
heart's happiness.
17. "Marduk laid a rush mat upon the face of the waters,
18. "He mixed up earth and moulded it upon the rush mat,
19. "To enable the gods to dwell in the place where they fain would
be.
20. "He fashioned man.
21. "The goddess Aruru with him created the seed of mankind.
22. "He created the beasts of the field and [all] the living things in
the field.
23. "He created the river Idiglat (Tigris) and the river Purattu
(Euphrates), and he set them in their places,
24. "He proclaimed their names rightly.
[Illustration: Terra-cotta figure of a god. From a foundation deposit
at Babylon. [No. 90,9961]]
25. "He created grass, the vegetation of the marsh, seed and shrub;
26. "He created the green plants of the plain,
27. "Lands, marshes, swamps,
28. "The wild cow and the calf she carried, the wild calf, the sheep
and the young she carried, the lamb of the fold,
29. "Plantations and shrub land,
30. "The he-goat and the mountain goat ...
31. "The lord Marduk piled up a dam in the region of the sea (i.e., he
reclaimed land)
32. "He ... a swamp, he founded a marsh.
33. "... he made to be
34. "Reeds he created, trees he created,
35. "... in place he created
36. "He laid bricks, he built a brick-work,
37. "He constructed houses, he formed cities.
38. "He constructed cities, creatures he set [therein].
39. "Nippur he made, E-Kur he built.
40. "[Erech he made, E-Anna] he built.
[The remainder of the text is fragmentary, and shows that the text
formed part of an incantation which was recited in the Temple of
E-Zida, possibly the great temple of Nabu at Borsippa.]
[Illustration: Bronze figure of a Babylonian god. [No. 91,147]]
THE LEGEND OF THE CREATION ACCORDING TO BEROSUS AND DAMASCIUS.
Versions in Greek of the Legends found by George Smith had long been
known to classical scholars, owing to the preservation of fragments of
them in the works of later Greek writers, e.g., Eusebius, Syncellus, and
others. The most important of these is derived from the History of
Babylonia, which was written in Greek by BEROSUS, a priest of
Bel-Marduk, i.e., the "Lord Marduk," at Babylon, about 250 B.C. In this
work Berosus reproduced all the known historical facts and traditions
derived from native sources which were current in his day. It is
therefore not surprising to find that his account of the Babylonian
beliefs about the origin of things corresponds very closely with that
given in the cuneiform texts, and that it is of the greatest use in
explaining and partly in expanding these texts. His account of the
primeval abyss, out of which everything came, and of its
inhabitants reads:--
[Illustration: Babylonian Monster. [No. 108,979.]]
"There was a time in which there existed nothing but darkness and an
abyss of waters, wherein resided most hideous beings, which were
produced on a two-fold principle. There appeared men, some of whom
were furnished with two wings, others with four, and with two
faces. They had one body but two heads; the one that of a man, the
other of a woman; and likewise in their several organs both male and
female. Other human figures were to be seen with the legs and horns of
goats; some had horses' feet; while others united the hind-quarters of
a horse with the body of a man, resembling in shape the hippo-centaurs.
Bulls likewise were bred there with the heads of men, and dogs with
four told bodies, terminated in their extremities with the tails of
fishes; horses also with the heads of dogs; men too and other animals,
with the heads and bodies of horses and the tails of fishes. In short,
there were creatures in which were combined the limbs of every species
of animals. In addition to these, fishes, reptiles, serpents, with
other monstrous animals, which assumed each other's shape and
countenance. Of all which were preserved delineations in the temple of
Belus at Babylon."
[Illustration: Babylonian Demon. [No. 93,089.]]
[THE SLAUGHTER OF THE QUEEN OF THE ABYSS.]
"The person, who presided over them, was a woman named OMUROCA; which
in the Chaldean language is THALATTH; in Greek THALASSA, the sea; but
which might equally be interpreted the Moon. All things being in this
situation, Belus came, and cut the woman asunder: and of one half of
her he formed the earth, and of the other half the heavens; and at the
same time destroyed the animals within her. All this (he says) was an
allegorical description of nature."
[THE CREATION OF MAN.]
"For, the whole universe consisting of moisture, and animals being
generated therein, the deity above-mentioned[1] took off his own head:
upon which the other gods mixed the blood, as it gushed out, with the
earth; and from whence were formed men. On this account it is that
they are rational and partake of divine knowledge."
