Bearing in mind that in its present form the most complete Babylonian Creation story known to us has assumed the character of a pan in honour of the chief god Marduk, we find that it consisted of seven tablets, and contained, accord- ing to King’s calculation, about one thousand lines, * The story itself, known from its opening words as the Hnwma elish or ‘When above’ series, may be divided into six sections, representing the chief steps in the establishment of the Universe: (1) the conflict of Apsuand Mummu with the gods, ending with the overthrow of Apsu and the capture of Mummu, brought about largely through the in- strumentality of Ea ; (2) the revolt of Tiamat and her consort _Kingu and their followers against the gods, and the discomfiture of the rebellious host by Marduk, who is sent against Tiamat by Anshar with the approval of the gods; (3) the establish- ment of the order of the Universe, involving the ppeeaung of an expanse underneath the heavens, the creation of the earth, the establishment of the planets and stars in their courses and place, and the regular change of seasons and of day and night, through the determination of the movements of the moon, and of her relationship to the sun ; (4) the creation of man by Marduk; (5) the glorifica- tion of Marduk by the gods and mankind, ending with the entrusting to him of the ‘tablets of fate’ and the assignment. to him of fifty ‘glorious’ names; the whole concluding with (6) an epilogue embodying good counsel to men, with instructions to recall the deeds of Marduk, and to pay proper homage to him.
The composite character of the story in its present form is revealed by the introduction, at the beginning, of two conflicts which both sym- bolize the same process. Apsu, signifying ‘the ‘deep,’ is a symbol of primeval chaos, figured as a time when the waters covered everything, and were filled with monstrous beings subject to no laws. By the side of Apsu are two other beings— Mummu, an obscure word, but also conveying the general idea of chaos and confusion, and Tiamat, which, equivalent to the Hebrew word téhdm (Din), Occurring in the Creation story of Gn 1, likewise embodies the idea of ‘the great deep.’ That all three beings are identified with the primeval waters, follows from the description furnished by the opening lines of the poem, where ‘their waters’ are spoken of as being ‘mingled together.’ The three terms thus prove to be practically synonymous, and the most prob- able explanation of the existence of all three terms is that they represent the ‘survival’ of varying traditions current in regard to the primeval chaos, which have been combined in the tale that became the standard account of how the Universe, with its laws and phenomena, came into being.+ A factor
* King says ‘some nine hundred and ninety-four lines’ (Seven Tablets of Creation, vol. i. pp. iv, xxv). Almost exactly one half of it is complete; and if we add to this the incomplete lines, we have recovered up to the present almost three-fourths of the text.
+ Tohu and bohu, mentioned in Gn 12 in connexion with téhém, are perhaps to be regarded as a faint trace of the primeval triad, Apsu, Mummu, and Tiamat.
that may also have been at work in leading to the retention of three terms for the primeval chaos is the desire to find, in primeval times, a triad corresponding to Anu, Bel, and Ea, who, in the later system of Babylonian theology, represent the quintessence of Divine control of the several divisions of the Universe. But however we are to account for the introduction of Apsu and Mummu by the side of Tiamat, the fact is clear that. these beings, symbolizing the chaotic watery mass, were regarded as the original elements, the existence of which not only precedes that of heaven and earth, but which flourished before the gods were born. This theory is set forth at the beginning of the story—
* When above, the heavens were not named ;* Below, the dry land did not bear a name.* Apsu, the primeval,{ their progenitor, Mummu [and] Tiamat, the mother of all of them, Their waters were mingled together. No field was marked off, no marsh was to be seen When none of the gods had yet been produced. No name was called, no fate decreed. Then the gods were created in the midst [of heaven ?] Lakhmu and Lakhamu were produced. Time went by.... Anshar and Kishar were created [over them ?] Days passed and there came forth . . . Anu theirson....’
In these lines the attempt is made to furnish a description of the time when ‘nothing’ was, with the inevitable result of such attempts, whether made in ancient times or in our own days, of involving us in a hopeless tangle of con- tradiction and obscurity. It is a gratuitous task to pick out the weak points in this endeavour to solve the hopeless but fascinating puzzle of beginnings; and it will be more useful to en- deavour to grasp the theories embodied in it. The language is frequently obscure, due to the desire of the narrator to avoid definite terms that would be misleading by their very definiteness. He avoids the common word for earth, which is irsitum, but uses instead a rare term, ammatum, with the purpose, as it would seem, of conveying the idea of a measured-out expanse of dry land. To convey more vividly the conception that nothing grew in the primeval waters, it is added that ‘fields were not marked off, and no marsh was seen’— expressions suggested by the appearance of the land in the Euphrates Valley, where fields were marked off by boundary stones, and vegetation often appeared where, during the rainy season, there was nought but water. The narrative wishes to emphasize the fact that, in the primeval days, there was water but no vegetation. The gram- matical construction warrants and justifies the conclusion that the narrator places at the begin- ning of things—before the existence of heaven and earth or the gods—the three beings symbolized by Apsu, Mummu, and Tiamat, even though the con- ception of the second being has already become so obscure that no further specification of it is attempted. Another illustration of the obscurity unavoidable in any attempt to picture primeval chaos is to be seen in the expressions ‘their pro- genitor’ and ‘the mother of all of them.’ The narrator anticipates the conception subsequently set forth, that both Apsu and Tiamat are sur- rounded by a brood of monsters, and he clearly has these beings in mind when. speaking of ‘their