The Babylonian poem of creation, written in Akkadian, was named after its first line, referring to the world before all creation:
When on high no name was given to heaven
Nor below was the Netherworld called by name
It is typically Babylonian in the sense that it praises the powers and strength of Marduk, the protective deity of Babylon, and narrates how he became the ruler of all gods. It is thus an ideological and political work, as it exalts the city of Babylon and justifies its predominance. In some Assyrian manuscripts, Marduk was replaced by Aššur, the protective deity of the Assyrian dynasty, but that is not the case in the Huzirina and Kalhu manuscripts.
Enūma Eliš runs to approximately 1,100 lines, covering seven Tablets. The date of its composition is still under debate, but it was probably written during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I (1125-1104 BC).
- Tablet 1 mostly relates the creation of the gods. Before all else begins, there is only Tiamat, who embodies the sea, and Apsu, who personifies the freshwater ocean which lies beneath the earth. They give life to Lahmu and Lahamu, whose children are Anšar and Kišar. The latter are the parents of Anu, who himself engenders Ea. But the youngest gods are too lively: they irritate the older ones by preventing them from sleeping. Apsu thus decides to plot against Ea, but Ea hears about it and conceives his own plan to get rid of Apsu. He is finally victorious and becomes ruler (e.g., STT 1, 1 [/cams/gkab/P338317/]).
Ea and his spouse Damkina have a son, Marduk, even stronger and keener, and also more defiant than his father was.
- Marduk's behaviour provokes Tiamat into a rage (e.g., STT 1, 2 [/cams/gkab/P338318/]) and Tablet 2 narrates the war she leads against the other gods. Panic-stricken by Tiamat's violence, none of them is willing to go and fight her. Ea then suggests sending Marduk. He accepts on the condition that the other gods, in turn, give him all their powers.
- Tablet 3 depicts a banquet during which the gods, most of them terrified by Tiamat, finally decide to take Marduk as their ruler. There is no surviving manuscript of this Tablet from Kalhu or Huzirina.
- Most of Tablet 4 describes the gigantic fight between Marduk and Tiamat (see STT 1, 3 [/cams/gkab/P338319/]). After his victory, Marduk uses Tiamat's body to create the world: the middle of her body defines the boundary between heaven and earth.
- Tablet 5 continues with an account of the creation of heaven and earth. In heaven, Marduk assigns the gods their realm in the stars; on earth, he creates the mountains and the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, flooding from Tiamat's eyes (see STT 1, 5 [/cams/gkab/P338321/]). After a wonderful parade in front of his former enemies and the acclamation of all gods, he creates Babylon, as the centre of the universe.
- Marduk finally decides to create humankind, to relieve the gods of their work, as reported on Tablet 6. Following Ea's guidance, he slaughters Tiamat's former adviser (and spouse) Qingu, and creates human beings from his blood. The gods then build the Esagil, Marduk's sanctuary in Babylon (see STT 1, 9 [/cams/gkab/P338325/]). After new celebrations to honour Marduk, Anšar starts to proclaim the god's fifty names.
- Tablet 7 gives a long litany of the fifty names of Marduk. Each of them recalls the life and deeds of Marduk as described during the poem, and his immense powers (see STT 1, 10 [/cams/gkab/P338326/]).
Most known manuscripts of the epic come from Assyrian "libraries", mainly from Nineveh, but also from Huzirina (13 manuscripts) and Kalhu (1 fragmentary manuscript). The manuscripts from Huzirina are particularly precious as they provide some passages that are missing from the Nineveh version.
During the first millennium, Enūma Eliš was a classic of scribal education. This is clearly evident in Huzirina, where there are several duplicates (STT 1, 3-8 [/cams/gkab/P338319,P338320,P338321,P228322,P338323,P338324] of Tablet 4 and STT 1, 10-11 [/cams/gkab/P338326,P338327/] of Tablet 5). The colophon on STT 1, 2 [/cams/gkab/P338318/] states that the tablet was copied by the young apprentice Iddi-Meslamtaea PGP , who also was the copyist of manuscripts of a god list and Tablet 2 of Ludlul. Even though the poem belonged to scribal training in Huzirina, the distribution of the surviving manuscripts over the seven Tablets of the epic is even, not skewed to the beginning as might be expected: only Tablet 3 is missing.
No manuscripts of Enūma Eliš have been found in the "libraries" of Uruk, by contrast with the Gilgameš epic . However, it was known and recounted by ancient Greek authors.
Further reading