ENUMA ELIS. — Title of the principal religious and mythological poem of the Babylonians and Assyrians, so called from its first two words, which mean “when above”; modern scholars usually call it, not entirely accurately, “The Poem of Creation.” It should instead bear the title “Poem of the Exaltation of Marduk,” since its purpose is precisely to relate how Marduk, son of Ea and until then a wholly secondary deity of the Mesopotamian pantheon, became the foremost national god of Babylonia.
The poem was composed in the time of the First Dynasty of Babel, when Babylonia, especially under its king Hammurapi (ca. 1750 B.C.), assumed a highly distinguished position both politically and culturally, by some Babylonian poet in the epic-hymnic language of that period, from sources partly composed in the Sumerian language, although no poem of such breadth existed in Sumerian. The Assyrians adopted it as their national poem, even though the god exalted was Marduk, a Babylonian deity distinct from their national god Assur. In one of the Assyrian recensions, the god’s name was changed to that of the deity just mentioned. The poem has not come down to us intact, but we can reconstruct almost all of its content. It is in verse and is divided into seven tablets. The last, which deals with the names of Marduk, was added at a later time to the six whose subject is the god’s life and exaltation. This myth was also known to other nations of the ancient Near East and influenced their mythical narratives.
The poem begins with a description of primeval times, when nothing yet existed except Apsu and Tiāmat, who mingled their waters together; then the gods Lajmu and Lajamu were created, and from them descended the other divinities, including the members of the supreme triad, Anu, Enlil, and Ea. The youngest generation of gods began to make a din, and since it disturbed Apsu’s sleep, it was decided that they should be destroyed; but they were saved by Ea, when he succeeded in killing Apsu. Marduk was born of Ea and his wife Damkina, endowed with extraordinary qualities and a dual divinity. But Tiāmat wished to avenge her husband’s death and prepared a war of extermination against the gods, appointing Qingu as commander of the enterprise. The frightened gods accepted Ea’s advice to elect the young Marduk as their leader. Accordingly, having convened a general assembly, they conferred supreme power upon Marduk, prepared to fight under his command against Tiāmat’s monstrous hosts. Marduk was proclaimed king, armed himself completely, and engaged in combat with the furious goddess, whom he succeeded in overthrowing. With her body Marduk made heaven and earth. Thus the god began the construction of the universe, from the stars of heaven to the plants, animals, and man, who was fashioned from clay and Qingu’s blood. Then he divided the pantheon into two groups, the Igigi and the Anunnaki, and prepared to accept the gifts offered to him in gratitude by his companions. The gods built for him the heavenly Babel with the famous temple Esagila. A magnificent banquet followed, during which the supreme god of the pantheon delivered a speech in honor of the victorious god and placed Marduk’s weapons in heaven. The sixth tablet ends with a winged hymn in honor of the exalted god. The seventh explains the fifty names of Marduk.
BBL.: A. Deimel, «E. a. - sive casa Babyloniana de creatiens mundi», Roma 1926; G. Furlani, Il poema della creazione (E. c.), Bologna 1934; R. Labat, Le poème babylonien de la création, Parigi 1935.