Enuma Elish


This is part of the Sumerian Creation Myth. You can find the whole thing at:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/Ane/enumaA.html



Myth forms our subconscious foundation for the way we view ourselves and others.


In this myth, Tiamat has always been considered "evil" for no apparent reason. Her action against her agitators was reserved up to a point then certainly justified. The "good" hero used some very vile weapons. He was arrogant and got his way by getting his judges drunk. The "evil" female against the "good" hero probably had some influence in attributing a supposed downfall of humanity to the female Eve.


Genesis was first translated in Babylon about the time this Myth was considered basic "truth". Its time to reexamine our myths. Tiamat and Apsu ended up getting what they wanted. Apsu just wanted to sleep. He certainly got a chance to do that. Tiamat just laid back till the right moment. Ea and Anu both were dumbfounded by her plan. But she makes a loser her captain and puts the Tablet of Fate on his chest. Of course he is defeated.


Were Ea, Anu and Tiamat all stupid? I hardly think so. Marduk takes the tablet and precedes to create a likeness of the foundation (Tiamat) in the manifested plane. Marduk was made in the heart of Apsu, remember. So, Marduk was the extension of Apsu and Tiamat, not Ea. He was the one that moved Tiamat's influence into the manifested world. Tiamat won out.


Why bother with redefining our myths? Because our world is based on what we perceive. The world may be what it is, but all that really matters is what is relevant to us, what we perceive it to be. That is what we use, what we base our actions on, what we use as the foundation for the rest of our lives.


What we make of the world is based on what we perceive the world to be. If we perceive the premanifest reality to be something that needs to be destroyed in order to make our world the way WE want, and if we perceive this original evil to be female then it makes a profound impact on how we see our selves and others and our physical plane. It should be remembered that Marduk is really the intellect. His hacking up of Tiamat is the action of dividing up God so we can digest him/her easily. The action is necessary, Tiamat did need to "die" but its more of being translated onto another plane. "As above, So Below"


"Reinvent the gods, all the myths of the ages"

1



When there was no heaven,
no earth, no height, no depth, no name,
when Apsu was alone,
the sweet water, the first begetter; and Tiamat
the bitter water, and that
return to the womb, her Mummu,
when there were no gods-

When sweet and bitter
mingled together, no reed was plaited,
no rushes muddied the water,
the gods were nameless, natureless, futureless,
then from Apsu and Tiamat
in the waters gods were created, in the waters
silt precipitated,

Lahmu and Lahumu,
were named; they were not yet old
not yet grown tall
when Anshar and Kishar overtook them both,
the lines of sky and earth
stretched where horizons meet to separate
cloud from silt.

one year passed till Anu, the empty heaven,
heir and supplanter,
first-born of his father, in his own nature
begot Nudimmud-Ea,
intellect, wisdom, wider than heaven's horizon,
the strongest of all the kindred.

Discord broke out among the gods
although they were brothers,
warring and jarring in the belly of Tiamat, heaven shook,
it reeled with the surge of the dance;
Apsu could not silence the clamour,
their behavior was bad, overbearing and proud.

But still Tiamat lay inert till Apsu,
the father of gods, bellowed for that servant
who clouds his judgment, his Mummu,
'Dear counselor, come with me to Taimat.'
They have gone, and in front of Tiamat
they sit down and talk together about the young gods,
their first-born children;
Apsu said,

'Their manners revolt me,
day and night without remission we suffer.
My will is to destroy them, all of their kind,
we shall have peace at last and we will sleep again.'

When Tiamat heard she was stung,
she writhed in lonely desolation,
her heart worked in secret passion, Tiamat said,
'Why must we destroy the children that we made?
If their ways are troublesome, let us wait a little while.'

Then Mummu advised Apsu, and he spoke in malice,
'Father, destroy them in full rebellion,
you will have quiet in the daytime and at night you will sleep.'

When Apsu heard, the die was cast against his children,
his face flamed with the pleasure of evil; but Mummu he embraced,
he hung on his neck, he sat him down on his knees and kissed him.

The decision was known to all their children;
confusion seized them and after, a great silence,
for they were confounded.

The god who is the source of wisdom,
the bright intelligence that perceives and plans,
Nudimmud-Ea, saw through it,
he sounded the coil of chaos,
and against it devised the artifice of the universe.

He spoke the word that charmed the waters,
it fell upon Apsu, he lay asleep,
the sweet waters slept, Apsu slept,
Mummu was overcome,
Apsu lay drowned, undone.