[Footnote 1: The god whose head was taken off was not Belus, as is
commonly thought, but the god who the cuneiform texts tell us was
called "Kingu."]
[BELUS CREATES THE UNIVERSE.]
"This Belus, by whom they signify Jupiter, divided the darkness, and
separated the Heavens from the Earth, and reduced the universe to
order. But the animals not being able to bear the prevalence of light,
died. Belus upon this, seeing a vast space unoccupied, though by
nature fruitful, commanded one[1] of the gods to take off his head,
and to mix the blood with the earth; and from thence to form other men
and animals, which should be capable of bearing the air. Belus formed
also the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets. Such,
according to Polyhistor Alexander, is the account which Berosus gives
in his first book." (See Cory, _Ancient Fragments_, London, 1832,
pp. 24-26.)
[Footnote 1: The god whose head was taken off was not Belus, as is
commonly thought, but the god who the cuneiform texts tell us was
called "Kingu."]
In the sixth century of our era DAMASCIUS the SYRIAN, the last of the
Neo-Platonic philosophers, wrote in Greek in a work on the Doubts and
Solutions of the first Principles, in which he says: "But the
Babylonians, like the rest of the Barbarians, pass over in silence the
One principle of the Universe, and they conceive Two, TAUTHE and
APASON; making APASON the husband of TAUTHE, and denominating her the
mother of the gods. And from these proceeds an only-begotten son,
MOYMIS, which I conceive is no other than the Intelligible World
proceeding from the two principles. From these, also, another progeny
is derived, DACHE and DACHUS; and again, a third, KISSARE and ASSORUS,
from which last three others proceed, ANUS, and ILLINUS, and AUS. And
of AUS and DAUCE is born a son called Belus, who, they say, is the
fabricator of the world, the Demiurgus." (See Cory, _Ancient
Fragments_, London, 1832, p. 318.)
THE SEVEN TABLETS OF CREATION. DESCRIPTION OF THEIR CONTENTS.
In the beginning nothing whatever existed except APSU, which may be
described as a boundless, confused and disordered mass of watery matter;
how it came into being is unknown. Out of this mass there were evolved
two orders of beings, namely, demons and gods. The demons had hideous
forms, even as Berosus said, which were part animal, part bird, part
reptile and part human. The gods had wholly human forms, and they
represented the three layers of the comprehensible world, that is to
say, heaven or the sky, the atmosphere, and the underworld. The
atmosphere and the underworld together formed the earth as opposed to
the sky or heaven. The texts say that the first two gods to be created
were LAKHMU and LAKHAMU. Their attributes cannot at present be
described, but they seem to represent two forms of primitive matter.
They appear to have had no existence in popular religion, and it has
been thought that they may be described as theological conceptions
containing the notions of matter and some of its attributes.
[Illustration: Terra-cotta figure of a Babylonian Demon. [No. 22,458.]]
After countless aeons had passed the gods ANSHAR and KISHAR came into
being; the former represents the "hosts of heaven," and the latter the
"hosts of earth."
After another long and indefinite period the independent gods of the
Babylonian pantheon came into being, e.g., ANU, EA, who is here called
NUDIMMUD, and others.
[Illustration: Bronze figure of a Babylonian Demon. [No. 93,078.]]
As soon as the gods appeared in the universe "order" came into being.
When APSU, the personification of confusion and disorder of every kind,
saw this "order," he took counsel with his female associate TIAMAT with
the object of finding some means of destroying the "way" (_al-ka-at_) or
"order" of the gods. Fortunately the Babylonians and Assyrians have
supplied us with representations of Tiamat, and these show us what form
ancient tradition assigned to her. She is depicted as a ferocious
monster with wings and scales and terrible claws, and her body is
sometimes that of a huge serpent, and sometimes that of an animal. In
the popular imagination she represented all that was physically
terrifying, and foul, and abominable; she was nevertheless the mother of
everything, [1] and was the possessor of the DUP SHIMATI or "TABLET OF
DESTINIES". No description of this Tablet or its contents is available,
but from its name we may assume that it was a sort of Babylonian Book of
Fate.[2] Theologically, Tiamat represented to the Babylonians the same
state in the development of the universe as did _tohu wa-bhohu_ (Genesis
i. 2), i.e., formlessness and voidness, of primeval matter, to the
Hebrews She is depicted both on bas-reliefs and on cylinder seals in a
form which associates her with LABARTU, [3] a female devil that prowled
about the desert at night suckling wild animals but killing men. And it
is tolerably certain that she was the type, and symbol, and head of the
whole community of fiends, demons and devils.
