(rt) The Creation epos. ' When heaven above had not yet been named and earth below yet bore no name — but the ocean {npsii, Dc:s), the primeval, their progenitor, and chaos {Tihamat or mtimmn T.) the bearer of them all, yet mingled their waters together, when as yet no cornfield was cultivated, and no reed seen — when as yet none of the gods existed, no name they bore, destinies were not yet assigned, then were born the gods [of mummu or chaos] ; I-ukhmii and Lakliamu came forth [first], sons grew up ( = elapsed?) . . . Aiishar and Kishar were born, long days pa-ssed by till at length Anu, Bel, and Ea were produced ; [but the son of Ea and Damkina was Marduk the creator of the world].' So begins, in remarkable accord with Gn 1'*^, this poem, whose commencement has also come down to us in Greek in Damascius' Quaatl. de primis principiis. The further course of events described is briefly as follows: After the above-named gods originated from chaos, a strife arose between Tili.lmat (°'''"''?), the female personifi- cation of the primeval ocean, and the rest of the gods. Anu claims the right to decide the dispute ; TihSmat, however, declares war, and binds the tablets of destiny (cf. the L'rim and Thummira of OT) to the bre.ast of her consort Kingu. Anshar,* after fruitless attempts, tlirougli the medium of Anu, Ea, and Marduk, to conciliate Tihiimat, sends to inform Luklimu and Lakli.lmu that Marduk is prepared to undertake the conflict with Tihamat. The detailed account of this conflict between the god of li.ght, Marduk, and the dark primeval ocean, t makes up the 4th canto of the ep(«, which fortunately we possess complete. Marduk
* Oritrlnnllv i«U^ntic.il with .\nu. .\n-.sarbein[r = heaven's ho*!, but afterwards (lltl"erentlati-<i Irofii him. and at a later i»erio.l assimtlrtled to .\>sur (Damaseius '\a<Tup6v).
+ In pictorial representation.s Tihamat appears as a drairon (hence the serpent of the Bab. bonndary-stones) with a lion's head, hence she is called also tahliu, * Hon.'
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conquers the dragon and his eleven helpers (cf. Job '.I'-'j, cleaves Tiliamat, and oul of the one half fashions the tinuament of heaven, in which he assiu'us their places to tlie gods Anu, Uel, Ka, and to the moon and the stars, while out of tlie other half he fashions the earth. The eleven helpers were placed in the sky as the zodiacal signs, Merodach himself being the twelfth. The connected frag- ments still extant make it plain that thereafter followed a description of how plants and animals, and finally man, were all formed by Bel-Merodacli. Beside this there was another Bab. niytli, according to which it was the god ICa who formed man of clay. Moreover, in the epos, Bel the god of the air and of storm, whom the Babylonians portrayed with thunderbolts in his hand, is confounded with Merodach, a circumstance which points to Babylon, whose tutelary deity, Merodach, w;is called the younger Bel. The original notion tliat the elder Bel (^Semit. Belu 'lord' kot' ({■jx')'') ^^'•'s the creator, finds its echo in Genesis (cf . tlie ' spirit of God ' of Gn 1^ with the Suinerian name of Bel, En-litla. ' lord of the air' or ' the wind ').
(6) The .so-called Nimrod-epos (cf. Gn lO'-'''). The 12 cantos of this magnificent poem .stand in eviilent relation to the 12 signs of the Zodiac, of which, however, it is no longer the Bull but the Kam that comes first. The hero Gi.sdubar, also called Xarfldu (for Xamrudu), Nanira.sit, and Gibil-gamis, sprang from a city which afterwards completely disappeared, Surippak (on the river Surappu ?;. He becomes king of Kreoh, where he rules as a tyrant, until the gods create Ea-baiii, a kind of I'riapus, to destroy him. The two, however, strike up a friend.ship after Gi.sdubar has overcome a mighty lion. (This last scene is often depicted on cylinder-seals and reliefs. ) Together they next deliver the city of Erech from the Elamite oppressor Khumbaba (Combabos). Istar, the giKldess of love, now offers to Gisdubar her liand, which, however, is refused by the hero (Canto 6). Out of revenge Istar sends a .scorpion, whose sting proves fatal to Ea-bani ; Gisdubar himself she smites with an incurable di.sease. In con.seciuence of this he sets out, in quest of relief, for the dwelling-place of his great-grandfather Sit-napisti ( = rescue of life), the Bab. Noah (' Rest' i.e. of the soul), far away on the ocean in the Isles of the Blessed. With this aim he first traverses, amidst great dangers, the land of Mashu (Central Arabia, f^^l or x'^"? of the O'V), and then crosses the waters of death to Sit-napisti, who (Canto 11) gives him a detailed account of his escape from the Deluge (see below), heals him of his dise.Lse, and presents him with the plant of life. The latter, however, is snatched from him on his way home by an earth-lion (i.e. a .serpent). On his arrival at Erech, he bewails, in the temple of the goddess Ninsuniia, the death of his friend Ea-baiii, and prays the god Nergal to restore the sjiirit of Ea-biinT to him. With the granting of tliis re- quest, and a graphic description by Ea-biini of the under-wcirld, the epos closes.
(r) The Bab. Story of the Deluge. This is con- tained in the llth canto of the Nimrod-epos (see previous section). When the great gods, with Bel in his i|uality of storm-god (Bel-Uaniman) at their head, determined to send a Hoi>d,* Ea revealed to Sit-napisti in .a dream how he might save himself by constructing a ship. Ten i/nr (120 cubits) was to be the height of its sides, and tlie same was to be the width of its deck ; it was to have six storeys, each of which was to have seven divisions, while