The Babylonian Legends of the Creation, Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge [best short books to read .TXT] 📗

and in the “Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of Allâh,” 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’ân, Surah vii, v. 179. That there were

ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God rests on the authority of Abû

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, Nabû,

Sin, Shamash, Adad, etc.]

 

Both the source of the original form of the Legend of the Fight

between Ea and Apsu, and Marduk and Tiâmat, 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 Tiâmat, who is here represented in the

form of a huge serpent. From a seal-cylinder in the British Museum.

[No. 89,589.]]

 

Among the primitive Semitic peoples there were probably many versions of

the story of the Creation; and the narrative told by the Seven Tablets

is, no doubt, one of them in a comparatively modern form. It is quite

clear that the Account of the Creation given in the Seven Tablets is

derived from very ancient sources, and a considerable amount of literary

evidence is now available for reconstructing the history of the Legend.

Thus in the Sumerian Account the narrative of the exploits of the hero

called ZIUSUDU [1] begins with a description of the Creation and then

goes on to describe a Flood, and there is little doubt that certain

passages in this text are the originals of the Babylonian version as

given in the Seven Tablets. In the Story of ZIUSUDU, however, there is

no mention of any Dragon. And there is reason to think that the Legend

of the Dragon had originally nothing whatever to do with the Creation,

for the texts of fragments of two distinct Accounts [2] of the Creation

describe a fight between a Dragon and some deity other than Marduk. In

other Accounts the Dragon bears a strong resemblance to the Leviathan of

Psalm civ, 26; Job xli, 1. In the one text he is said to be 50 biru

[3] in length, and 1 biru in thickness; his mouth was 6 cubits (about

9 feet) wide, and the circumference of his ears 12 cubits (18 feet). He

was slain by a god whose name is unknown, and the blood continued to

flow from his body for three years, three months, one day and one night.

In the second text the Dragon is 60 biru long and his thickness is 30

biru; the diameter of each eye is half a biru, and his paws are 20

biru long. Thus there is every reason for believing that the Legend as

it is given in the Seven Tablets is the work of some editor, who added

the Legend of the Creation to the Legend of the Dragon in much the same

way as the editor of the Gilgamish Legends included an account of the

Deluge in his narrative of the exploits of his hero. All forms of the

Legend of the Creation and of the Dragon were popular in Babylonia, and

one of them achieved so much notoriety that the priest employed recited

it as an incantation to charm away the toothache.

 

[Footnote 1: See Poebel, Historical Texts, No. 1.]

 

[Footnote 2: See King, Cuneiform Texts, Part XIII, Plate 33;

and Ebellog, Assurtexte, I, No. 6.]

 

[Footnote 3: The biru was the distance which a man would travel

in two hours.]

 

The literary form of the text of the Seven Tablets fulfils the

requirements of Semitic poetry in general. The lines usually fall into

couplets, the second line being the antiphon of the first, e.g.:—

 

“When in the height heaven was not named,

And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name.”

 

Each line, or verse, falls into two halves, and a well-marked caesura

divides each line, or verse, into two equally accented parts. And the

half-lines can be further resolved into two halves, each containing a

single accented word or phrase. This is proved by tablet Spartali ii,

265A, where the scribe writes his lines and spaces the words in such a

way as to show the subdivision of the lines. Thus we have:—

 

enuma | elish || lâ nabû| shamamu

shaplish| ammatum|| shuma | lâ zakrat

 

Here there is clearly a rhythm which resembles that found in the poems

of the Syrians and Arabs, but there are many instances of its

inconsistent use in several parts of the text. Both rhyme and

alliteration appear to be used occasionally.

 

THE SEVEN TABLETS OF CREATION.—TRANSLATION.

 

FIRST TABLET.[1]

 

[Footnote 1: This translation is made from transcripts of the British

Museum fragments (Cuneiform Texts, Part XIII), and transcripts

of the Berlin fragments (Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur,

Nos. 117, 118).]

 

1. When the heavens above were yet unnamed,[1]

 

[Footnote 1: The name of an object was the object itself, and it was

believed that nothing could exist apart from its name.]

 

2. And the name of the earth beneath had not been recorded,

3. Apsu, the oldest of beings, their progenitor,

4. “Mummu” Tiâmat, who bare each and all of them—

 

5. Their waters were merged into a single mass.

 

6. A field had not been measured, a marsh had not been searched out,

7. When of the gods none was shining,

[Illustration: Portion of a tablet inscribed in Assyrian with a text

of the First Tablet of the Creation Series. [K. 5419C.]]

 

8. A name had not been recorded, a fate had not been fixed,

 

9. The gods came into being in the midst of them.

 

10. The god Lakhmu and the goddess Lakhamu were made to shine, they

were named.

 

11. [Together] they increased in stature, they grew tall.

 

12. Anshar and Kishar came into being, and others besides them.

 

13. Long were the days, the years increased.

 

14. The god Anu, their son, the equal of his fathers, [was created].

 

15. The god Anshar made his eldest son Anu in his own image.

 

16. And the god Anu begat Nudimmud (Ea) the image of himself.

 

17. The god Nudimmud was the first among his fathers,

 

18. Endowed with understanding, he who thinketh deeply, the orator

 

19. Exceedingly mighty in strength above his father Anshar who begat

him.

 

20. Unrivalled amongst the gods his brothers …

 

21. The confraternity of the gods was established.

 

22. Tiâmat was troubled and she … their guardian.

 

23. Her belly was stirred up to its uttermost depths.

 

24. ………..

 

25. Apsu (the watery abyss) could not diminish their brawl

 

26. And Tiâmat gathered herself together …

 

27. She struck a blow, and their works …

 

28. Their way was not good,…

 

29. At that time Apsu, the progenitor of the great gods,

 

30. Shouted out and summoned Mummu, the steward of his house, saying

 

31. “[O] Mummu, my steward, who makest my liver to rejoice,

 

32. “Come, to Tiâmat we will go.”

 

33. They went, they lay down [on a couch] facing Tiâmat.

 

34. They took counsel together about the gods [their children].

35. Apsu took up his word and said,

36. To Tiâmat, the holy (?) one, he made mention of a matter,

[saying],

 

37. “… their way …

 

38. “By day I find no peace, by night I have no rest.

 

39. “Verily I will make an end of their way, I will sweep them away,

 

40. “There shall be a sound of lamentation; lo, then we shall rest.”

 

41. Tiâmat on hearing this

 

42. Was stirred up to wrath and shrieked to her husband,[1]

 

[Footnote 1: Tiâmat’s wrath was roused by Apsu, who had proposed to slay

the gods, her children. She took no part in the first struggle of Apsu

and Mummu against the gods, and only engaged in active hostilities to

avenge Apsu.]

 

43. … unto sickness. She raged all alone,

 

44. She uttered a curse, and unto [Apsu, spake, saying,],

 

45. “Whatsoever we have made we will destroy.

 

46. “Verily their way shall be filled with disaster; lo, then we shall

rest.”

47. Mummu answered and gave counsel unto Apsu,

48. The counsel of Mummu was … and dire [in respect of the gods]:

 

49. “Come, [do thou destroy] their way which is strong.

 

50. “Then verily by day thou shalt find peace, [and] by night thou

shalt have rest.”

51. Apsu heard him, his face grew bright,

52. For that they were planning evil against the gods, his