Ancient Near Eastern Literature 4
9. Enuma elish in later tradition
Common Elements are of course ubiquitous
The text was copied until the Seleucid period (ca. 320-140 BCE)
Mentioned indirectly in Berossus' Babyloniaca ca. 325-250 BCE ?) (cosmology)
Creation of Mankind
Marduk's supremacy
Enuma elish
"When up above"
Mentioned indirectly by Eudemus of Rhodos (ca. 370-300 BCE)
History of the Gods
Theological-Political Propaganda
Damascius, Neo-platonic philosopher ca. 458-538 AD
In explaining the fundamental qualities of the One (God) he discusses other traditions....
Babylon as the center of the world
Parricide
Creation of the Universe
Generation Gap/Theomachy
Naming
Sloppy writing or Brilliant thinking?
-The creation of other gods like Mummu and gods outside of the genealogy is not mentioned
-The Creation of the Universe: Marduk does not create a Netherworld, but it is later assumed
-If Qingu has the all powerful Tablet of Destinies, why does he not use it?
-Qingu is held accountable for stirring up Tiamat, whereas it was a group of younger Gods (that are later spared!)
Foster 2012
Tablet III
Tablet VI
-Anshar tells his vizir Kakka to go to Lahmu and Lahamu, the first children of Tiamat and Apsu
-Kakka must tell them about Tiamat's threat and Marduk's offer
Tablet I
-Marduk conceives the idea to create humankind to do the work of the Gods
-The rebellious Gods are offered amnesty if they forsake Qingu
-From the blood of Qingu Ea creates Mankind
-In the Beginning the fresh water ocean Apsu mingled with the salt water ocean Tiamat to create the first generations of Gods
-The Descendants make to much noise for the Old Gods to bear, Apsu cannot sleep
-Marduk assigns the Gods their duties: 300 in heaven and 300 in the Netherworld
-As recompense the Gods built Marduk's
temple Esagil in Babylon
Ea battles Apsu
-Tiamat creates nine monsters (serpents, dragons, hairy hero-men, lion monsters, lion men, scorpion men, mighty demons, fish men, bull men), but the text says eleven!
-The Gods come to Esagil for a feast
-Marduks bow becomes a constellation
-Apsu is encouraged by his vizir Mummu to kill the Younger Gods
-Ea, the God of Wisdom and Magic learns about the plans
-Ea puts Apsu to sleep by Magic, kills him, emprisons his vizir and uses his body to make his dwelling
The Esagil temple
Gods fighting with each other
Ea sits in his Apsu
-Eventually all Gods convene for a feast
-Marduk is proclaimed as their champion
-Marduk is again confirmed as supreme God, Anshar gives him the name Asalluhi
-The fifty names of Marduk are pronounced
-In the Apsu, Ea's wife Damkina gives birth to Marduk
-His grandfather Anu gives Marduk the Four Winds to play with
-Tiamat is annoyed by Marduk's playing, other Gods try to provoke her into action
-Tiamat creates an army of monsters to fight the Young Gods
-Qingu is made the commander, holding the Tablet of Destinies
Esagil and the Tower of Babel
Pazuzu Demon
Tablet IV
-Marduk is put on a throne and is praised
-The Gods pledge their loyalty by making him king
King Darius fighting
-Marduk prepares himself to fight: he readies his weapons, prepares the Deluge, deploys terrible winds, and mounts his chariot
Marduk battles Tiamat:
1. Succeeds Anshar as king of the Gods
2. Slays Tiamat
3. Overcomes Qingu
4. Slaughter of a horde of monster
Tablet II
Tablet VII
-Ea learns about Tiamat's plans, horrified he goes to Anshar and tells him about Tiamat and her monstrous army
-Anshar is angry at Ea giving him the blame because he killed Apsu
-Anshar order Ea to subdue Tiamat, he cannot
-Anshar orders Anu to subdue Tiamat, he cannot
-Marduk draws close to Tiamat, her champion Qingu is afraid
-Marduk challenges Tiamat to single combat
-Marduk kills Tiamat by throwing an ill wind into her mouth bloating her belly, he then pierces it with an arrow
-Tiamat's army is dispersed and Qingu is caught
A God killing a monster
-Continuation of Marduk's 50 names
-Names are epithets explaining aspects of Marduk's Divinity
-At the end Ea gives Marduk his own name, the 51st name
-Instruction on Marduk's names and
Marduk's nature
-Marduk takes the Tablet of Destinies from Qingu
-He cuts Tiamat's corpse in half, using one piece to create the heavens
-Marduk creates the heavenly abode Esharra
Marduk as warrior
Marduk killing Tiamat
-The Young Gods are desperate
-Ea summons his son Marduk
-Marduk volunteers to fight Tiamat
He wrote down and preserved for the future to hear, the word of Marduk who created the Igigi-gods.
