The "Enuma Elish" is the Babylonian creation myth, named after its opening words. When the 7 tablets that contain the narrative were first discovered, evidence indicated that it was used as a "ritual" meaning it was recited during a ceremony or celebration. It tells about the creation of the world, and of Marduk's victory over Tiamat, and how it relates to him becoming king of the gods. This is then followed by an invocation to Marduk by his 50 names. It was recovered in fragmentary form in the ruined Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq), and published by George Smith in 1876.
George Smith was the son of a working-class family in Victorian England. He was limited in his ability to acquire a formal education. At age of 14, he was an apprentice in the London-based publishing house of Bradbury and Evans to learn bank note engraving, at which he excelled. From his youth he was fascinated with Assyrian culture and history. In his spare time, he read everything that was available to him on the subject. His interest was so keen that he spent hours at the British Museum, studying publications on the cuneiform tablets unearthed near Mosul during archaeological expeditions of 1840-1855. Smith's natural ability was noticed by Samuel Birch, Egyptologist and Director of the Department of Antiquities, who brought the young man to the attention of Henry Rawlison who became proficient in Persian language. He started working evenings sorting and cleaning the mass of friable fragments of clay cylinders and tablets in the Museum's storage rooms.
In 1866 Smith made his first important discovery, the date of the payment of the tribute by Jehu, king of Israel, to Shalmaneser III in an act of submission or allegiance, becoming subject to Assyria. Jehu was the 10th king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) since Jeroboam I, noted for exterminating the House of Ahab under GOD's instruction. Jehu reigned for 28 years. Jehu appears in the Assyrian Black Obelisk where he is depicted as kissing the ground in front of Shalmaneser III and presenting a tribute in silver. The prophet Hosea writes that the House of Jehu was punished by GOD through the hands of the Assyrians for the bloodshed carried out by Jehu at Jezreel.
The "Enuma Elish" is one of the most important sources for understanding the Babylonian Worldview, centered on the supremacy of Marduk and the creation of humankind for the service of the gods. Its purpose is the elevation of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, above other Mesopotamian gods.
The first tablet begins saying: "When the sky above was not named, and the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, and the primeval Apsu, who begat them, and chaos, the mother of them both, their waters mingled together, and no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; when of the gods none had been called into being.
The narrative names 2 primeval gods: Apsu who represents fresh water and Tiamat represents oceanic waters. Several other forces or gods are created -Ea and his brothers- who reside in Tiamat's vast body.
They make so much noise that annoys Tiamat and Apsu greatly. Apsu wishes to kill the young gods, but Tiamat disagrees. The vizier, Mumu, agrees with Apsu's plan to destroy them. Tiamat, in order to stop this from occurring, warns Ea, the most powerful of the gods. Ea uses magic to put Apsu into a coma, then kills him, and shuts Mumu out. Ea then become the chief god, marries Damkina, and has a son Marduk, greater still than Ea himself. Marduk is given Wind to play and he uses the Wind to make dust storms and tornadoes. This disrupts Tiamat's great body and causes the gods still residing inside her to be unable to sleep.The gods persuade Tiamat to take revenge for the death of her husband, Apsu. Her power grows, and some of the gods join her. She creates 11 monsters to help her win the battle and elevates Kingu, her new husband, to "supreme dominion."
A lengthy description of the other gods' inability to deal with the threat follows. Marduk offers to save the gods if he is appointed as their leader and allowed to remain so even after the threat passes.
When the gods agree to Marduk's conditions he is selected as their champion against Tiamat, and becomes very powerful. Marduk challenges Tiamat to combat and destroys her. He then rips her corpse in 2 halves with which he fashions the earth and the skies. Marduk then creates the calendar, organizes the planets and stars, and regulates the moon, the sun, and the weather.
The gods who have pledged their allegiance to Tiamat are initially forced into labor in the service of the gods who sided with Marduk. But they are freed from these labors when Marduk then destroys Tiamat's husband, Kingu, and uses his blood to create humankind to do work for the gods.
Most noteworthy is Marduk's symbolic elevation over Enlil, who was seen by earlier Mesopotamian civilizations as the king of gods.
The etymology of the name Marduk is derived form Amr-Utu meaning "Bull calf of the sun god Utu."
The ritual care and worship of the statues of deities was considered sacred. It was believed that the god resided simultaneously in their statues and in the natural forces they embodied. An elaborate ceremony of washing the mouths of the statues was passed on from the Old Babylonian period.
During the Neo-Babylonian period, the Chaldean prince Marduk-Aplaiddina II fled into the Southern marshes of Mesopotamia with the statues of Babylon's gods to save them from the armies of Sennacherib of Assyria. This Chaldean prince usurped the Babylonian throne in 721BC and reigned from 722 to 710BC, and from 703 to 702BC. He was known as one of the kings who maintained Babylonian independence in the face of Assyrian military supremacy for more than a decade. He is called in the Scripture Merodach-Baladan, meaning 'Marduk has given me a heir.'
The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC. Due to the sloppy handling of the original material much of the library is irreparable jumbled, making it impossible to discern and reconstruct many of the original texts, although some have survived intact.
Old Persian and Armenian traditions indicate that Alexander the Great, upon seeing the great Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, was inspired to create his own library. Alexander died before he was able to create his library,but his friend and successor in Egypt, Ptolemy, oversaw the beginnings of Alexander's library -a project that was to grow to become the renowned Library of Alexandria.
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