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Ancient Near Eastern Literature 4

9. Enuma elish in later tradition

Common Elements are of course ubiquitous

1. Themes

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

8. Inconsistencies

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?

2. The Story

-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)

5. Historical Background

3. On the Epic

4. On Tiamat

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

4. On Tiamat

Circular: in the beginning nothing is named

in the end: the 50 (actually 52!) names of Marduk are pronounced

4. On Tiamat

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

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