Let them invoke his name, let them sound abroad the song of Marduk, how he defeated Tiamat and took kingship
-But Marduk asks a price:
Supreme leadership over the Gods
Marduks animal
Tablet V
-Marduk organizes the Universe: Stars and Planets, the year of 12 months
-As the marker for other Stars he makes his own planet Neberu (Jupiter)
-Marduk regulates the Moon, Sun, and Wheather
-Pieces from Tiamat's corpse are used: from her Eyes the Euphrates and the Tigris, another part of her body as the Earth
Marduk organizes the universe, creates Mankind
the 50 Names of Marduk
-The Gods welcome Marduk back as their hero and king
-Marduk gears himself up with royal insignia, the Gods swear their allegiance
Babylon
7. The Babylonian New Year Festival
-Marduk creates Babylon as the counterpart of the heavenly Esharra as the abode of the Gods on earth
Marduk
Changing Seasons: the Equinoxes
The Spring Equinox (ca.20-21st March was Babylonian New Year)
The text of Enuma elish was recited in front of Marduk's statue to confirm his superiority
and to legitimize the King
ca. 1124 BCE
Almost 1100 lines on 7 tablets (Gilgamesh: 3000 lines on 12 tablets)
No consistent picture of her in the epic:
Fourth-Fifth Day
Eighth to Eleventh Day
Akitu: First to Fourth Day
Fifth to Seventh Day
Enuma Elish blends together several well-known themes from the Ancient Near East
Extant Texts are fragmentary
Daily Ritual Acts in front of Marduk
Theological Political Propaganda
for Babylon,
its Chief God Marduk
and its King
-Babylonia had been ruled for ca. 500 year by Kassites from the Zagros
-It was raided and humiliated by Assyria
-It was raided and even more humiliated
by Elam:
Akkadian word for sea: tamtum
Gilgamesh connects stories sequentially, in Enuma elish they are woven together to get one new narrative
The Esagila is cleansed
The Evening: Nabu enters Babylon from Borsippa, enters through the Urash-gate
6th day: Nabu defeats two enemies in Ninurta's temple and the statue travels to Marduk in the Esagila
7th day: the Divine statues that travelled from all over the country are dressed
4th day: the Evening: the Sheshgallu recits Enuma Elish before Marduk
5th day: the King returns
from Borsippa with Nabu
The King enters Esagila,
takes of his regalia and gets slapped:
The confession of no sins
He bows to Marduk, gets back the regalia and hears an oracle
Assyria
Sea, watery mass.
8th day: first divine assembly
high point: the Gods are
shown to the people
Procession through Babylon to boats to go to the Akitu house (just outside Babylon). Banquet, presentation of War Booty
11th day: return to Esagila, second divine assembly to determine Marduk's fate as Supreme God. Recital of a prayer to celebrate Marduk's return
The Battle between a Stormgod and the Sea
is an old West-Semitic theme
On the 4th day: the
Sheshgallu blesses the temple 3 times by addressing Pegasus
The King visits a Nabu shrine, the scepter is given, king travels to Borsippa to sleep in Nabu's temple Ezida
1
Ugaritic. The Old god El forsakes Baal (i.e. The Lord or Adad) in favor of Yam. Baal takes revenge by killing Yam and his seamonsters
Biblical. Yahweh also fought the Sea in the guise of a Stormgod: allusions in several poetic books from the Old Testament
2
Female
Battle between a Stormgod and the Sea
Habakkuk 3:8. Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?
Genesis 1:9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Psalms 104:3.Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind
Psalms 107:25. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof
Tablet 1:108: He (Marduk) caused
a wave and it roiled Tiamat
Proverbs 8:29. When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth.
