Enuma Elish

The Babylonian epic poem Enuma Elish (Akkadian, “When on high …,” the first two words of the text) is one of several creation stories from ancient Mesopotamia and describes how the principal city god of Babylon, Marduk, defeats a threat of chaos in the form of Goddess Tiamat (Akkadian “Sea”) and establishes his kingship over the pantheon. Although the historical and political circumstances under which the poem was composed are not entirely clear, many scholars date the Enuma Elish to the 12th century BCE under King Nebuchadnezzar I (ca. 1125–1104 BCE), a time of nationalistic revival. Indeed, the exaltation of Marduk to the head of the pantheon in the Enuma Elish is thought to have direct political parallels in Babylonia at the time of its composition; as divine patron of the city of Babylon, Marduk's success in battle, ability to reorder the cosmos, and ascension to absolute kingship reflects the ideal image of the Babylonian king, and the many copies of the poem that have been discovered throughout Mesopotamia dating to the first millennium BCE attest to its importance in imagining both divine and human kingship. The Enuma Elish also apparently played a prominent role in the Babylonian Akitu festival, a 12-day New Year's event celebrated annually.

The Enuma Elish is composed of six tablets. In Tablet I, we are introduced to the creatrix of the [Page 348]gods, Tiamat, and her husband Apsu, who wants to kill their children. Ea foils the plan by killing Apsu, and a furious Tiamat responds with a threat to undo the established divine order.

Marduk, Ea's son, rises to face the threat in exchange for a place as the eternal, supreme leader of the gods/goddesses. The deities surrender their authority to Marduk, after which he is proclaimed king in Tablet IV and given the authority to create and destroy. The battle ensues, and Marduk inflates Tiamat with a gust of wind, pierces her stomach with an arrow, smashes her head with a mace, and divides her corpse in half—one part becomes the heavens, the other is fashioned into the earth. In Tablet V, Marduk organizes the heavenly bodies and the cosmos generally, and in Tablet VI, another deity (Qingu) is killed, and his blood is used to fashion a human being. The gods then build Marduk a temple, Esagila, in Babylon, and a celebration feast is held. Marduk's installation as divine king is complete, and Marduk is given 50 names, symbolizing a coalescence of divine power under Marduk. Many elements of the epic pattern in the Enuma Elish (e.g., defeat of threat/sea by a new, younger male deity; reordering of the cosmos; erection of a temple and a celebration feast, etc.) are also found in the Ugaritic materials (particularly the Baal Epic) and in the Hebrew Bible.