Then Ea ripped off his flaming glory coat and took his crown,
he set on himself the aureole of the king.
When Ea has bound Apsu he killed him,
and Mummu, the dark counselor,
he led by the nose and locked away.

Ea has defeated his enemies and trodden them down.
Now that his triumph was completed,
in deep peace he rested,
in his holy palace Ea slept.
Over the abyss, the distance, he built his house and shrine
and there magnificently he lived with his wife Damkina .

In that room, at the point of decision
where what is to come is predetermined,
he was conceived, the most sagacious,
the one from the first most absolute in action.

In the deep abyss he was conceived,
MARDUK was made in the heart of the Apsu,
MARDUK was created in the heart of the holy Apsu.
Ea begot him and Damkina bore him, father and mother;
he sucked the paps of goddesses,
from his nurses he was fed on the terribleness that filled him.

His body was beautiful;
when he raised his eyes great lights flared;
his stride was majestic; he was the leader from the first.

When Ea who begot him saw him he exulted,
he was radiant, light-hearted, for he saw that he was perfect,
and he multiplied his godhead,
the one to be first and stand highest.

His limbs were immaculate,
the making a fearful mystery beyond comprehension;
with four eyes for limitless sight,
and four ears hearing all; when his lips moved a tongue of fire burst out.
Titanic limbs, standing so high he overtopped the tallest god;
he was strong and he wore the glory of ten,
and their lightnings played round him.

'My son, my son, son of the sun, and heaven's sun!'

Then Anu begot winds and brought them from the four quarters,
to be the can and to command the ranks and he brought the
tornado, a wild surf to worry Tiamat.

But now the other gods had no rest any more,
tormented by storms, they conspired in their secret hearts
and brought to Tiamat the matter of their plot.
To their own mother they said,

'When they killed Apsu you did not stir,
you brought no help to him, your husband.
Now Anu has called up from the four quarters
this abomination of winds to rage in your guts,
and we cannot rest for the pain;
Remember Apsu in your heart, your husband,
remember Mummu who was defeated; now you are all alone,
and thrash around in desolation,
and we have lost your love, our eyes ache and we long for sleep.
'Rouse up, our Mother! Pay them back and make them empty like the wind.'

Tiamat approved it, she said,
'I approve this advice: we will make monsters,
and monsters and gods against
gods will march into battle together.'

Together they jostle the ranks to march with Tiamat,
day and night furiously they plot,
the growling roaring rout, ready for battle,
while the Old Hag, the first mother, mothers a new brood.

She loosed the irresistible missile,
she spawned enormous serpents with cutting fangs,
chock-full of venom instead of blood,
snarling dragons wearing their glory like gods.
(Whoever sees this thing received the shock of death,
for when they heave those
bodies up they never turn them back.)

She made the Worm
the Dragon
the Female Monster
the Great Lion
the Mad Dog
the Man Scorpion
the Howling Storm
Kulili
Kusariqu

There was no pity in their weapons,
they did not flinch from battle
for her law was binding, irrevocable.

Eleven such monsters she made,
but she took from among the gods the clumsy laborer

KINGU



one of the first generation to be her Captain,
War-leader, Assembly-leader , ordering the supplies,
leading the van to battle.

SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE WARS



All this she gave him when she raised their Company, she said.

'Now it is in your hands,
my spell will hold them bound,
they must obey my will.
You are supreme, my one husband,
your word will hold the rebel hordes.

She gave him the Tables of Fate and fastened them on to his breast,

'Now and for ever more your word is irrevocable,
your judgments will last!
They will quench the fire
and the swinging mace will fail of its power.'

When Kingu had received the authority,
that belonged before to Anu,
in their several natures
they confirmed the brood of monsters.

2



When her labor of creation was ended,
against her children Tiamat began preparations of war.
This was the evil she did to requite Apsu,
this was the evil news that came to Ea.

When he had learned how matters lay he was stunned,
he sat in black silence till rage had worked itself out;
then he remembered the gods before him.
He went to Anshar, his father's father, and told him how Tiamat plotted,

****************************************
(tells Anshar of Tiamat's plot)
****************************************
When Anshar heard how the Tiamat-tempest was rising
he struck his groin, bit his lip, restless, gloomy and sick at heart,
he covered his mouth to stifle his groans.

At last he spoke, urging Ea on to the fight,
'Once you made a snare of words, now go and try it out.
You killed Mummu, killed Aspu; kill Kingu who marches in front of Tiamat!'

