At the bej^inning of things nothing existed but limitless Chaos and Spirit (n-KtJtta). A third lactor is introduced in the form of Desire (toI}*;), correspondinp to the ipoti of Greek legend. Desire arose an a blending (tXox*,) of the 'spirit ' with ' love.' The ultim- ate issue, obscurely described and difficult to interpret, was M*rT. This name M«t is a feminine abstract form from iD = 'iP water.; Thia correaponda in all probability to the T^om of the biblical narrative. 'Out of this," says the account from which we are quoting, ' sprang all the seed of the Creation.' All these seeds or germs of things were formed into an egg (and, acconiing to Damascius, broke into two parts, heaven and earth). From Moir gleamed forth sun, moon, and stars ; and these became endowed with intelligence, and received the name ZatipArfi^r, C'Cy' *^i heavenly watchers or guardians. As soon as air, land, and sea were heated by the sun, winds arose as well as clo\ids and violent downpours of the heavenly waters, thunder and lightning. By these thunderstorms animated shapes, male and female, began to stir in sea and on land. It may be remarked that the conception of the origin of the universe from water is thoroufbly Semitic. Berosus, as we shall have occasion to M«, Inten^reis the name of the primal matter, 'O/mpmu or
eikmrt, by »iX«ir«^«.
Another cosmogony cited by Eusebius makes the two mortals Aluiv and Hpurdyovot begotten of KoXrio and his wife BaoO. The word KoXTrio has been variously interpreted as n; •$ Sip, voice of J"'s mouth, and as n-E ""p voice of breath. Neither of these explanations lias much probability, but it is generally held that BaoC is tlie Heb. tnla or chaos, ft is not neces.sary to cite further varieties of tlie Phoenician cosmo;;i)nic legend, as they fail to throw any light on the biblical narrative.
(n) More imjiortant for the biblical student is the Babylonum cusinoguny. Not only are its features more significant in their bearing on the first creation narrative, but it has come down to us in a more complete form, and through two distinct sources. It has been handed down to us through
• Comp. the ref. by Berosus to animal shapes in the temple of Bel (cited below), and Ounkel, Schdpf. p. 2K.
t The diagram clearly exhibits the close connexion between 009i\o and the water-depth. Leviathan embodies the idea of a serpent, lUte Oceanus, coiled round the earth. Jensen, Cotmo- togu, p. 281 ; Sayce, Uibb. Uct. pp. 104, llfl ; Gunkel, SchOp/. p. 46.
I Baudissin, Studim, i. p. 12. Ct. Schroder, PhUn. Sprathe, p. 133. Philo adds the explanation that Mur was explained by > u mud tjid by others as a putret}-ing nater; mixture.
Greek sources, which have been ob.?cured by trans- mission through a Christian writing, and we also possess it in a series of tablets containing the original cuneiform Bab. creation epic.
Before the discovery, in 187.5, by tlie late George Smith, of the fragments of the Bab. creation account in the ruined library of Asurbanipal (pub- lished in TSBA iv. 1876), this legend was known to us only in the mutilated records of Berosus. Berosus was a priest of Bel in Babylon about B.C. 300. His recital of the Bab. story of creation was handed down by Alexander Polyhistor, and it is from this source that Eusebius (in liis Chronicon, bk. i.) has borrowed. We shall now give the translation of the more salient passages in the words of Gunkel, who has carefully examined the te.\t.
' Primarily all consisted of darkness and water, and strange creatures of peculiar form arose therein. There were men with two wings, some also with four wings and two faces, and soma which liad one body but two heads, one male and the other female . . . other men with goat's feet and horns, or with horse's feet, or like horses behind and like men in front, and therefore in the form of hippocentaurs. . . . Besides these there were fish, creeping things, serpents, and all kinds of strange creatures of varied shapes. The images of them are to be seen in the temple of Bel as dedication ^fts. Over them tliere reigned a woman, Om Orka,* which in Chaldee is Thamte t [Ti^mat], in Greek ©aX«wff«. Under this condition of the world Bel came over [i.e. the Marduk of the cuneiform narrative], cleft the woman in twain, and made from one half of her the earth, and from the other the heavens, and destroyed the beasts which belonged to her.
' Now this narrative, as he asserts [i.e. Berosus, for at this point Eusebius interrupts the citation in order to give an alle- gorical explanation], is intended to be an allegorical representa- tion of the processes of nature. The universe was formerly in a state of flux, and the creatures above described arose in it. Bel, however (in Greek Ziuf), cleft the darkness in the midst, and so divided heaven and earth from one another, and thereby established the order of the universe. The creatures, how- ever, could not endure the power of light, and perished [so far the allegorical interpretation, then follows the remainder of the myth].
' So when Bel saw the earth destitute of inhabitants and fruit, he commanded one of the gods to cut off his [Bel's] head, and to mix the earth with the blood which flowed from it, and thereby to fashion men and animals that should be capable of enduring the air. Bel also completed the creation of the stars, sun, moon, and five planets.'