Enuma Elish

The title Enuma Elish means “when above”, the two first words of the epic. This Babylonian creation story was discovered as late as in the 19th century, among the 26,000 clay tablets found by Austen Henry Layard in the 1840's at the ruins of Nineveh. It was made known to the public in 1875 by the Assyriologist George Adam Smith (1840-76) of the British Museum, who was also the discoverer of the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh.He made several of his findings on excavations in Nineveh.
     In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, he presented a summary of the fragments known by that time. Next year he published the first book about the text, The Chaldean Account of Genesis. The book is richly illustrated, and specifies already on the title page that it contains: “The description of the creation, the fall of man, the deluge, the tower of Babel, the times of the patriarchs, and Nimrod.”
     His comparison to the Bible’s creation stories caused a wider popular interest than would otherwise have been to expect. In the following years, several additional books on the subject were published, and Babylonian clay tables were searched and investigated in the hope of finding additional fragments of the epic, which had numerous gaps.
     In 1902, Leonard William King (1869-1919), an Assyriologist and archaeologist, also in the service of the British Museum, conducting its excavations of Nineveh, published a substantial work on the epic: Enuma Elish. The Seven Tablets of Creation. He had succeeded in finding enough fragments to trace the full story of the epic, although there were still plenty of small gaps. All the fragments he used were at the British Museum. Additional findings since then have filled almost all of the gaps, except for in the fifth tablet, where several still remain – but not so that the story is in any way uncertain.



     The tablets found so far are mainly from the first millennium BC, and no findings from the second millennium BC contain Enuma Elish. Babylon, with Marduk as its patron god, emerged under the Amorite ruler Sumu-la-el in the years 1936-1901 BC. An earlier dating of the epic, with Marduk as its hero, is not possible. At the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I in the late 12th century BC, the epic must already have existed for some time.
     Stephanie Dalley argues for the basic story of the epic being of Amorite origin, but the last two tablet being added in the Kassite period (16th - 12th century BC). Also L. W. King regards the seventh tablet, honoring Marduk with fifty names, as a later addition to the epic. At the time of his book, there was no tablet older than the 7th century BC. Still, he thought that important elements of the creation story could be as old as from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, and that “the bulk of the poem” was composed no later than 2000 BC. Ola Wikander points to the language of the epic implying that it got its present form somewhere 1500 - 1000 BC.
     The Sumerian influence is evident in the names of several of the gods, as well as in the use of many Sumerian words. The text is written with a sophistication and learning that points to priesthood, and in such a way that it is clearly intended for reading, not oral transmission. It contains many wordplays that could only be understood by the literate few. Of course, it is still possible that the text is based on an oral tradition – this is implied by the repetition of long parts of it, and its ritualistic ingredients. It was recited at the Babylonian new year celebration, taking place at the spring equinox. In this rite, the king momentarily lost his royal insignia and was humbled, and then his rights were restored.


ENUMA ELISH
The Babylonian Creation Myth

1. Enuma Elish
   
2. The continued story
   
3. The source
   
4. Theories
   
5. Separation of purposes
   
6. Mode of creation
   

© Stefan Stenudd 2007