The sagacious counselor of all the gods, Nudimmud-Ea, answered Anshar...

[break of eight lines partially reconstructed]

'I will meet Tiamat and calm her spirit,
when her heart brims over she will hear my words,
and if not mine then yours may appease the waters.'

Nudimmud took the short road, went the direct way to Tiamat;
but when he saw her whole strategy he could not face her,
but he came back cringing.

So Anshar called his son Anu,
'This is the true hero, an irresistible onslaught, a strong god.
Go, and face Tiamat, and calm her spirit;
when her heart brims over she will listen to you,
but if she remains unreconciled my word may appease the waters.'

Anu obeyed his father's orders, he took the short road,
went the direct way to Tiamat;
but when he had come so close that he saw her whole strategy,
he could not face her, he came back cringing to his father Anshar.

He spoke as though he saw Tiamat still,
'My hands are too weak, I cannot conquer her.'

Anshar was dumb; he stared at the ground and his hair stood on end.
He shook his head at Ea, all the Anunnaki,
the host of gods gathered into that place tongue-tied;
they sat with mouths shut for they thought,

'What other god can make war on Tiamat? No one else can face her and come back.'

Then the Lord, the father of gods, Anshar rose to his feet majestically.
Having considered everything he spoke to the Anunnaki,
'Which one of us is impetuous in battle? The hero Marduk!
Only he is strong enough to avenge us.'

Then Ea called Marduk into a secret place
and gave him subtle advice out of his deep mind,
'You are the dear son who warms my heart, Marduk.
When you see Anshar go straight to him as you would go into battle.
Stand up when you speak, and when he sees you he will grow calm.'

Lord Marduk exulted, he strode forward and stood facing Anshar.
When Anshar saw him his heart swelled with joy,
he kissed him on the lips and shook off despair.

'Anshar, break your silence, let your words ring out
for I will accomplish what you long for most in your heart.
What hero has forced the battle on you?
Only a female thing, only Tiamat flies at you with all her contrivance.
You shall soon straddle Tiamat 's neck.'

'My son, my wise son, confuse Tiamat with charged words,
go quickly now, the storm is your chariot,
they will never deflect you from Tiamat,
but having done with her, then return.'

The Lord exulted, with racing spirits he said to the father of gods,
'Creator of the gods who decides their destiny,
if I must be your avenger, defeating Tiamat, saving your lives,

'Call the Assembly, give me precedence over all the rest;
and when you sit down to pass your decrees,
cheerfully sit in Ubshukinna, the Hall of the Synod;
now and for ever let my word be law;

'I, not you, will decide the world's nature, the things to come.
My decrees shall never be altered, never be annulled,
but my creation endures to the ends of the world.'

3



Words broke from the lips of Anshar;
he said to his counselor Kaka,
'You are the counselor in whom my heart finds its happiness,
the one who judges truly and persuades fairly;
go to Lahmu and Lahamu, I am sending you down to primeval sediments,
call together the generations of the gods.
'Let them speak, let them sit down to banquet together,
they shall eat the feast and drink the new-drawn liquor
and then they shall all confirm in his destiny the avenger, Marduk!
Kaka go off, stand in front of them and repeat what I say.
'"I am sent here by your son Anshar,
I am charged to tell you his secret thoughts,

*********************************************************
(retells story)
*********************************************************
He left and took his way down to Lahmu and Lahamu,
stooping he kissed the primeval sediments,
bowed to the ground at their feet
and delivered the message to old gods,
'I have been sent here by your son Anu,
I am charged to tall you his secret thoughts.

*********************************************************
(retells story)
*********************************************************
When Lahmu and Lahamu heard this they muttered together,
all the gods moaned with distress,
'What a strange and terrible decision,
the coil of Tiamat is too deep for us to fathom.'

Then they prepared for the journey,
all the gods who determine the nature of the world
and of things to come
came in to Anshar, the filled Ubshukinna,
greeted each other with a kiss.

In the Hall of the Synod the ancestral voices were heard,
they sat down to the banquet, they ate the feast,
they drank the new-drawn liquor
and the tubes through which they sucked dripped with intoxicating wine.

Their souls expanded, their bodies grew heavy and drowsy;
and this was the state of the gods
when they settled the fate of Marduk.

4



They set up a throne for Marduk
and he sat down facing his forefathers to receive the government.

'One god is greater than all great gods,
a fairer fame, the word of command,
the word from heaven, O Marduk,
greater than all great gods, the honor
and the fame, the will of Anu, great
command, unaltering and eternal word!