[Footnote 1: _Muallidat gimrishun_.]
[Footnote 2: It is probable that the idea of this Tablet is perpetuated
in the "Preserved Tablet" of the Kur'an (Surah x, 62), on which the
destiny of every man was written at or before the creation of the world.
Nothing that is written (_maktub_) there can be erased, or altered, or
fail to take effect.]
[Footnote 3: (_Cun. Texts_, Part XXIV, Plate 44, l. 142).]
[Illustration: Terra-cotta plaque with a Typhonic animal in
relief. [No. 103,381.]]
In the consultation which took place between APSU and TIAMAT, their
messenger MU-UM-MU took part; of the history and attributes of this
last-named god nothing is known. The result of the consultation was that
a long struggle began between the demons and the gods, and it is clear
that the object of the powers of darkness was to destroy the light. The
whole story of this struggle is the subject of the Seven Tablets of
Creation. The gods are deifications of the sun, moon, planets and other
stars, and APSU, or CHAOS, and his companions the demons, are
personifications of darkness, night and evil. The story of the fight
between them is nothing more nor less than a picturesque allegory of
natural phenomena. Similar descriptions are found in the literatures of
other primitive nations, and the story of the great fight between
Her-ur, the great god of heaven, and Set, the great captain of the hosts
of darkness, may be quoted as an example. Set regarded the "order" which
Her-ur was bringing into the universe with the same dislike as that
with which APSU contemplated the beneficent work of Sin, the Moon-god,
Shamash, the Sun-god, and their brother gods. And the hostility of Set
and his allies to the gods, like that of Tiamat and her allies, was
everlasting.
[Illustration: between Marduk (Bel) and the Dragon. Drawn from a
bas-relief from the Palace of Ashur-nasir-pal, King of Assyria,
885-860 B.C., at Nimrud. [Nimrud Gallery, Nos. 28 and 29.]]
At this point a new Text fills a break in the First Tablet, and
describes the fight which took place between Nudimmud or Ea, (the
representative of the established "order" which the rule of the gods had
introduced into the domain of Apsu and Tiamat) and Apsu and his envoy
Mummu. Ea went forth to fight the powers of darkness and he conquered
Apsu and Mummu. The victory over Apsu, i.e., the confused and boundless
mass of primeval water, represents the setting of impassable boundaries
to the waters that are on and under the earth, i.e., the formation of
the Ocean. The exact details of the conquest cannot be given, but we
know that Ea was the possessor of the "pure (or white, or holy)
incantation" and that he overcame Apsu and his envoy by the utterance of
a powerful spell. In the Egyptian Legend of Ra and Aapep, the
monster is rendered spell-bound by the god Her-Tuati, who plays in it
exactly the same part as Ea in the Babylonian Legend.
When Tiamat heard of Ea's victory over Apsu and Mummu
she was filled with fury, and determined to avenge the death
of Apsu, her husband.
The first act of TIAMAT after the death of Apsu was to increase the
number of her allies. We know that a certain creature called
"UMMU-KHUBUR" at once spawned a brood of devilish monsters to help her
in her fight against the gods. Nothing is known of the origin or
attributes of UMMU-KHUBUR, but some think she was a form of TIAMAT. Her
brood probably consisted of personifications of mist, fog, cloud, storm,
whirlwinds and the blighting and destroying powers which primitive man
associated with the desert. An exact parallel of this brood of devils is
found in Egyptian mythology where the allies of Set and Aapep are
called "Mesu betshet" i.e., "spawn of impotent revolt." They are
depicted in the form of serpents, and some of them became the "Nine
Worms of Amenti" that are mentioned in the Book of the Dead
(Chap. Ia).