Psalms 104:6-9. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.
Job 38:8-11. Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
Psalms 74:12-14. For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
Isaiah 51:9-10. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
Isaiah 27:1. In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
A Young Hero Slaying a Dragon
Nebuchadnezzar I (1124-1103 BCE)
However: Babylon would not rule the Middle East until ca. 616 BCE under the Chaldean Dynasty until 539 when Cyrus the Great took Babylon
1
Mesopotamian. The Anzu epic: a clear inspiration.
Borrowed themes: Tablet of Destinies, Three successive Gods that go to battle, Wind bringing the news of defeat, 11 Monsters that are slayed
Marduk's statue was stolen and taken to Susa
2
Mesopotamian. The Slaying of Labbu. A monster
threatens the world order, Enlil asks the god Tishpak to fight it.
A Young Hero slaying a Dragon/Monster
Elam
3
Biblical. The Leviathan, Rahab, Archangel Michaël, Saint George
4
Greek. Zeus (also a Stormgod!) killing Typhon
Old vs. Young
A monster
Babylonia
Mesopotamian. Atrahasis, Flood Story. The younger minor Gods protest against the work
imposed on them by the Chief Gods.
1
Older Gods versus Younger Gods
2
Nebuchadnezzar I brought back Marduk's statue in his reign 1124-1103 BCE
The return occasioned a burst of
patriotic literary activity
2
Enuma-elish was part of
this revival
Hittite/Hurrian, Kumarbi cycle. Four generations: Alalu, Anu, Kumarbi, and Teššub. Alalu was overthrown by Anu who was in turn overthrown by Kumarbi. In the end Kumarbi is cut open to deliver Tešub. Together, Anu and Teshub depose Kumarbi
A clear goal of the epic is to demote the previous chief god of the pantheon, Enlil, and
his city Nippur, prominent in the previous periods
The Epic was probably written by a Babylonian priest/scholar
The earliest fragments that we have of the epic are from 900 BCE
All manuscripts stem from one mastercopy that was however not the original, this mastercopy has some mistakes common in all extant copies
3
Greek. Theomachy, war between
Titans and Olympian Gods
Noise as a motive for conflict
Tablet IV and V state that she has: buttocks, a skull, arteries, belly, horns, head, eyes, nostrils, breasts, a tail and crotch
Creation of Mankind and slaughtering a rebellious God for it
6. The 50 Names of Marduk
Circular: in the beginning nothing is named
in the end: the 50 (actually 52!) names of Marduk are pronounced
50 was not coincidentally the magical number of Enlil!
Important Source for History and Theology of Marduk
Tablet 1:133-134. Mother Hubur, who can form everything, added countless invincible weapons, gave birth to monster serpents
3
Babylonian Cosmology: Marduk cuts up Tiamat to create the universe:Tablet 4:135-146
Three names each are given first by the 2nd and 3rd generation of Gods: Lahmu, Lahamu and Anu
Hubur: Mesopotamian Styx
The Last Name is given to Marduk by his father Ea, which is his own name (Ea) Marduk thus inherits the powers and name of his father
Structure:
1: Introduction and Historical overview
2: Canon, Colophon, Authors and Compositions
3: Some Major Works: Gilgamesh
4: Some Major Works: Enuma-eliš
5: Some Major works: Atrahasis and the Kings of Akkade
6: The Mesopotamian School
7: The Babylonian Job, Oral&Written, Metre and Stanza
Sea and river interchange as prime creators
The names are often in Sumerian and are explained
Parallel with old Sumerian mother-goddess Namma/Nammu
The Names are the oldest part of the Epic and are probably not by the same author as the body of the text:
They sometimes contradict the main narrative
Mini quiz about last week
Sea and Death are connected to each other in some Mesopotamian traditions
1) What are some of the main themes
of the Gilgamesh epic?
2) Who was Sin-leqe-unnini?
3) Can you remember the main stages
of the epic's creation?
Through the names Marduk merges or absorbs with other similar or lesser deities: Asarluhi (Eridu), Tutu (Borsippa), Enbilulu (Babylon)
Tiamat is a mix of a female evil dragon and primeval mother goddess conceptualized as a mass of amniotic fluid
-Constellations, Moon, Sun
-Neberu
-Tiamat's features are used to
decorate the earth