Not content with Ummu-Khubur's brood of devils, Tiamat called the
stars and powers of the air to her aid, for she "set up" (1) the
Viper, (2) the Snake, (3) the god Lakhamu, (4) the Whirlwind, (5) the
ravening Dog, (6) the Scorpion-man, (7) the mighty Storm-wind, (8) the
Fish-man, and (9) the Horned Beast. These bore (10) the "merciless,
invincible weapon," and were under the command of (11) Kingu, whom
Tiamat calls "her husband." Thus Tiamat had Eleven mighty Helpers
besides the devils spawned by Ummu-Khubur. We may note in passing
that some of the above-mentioned Helpers appear among the Twelve Signs
of the Zodiac which Marduk "set up" after his conquest of Tiamat,
e.g., the Scorpion-man, the Horned Beast, etc. This fact
suggests that the first Zodiac was "set up" by Tiamat, who with her
Eleven Helpers formed the Twelve Signs; the association of evil with
certain stars may date from that period. That the Babylonians regarded
the primitive gods as powers of evil is clear from the fact that
Lakhamu, one of them, is enumerated among the allies of Tiamat.
The helpers of Tiamat were placed by her under the command of a god
called KINGU who is TAMMUZ. He was the counterpart, or equivalent, of
ANU, the Sky-god, in the kingdom of darkness, for it is said in the text
"Kingu was exalted and received the power of Anu," i.e., he possessed
the same power and attributes as Anu. When Tiamat appointed Kingu to be
her captain, she recited over him a certain spell or incantation, and
then she gave him the TABLET OF DESTINIES and fastened it to his breast,
saying, "Whatsoever goeth forth from thy mouth shall be established."
Armed with all the magical powers conferred upon him by this Tablet, and
heartened by all the laudatory epithets which his wife Tiamat heaped
upon him, Kingu went forth at the head of his devils.
When Ea heard that Tiamat had collected her forces and Was determined
to continue the fight against the gods which Apsu and Mummu had begun,
and that she had made her husband Kingu her champion, he was
"afflicted" and "sat in sorrow." He felt unable to renew the fight
against the powers of darkness, and he therefore went and reported the
new happenings to Anshar, representative of the "host of heaven," and
took counsel with him. When Anshar heard the matter he was greatly
disturbed in mind and bit his lips, for he saw that the real
difficulty was to find a worthy antagonist for Kingu and Tiamat. A gap
in the text here prevents us from knowing exactly what Anshar said and
did, but the context suggests that he summoned Anu, the Sky-god, to
his assistance. Then, having given him certain instructions, he sent
him on an embassy to Tiamat with the view of conciliating her. When
Anu reached the place where she was he found her in a very wrathful
state, and she was muttering angrily; Anu was so appalled at the sight
of her that he turned and fled. It is impossible at present to explain
this interlude, or to find any parallel to it in other ancient
Oriental literature.
[Illustration: Shamash the Sun-god rising on the horizon, flames of
fire ascending from his shoulder. The two portals of the dawn, each
surmounted by a lion, are being drawn open by attendant gods. From a
Babylonian seal cylinder in the British Museum. [No. 89,110.]]
When Anu reported his inability to deal with Tiamat, a council of the
gods was called, and Ea induced his son, Marduk to be present. We next
find Anshar in converse with the god Marduk, who offers to act as the
champion of the gods and to fight Tiamat and her allies. Marduk being a
form of the Sun-god, the greatest of all the powers of light, thus
becomes naturally the protagonist of the gods, and the adversary of
Tiamat and her powers of darkness. Then Anshar summoned a great council
of the gods, who forthwith met in a place called "Upshukkinaku", which
may be described as the Babylonian Olympus. It was all-important for
Marduk to appear at the council of the gods before he undertook his
task, because it was necessary for him to be formally recognised by them
as their champion, and he needed to be endowed by them with magical
powers. The primitive gods Lakhmu and Lakhamu, and the Igigi, who may be
regarded as star-gods, were also summoned. A banquet was prepared, and
the gods attended, and having met and kissed each other they sat down,
and ate bread and drank hot and sweet sesame wine. The fumes of the wine
confused their senses, but they continued to drink, and at length "their
spirits were exalted." They appointed Marduk to be their champion
officially, and then they proceeded to invest him with the power that
would cause every command he spake to be followed immediately by the
effect which he intended it to produce. Next Marduk, with the view of
testing the new power which had been given him, commanded a garment to
disappear and it did so; and when he commanded it to reappear it did so.
[Illustration: Shamash the Sun-god setting (?) on the horizon. In his
right he holds a tree (?), and in his left a ... with a serrated
edge. Above the horizon is a goddess who holds in her left hand an ear
of corn. On the right is a god who seems to be setting free a bird
from his right hand. Round him is a river with fish in it, and behind
him is an attendant god; under his foot is a young bull. To the right
of the goddess stand a hunting god, with a bow and lasso, and a
lion. From the seal-cylinder of Adda ..., in the British Museum. About
2500 B.C. [No. 89,115.]]
Then the gods saluted him as their king, and gave him the insignia of
royalty, namely, the sceptre, the throne and the _pala_, whatever that
may be. And as they handed to him these things they commanded him to go
and hack the body of Tiamat in pieces, and to scatter her blood to the
winds. Thereupon Marduk began to arm himself for the fight. He took a
bow, a spear, and a club; he filled his body full of fire and set the
lightning before him. He took in his hands a net wherewith to catch
Tiamat, and he placed the four winds near it, to prevent her from
escaping from it when he had snared her. He created mighty winds and
tempests to assist him, and grasped the thunderbolt in his hand; and
then, mounting upon the Storm, which was drawn by four horses, he went
out to meet and defeat Tiamat. It seems pretty certain that this
description of the equipment of Marduk was taken over from a very
ancient account of the Fight with Tiamat in which the hero was Enlil,
i.e., the god of the air, or of the region which lies between heaven
and hell. Marduk approached and looked upon the "Middle" or "Inside" or
"Womb" of Tiamat [1], and divined the plan of Kingu who had taken up his
place therein. In the Seventh Tablet (l. 108) Marduk is said to have
"entered into the middle of Tiamat," and because he did so he is called
"Nibiru," i.e., "he who entered in," and the "seizer of the middle."
What the words "middle of Tiamat" meant to the Babylonian we are not
told, but it is clear that Marduk's entry into it was a signal mark of
the triumph of the god. When Kingu from the "middle of Tiamat" saw
Marduk arrayed in his terrible panoply of war, he was terrified and
trembled, and staggered about and lost all control of his legs; and at
the mere sight of the god all the other fiends and devils were smitten
with fear and reduced to helplessness. Tiamat saw Marduk and began to
revile him, and when he challenged her to battle she flew into a rage
and attempted to overthrow him by reciting an incantation, thinking that
her words of power would destroy his strength. Her spell had no effect
on the god, who at once cast his net over her. At the same moment he
made a gale of foul wind to blow on her face, and entering through her
mouth it filled her body; whilst her body was distended he drove his
spear into her, and Tiamat split asunder, and her womb fell out from it.
Marduk leaped upon her body and looked on her followers as they
attempted to escape. But the Four Winds which he had stationed round
about Tiamat made all their efforts to flee of no effect. Marduk caught
all the Eleven allies of Tiamat in his net, and he trampled upon them as
they lay in it helpless. Marduk then took the TABLET OF DESTINIES from
Kingu's breast, and sealed it with his seal and placed it on his
own breast.
[Footnote 1: Or perhaps the "belly of Tiamat." The Egyptians
distinguished a portion of the heavens by the name of "Khat Nut," "the
belly of Nut," [Heiroglyphics] and two drawings of it are extant. The
first shows an oval object rimmed with stars and the other a
pear-shaped object, with a god inside it. (See Brugsch, _Inschriften
(Astronomische)_ Leipzig, 1883, p, 146.) [Illustration]]
Then returning to the dead body of Tiamat he smashed her skull with
his club and scattered her blood to the north wind, and as a reward
for his destruction of their terrible foe, he received gifts and
presents from the gods his fathers.
The text then goes on to say that Marduk "devised a cunning plan,"
i.e., he determined to carry out a series of works of creation. He
split the body of Tiamat into two parts; out of one half he fashioned
the dome of heaven, and out of the other he constructed the abode of
Nudimmud, or Ea, which he placed over against Apsu, i.e., the deep. He
also formulated regulations concerning the maintenance of the same. By
this "cunning plan" Marduk deprived the powers of darkness of the
opportunity of repeating their revolt with any chance of success. Having
established the framework of his new heaven and earth Marduk, acting as
the celestial architect, set to work to furnish them. In the first place
he founded E-Sharra, or the mansion of heaven, and next he set apart and
arranged proper places for the old gods of the three realms--Anu,
Bel and Ea.
[Illustration: Tablet sculptured with a scene representing the worship
of the Sun-god in the Temple of Sippar. The Sun-god is seated on a
throne within a pavilion holding in one hand a disk and bar which may
symbolize eternity. Above his head are the three symbols of the Moon,
the Sun, and the planet Venus. On a stand in front of the pavilion rests
the disk of the Sun, which is held in position by ropes grasped in the
hands of two divine beings who are supported by the roof of the
pavilion. The pavilion of the Sun-god stands on the Celestial Ocean, and
the four small disks indicate either the four cardinal points or the
tops of the pillars of the heavens. The three figures in front of the
disk represent the high priest of Shamash, the king (Nabu-aplu-iddina,
about 870 B.C.) and an attendant goddess. [No. 91,000.]]
The text of the Fifth Tablet, which would undoubtedly have supplied
details as to Marduk's arrangement and regulations for the sun, the
moon, the stars, and the Signs of the Zodiac in the heavens is wanting.
The prominence of the celestial bodies in the history of creation is not
to be wondered at, for the greater number of the religious beliefs of
the Babylonians are grouped round them. Moreover, the science of
astronomy had gone hand in hand with the superstition of astrology in
Mesopotamia from time immemorial; and at a very early period the oldest
gods of Babylonia were associated with the heavenly bodies. Thus the
Annunaki and the Igigi, who are bodies of deified spirits, were
identified with the stars of the northern and southern heaven,
respectively. And all the primitive goddesses coalesced and were grouped
to form the goddess Ishtar, who was identified with the Evening and
Morning Star, or Venus. The Babylonians believed that the will of the
gods was made known to men by the motions of the planets, and that
careful observation of them would enable the skilled seer to recognize
in the stars favourable and unfavourable portents. Such observations,
treated from a magical point of view, formed a huge mass of literature
which was being added to continually. From the nature of the case this
literature enshrined a very considerable number of facts of pure
astronomy, and as early as the period of the First Dynasty (about 2000
B.C.), the Babylonians were able to calculate astronomical events with
considerable accuracy, and to reconcile the solar and lunar years by the
use of epagomenal months. They had by that time formulated the existence
of the Zodiac, and fixed the "stations" of the moon, and the places of
the planets with it; and they had distinguished between the planets and
the fixed stars. In the Fifth Tablet of the Creation Series (l. 2) the
Signs of the Zodiac are called _Lumashi_ [1], but unfortunately no list
of their names is given in the context. Now these are supplied by the
little tablet (No. 77,821) of the Persian Period of which a reproduction
is here given. It has been referred to and discussed by various
scholars, and its importance is very great. The transcript of the text,
which is now published (see p. 68) for the first time, will be
acceptable to the students of the history of the Zodiac. Egyptian,
Greek, Syriac and Arabic astrological and astronomical texts all
associate with the Signs of the Zodiac twelve groups, each containing
three stars, which are commonly known as the "Thirty-six Dekans." [2]
The text of line 4 of the Fifth Tablet of the Creation Series proves
that the Babylonians were acquainted with these groups of stars, for we
read that Marduk "set up for the twelve months of the year three stars
apiece." In the List of Signs of the Zodiac here given, it will be seen
that each Sign is associated with a particular month.
[Footnote 1: This is the original of the Syriac word for the Signs of
the Zodiac _malwashe_ (plural of _malwasha_). The Syrians
added to it an _m_, thus giving it a participial form.]
[Footnote 2: [Greek: Dekanoi] also called [Greek: prosopa], [Greek:
horoskopoi], [Greek: philokes] and [Greek: episkopoi]. They were well
known to the Egyptians, who, as early as the fourteenth century B.C.,
possessed a full list of them. See Lepsius, _Chronologie_,
Berlin, 1848, and Brugsch, _Thesaurus (Astronomische und
Astrologische Inschriften)_, Leipzig, 1883.]
[Illustration: Tablet inscribed with a list of the Signs of the
Zodiac. [No. 77,821.]]
At a later period, say about 500 B.C., the Babylonians made some of
the gods regents of groups of stars, for Enlil ruled 33 stars, Anu 23
stars, and Ea 15 stars. They also possessed lists of the fixed stars,
and drew up tables of the times of their heliacal risings. Such lists
were probably based upon very ancient documents, and prove that the
astral element in Babylonian religion was very considerable.
The accompanying illustration, which is reproduced from the Boundary
Stone of Ritti-Marduk (Brit. Mus., No. 90,858), supplies much
information about the symbols of the gods, and of the Signs of the
Zodiac in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I, King of Babylon, about 1120
B.C.. Thus in Register 1, we have the Star of Ishtar, the crescent of
the Moon-god Sin, and the disk of Shamash the Sun-god. In Reg. 2 are
three stands (?) surmounted by tiaras, which represent the gods Anu,
Enlil (Bel) and Ea respectively. In Reg. 3 are three altars (?) or
shrines (?) with a monster in Nos. 1 and 2. Over the first is the
lance of Marduk, over the second the mason's square of Nabu, and over
the third is the symbol of the goddess Ninkharsag, the Creatress. In
Reg. 4 are a standard with an animal's head, a sign of Ea; a
two-headed snake = the Twins; an unknown symbol with a horse's head,
and a bird, representative of Shukamuna and Shumalia. In Reg. 5 are a
seated figure of the goddess Gula and the Scorpion-man; and in Reg. 6
are forked lightning, symbol of Adad, above a bull, the Tortoise,
symbol of Ea (?), the Scorpion of the goddess Ishkhara, and the Lamp
of Nusku, the Fire-god. Down the left-hand side is the serpent-god
representing the constellation of the Hydra.
The mutilated text of the Fifth Tablet makes it impossible to gain
further details in connection with Marduk's work in arranging the
heavens. We are, however, justified in assuming that the gaps in it
contained statements about the grouping of the gods into triads. In
royal historical inscriptions the kings often invoke the gods in
threes, though they never call any one three a triad or trinity. It
seems as if this arrangement of gods in threes was assumed to be of
divine origin. In the Fourth Tablet of Creation, one triad
"Anu-Bel-Ea" is actually mentioned, and in the Fifth Tablet, another
is indicated, "Sin-Shamash-Ishtar." In these triads Anu represents the
sky or heaven, Bel or Enlil the region under the sky and including the
earth, Ea the underworld, Sin the Moon, Shamash the Sun, and Ishtar
the star Venus. When the universe was finally constituted several
other great gods existed, e.g., Nusku, the Fire-god, Enurta,
[1] a solar god, Nergal, the god of war and handicrafts, Nabu, the god
of learning, Marduk of Babylon, the great national god of Babylonia,
and Ashur, the great national god of Assyria.
[Footnote 1: Formerly known as Ninip.]
When Marduk had arranged heaven and earth, and had established the gods
in their places, the gods complained that their existence was barren,
because they lacked worshippers at their shrines and offerings. To make
a way out of this difficulty Marduk devised another "cunning plan," and
announced his intention of creating man out of "blood and bone" DAMI
ISSIMTUM. We have already quoted (see p. 11) the statement of Berosus
that man was created out of the blood of a god mixed with earth; here,
then, is the authority for his words. Marduk made known to Ea his
intention of creating man, and Ea suggested that if one of the gods were
sacrificed the remainder of them should be set free from service,
presumably to Marduk. Thereupon Marduk summons a council of the gods,
and asks them to name the instigator of the fight in which he himself
was the victor. In reply the gods named Kingu, Tiamat's second husband,
whom they seized forthwith, and bound with fetters and carried to Ea,
and then having "inflicted punishment upon him they let his blood." From
Kingu's blood Ea fashioned mankind for the service of the gods.
Now among the texts which have been found on the tablets at Kal'at
Sharkat is an account of the creation of man which differs from the
version given in the Seven Tablets of Creation, but has two features in
common with it. These two features are: (1) the council of the gods to
discuss the creation of man; (2) the sacrifice which the gods had to
make for the creation of man. In the variant version two (or more) gods
are sacrificed, _Ilu Nagar Ilu Nagar_, i.e., "the workmen gods," about
whom nothing is known. The place of sacrifice is specified with some
care, and it is said to be "Uzu-mu-a, or the bond of heaven and earth."
Uzu-mu-a may be the bolt with which Marduk locked the two halves of
Tiamat into place.
The Anunnaki, wishing to give an expression of their admiration for
Marduk's heroism, decided to build him a shrine or temple. To this
Marduk agreed, and chose Babylon, i.e., the "Gate of God," for its site.
The Anunnaki themselves made the bricks, and they built the great temple
of E-Sagila at Babylon. When the temple was finished, Marduk re-enacted
the scene of creation; for, as he had formerly assigned to each god his
place in the heavens, so now he assigned to each god his place in
E-Sagila. The tablet ends with a long hymn of praise which the Anunnaki
sang to Marduk, and describes the summoning of an assembly of the gods
to proclaim ceremonially the great Fifty Names of this god. Thus the
gods accepted the absolute supremacy of Marduk.
From the above it is clear that a dispute broke out between Marduk and
the gods after he had created them, and the tradition of it has made its
way into the religious literatures of the Hebrews, Syrians, Arabs, Copts
and Abyssinians. The cuneiform texts tell us nothing about the cause of
the dispute, but tradition generally ascribes it to the creation of man
by the supreme God; and it is probable that all the apocryphal stories
which describe the expulsion from heaven of the angels who contended
against God under the leadership of Satan, or Satnael, or Iblis, are
derived from a Babylonian original which has not yet been found. The
"Fifty Names," or laudatory epithets mentioned above, find parallels in
"Seventy-five Praises of Ra," sung by the Egyptians under the XIXth
dynasty, [1] and in the "Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of Allah," which
are held in such great esteem by the Muhammadans. [2] The respect in
which the Fifty Names were held by the Babylonians is well shown by the
work of the Epilogue on the Seventh Tablet, where it is said, "Let them
be held in remembrance, let the first-comer (i.e., any and every man)
proclaim them; let the wise and the understanding consider them
together. Let the father repeat them and teach them to his son. Let them
be in the ears of the herdsman and the shepherd."
[Footnote 1: See Naville, _La Litanie du Soleil_, Paris, 1875,
Plate ii ff.]
[Footnote 2: See _Kur'an_, Surah vii, v. 179. That there were
ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God rests on the authority of Abu
Hurairah, who repeats the statement as made by Muhammad the Prophet.]
The object of the writer of the Fifty Names was to show that Marduk
was the "Lord of the gods," that the power, qualities and attributes
of every god were enshrined in him, and that they all were merely
forms of him. This fact is proved by the tablet (No. 47,406), [1]
which contains a long list of gods who are equated with Marduk in his
various forms.[2] The tendency in the later Babylonian religion to
make Marduk the god above all gods has led many to think that
monotheistic conceptions were already in existence among the
Babylonians as early as the period of the First Dynasty, about 2000
B.C. It is indisputable that Marduk obtained his pre-eminence in the
Babylonian Pantheon at this early period. But some authorities deny
the existence of monotheistic conceptions among the Babylonians at
that time, and attribute Marduk's kingship of the gods to the
influence of the political situation of the time, when Babylon first
became the capital of the country, and mistress of the greater part of
the known world. Material for deciding this question is wanting, but
it may be safely said that whatever monotheistic conceptions existed
at that time, their acceptance was confined entirely to the priests
and scribes. They certainly find no expression in the popular
religious texts.
[Footnote 1: Published by King, _Cuneiform Texts_, Part XXV,
Plate 50.]
[Footnote 2: Thus he is equated with En-Urta, Nergal, En-lil, Nabu,
Sin, Shamash, Adad, etc.]
Both the source of the original form of the Legend of the Fight
between Ea and Apsu, and Marduk and Tiamat, and the period of its
composition are unknown, but there is no doubt that in one form or
another it persisted in Mesopotamia for thousands of years. The
apocryphal book of "Bel and the Dragon" shows that a form of the
Legend was in existence among the Babylonian Jews long after the
Captivity, and the narrative relating to it associates it with
religious observances. But there is no foundation whatsoever for the
assertion which has so often been made that the Two Accounts of the
Creation which are given in the early chapters in Genesis are derived
from the Seven Tablets of Creation described in the preceding
pages. It is true that there are many points of resemblance between
the narratives in cuneiform and Hebrew, and these often illustrate
each other, but the fundamental conceptions of the Babylonian and
Hebrew accounts are essentially different. In the former the earliest
beings that existed were foul demons and devils, and the God of
Creation only appears at a later period, but in the latter the
conception of God is that of a Being Who existed in and from the
beginning, Almighty and Alone, and the devils of chaos and evil are
His servants.
[Illustration: Marduk destroying Tiamat, who is here represented in the
form of a huge serpent. From a seal-cylinder in the British Museum.
[No. 89,589.]]