Where there is action the first to act,
where there is government the first to govern;
to glorify some, to humiliate some,
that is the gift of the god,
Truth absolute, unbounded will;
which god dares question it?
In their beautiful places a place
is kept for you, Marduk, our avenger.

'We have called you here to receive the scepter,
to make you king of the whole universe.
When you sit down in the Synod you are the arbiter;
in the battle your weapon crushes the enemy.

'Lord, save the life of any god who turns to you;
but as for the one who grasped evil,
from that one let his life drain out.'

The conjured then a kind of apparition
and made it appear in front of him,
and they said to Marduk, the first-born son,

'Lord, your word among the gods arbitrates,
destroys, creates: then speak and this apparition will disappear.
Speak again, again it will appear.'

He spoke and the apparition disappeared.
Again he spoke and it appeared again.
When the gods had proved his word they blessed him and cried,

'MARDUK IS KING!'

They robed him in robes of a king,
the scepter and the throne they gave him,
and matchless war-weapons as a shield against the adversary.

'Be off. Slit life from Tiamat,
and may the winds carry her blood to the world's secret ends.'

The old gods had assigned to Bel what he would be and what he should do,
always conquering, always succeeding;

Then Marduk made a bow and strung it to be his own weapon,
he set the arrow against the bow-string,
in his right hand he grasped the mace and lifted it up,
bow and quiver hung at his side, lightnings played in front of him,
he was altogether an incandescence.

He netted a net, a snare for Tiamat;
the winds from their quarters held it, south wind, north, east wind, west,
and no part of Tiamat could escape.

With the net, the gift of Anu, held close to his side,
he himself raised up

IMHULLU



the atrocious wind, the tempest, the whirlwind,
the hurricane, the wind of four and the wind of seven,
the tumid wind worst of all.

All seven winds were created and released to savage the guts of Tiamat,
they towered behind him. Then the tornado

ABUBA



his last great ally, the signal for assault, he lifted up.

He mounted the storm, his terrible chariot,
reins hitched to the side, yoked four in hand the appalling team,
sharp poisoned teeth, the Killer, the Pitiless, Trampler, Haste,
they knew arts of plunder, skills of murder.

He posted on his right the Batterer, best in the mêlée;
on his left the Battle-fury that blasts the bravest,
lapped in this armor, a leaping terror, a ghastly aureole;
with a magic word clenched between his lips, a healing plant pressed in his palm,
this lord struck out.

He took his route towards the rising sound of Tiamat's rage,
and all the gods besides, the fathers of the gods pressed in around him,
and the lord approached Tiamat.

He surveyed her scanning the Deep, he sounded the plan of Kingu her consort;
but so soon as Kingu sees him he falters,
flusters, and the friendly gods who filled the ranks beside him-
when they saw the brave hero, their eyes suddenly blurred,

But Tiamat without turning her neck roared, spitting defiance from bitter lips,
'Upstart, do you think yourself too great?
Are they scurrying now from their holes to yours?'

Then the lord raised the hurricane,
the great weapon he flung his words at the termagant fury,
'Why are you rising, your pride vaulting,
your heart set on faction, so that sons reject fathers?
Mother of all, why did you have to mother war?

'You made that bungler your husband, Kingu!
You gave him the rank, not his by right, of Anu.
You have abused the gods my ancestors,
in bitter malevolence you threaten Anshar, the king of all the gods.

'You have marshaled forces for battle, prepared the war-tackle.
Stand up alone and we will fight it you, you and I alone in battle.'

When Tiamat heard him her wits scattered,
she was possessed and shrieked aloud,
her legs shook from the crotch down
she gabbled spells, muttered maledictions,
while the gods of war sharpened their weapons.

Then they met: Marduk, that cleverest of gods,
and Tiamat grappled alone in singled fight.

The lord shot his net to entangle Tiamat,
and the pursuing tumid wind, Imhullu, came from behind and beat in her face.
When the mouth gaped open to suck him down he drove Imhullu in,
so that the mouth would not shut but wind raged through her belly;
her carcass blown up, tumescent.
She gaped- And now he shot the arrow that split the belly,
that pierced the gut and cut the womb.

Now that the Lord had conquered Tiamat he ended her life,
he flung her down and straddled the carcass;
the leader was killed, Tiamat was dead her rout was shattered, her band dispersed.

Those gods who had marched beside her now quaked in terror,
and to save their own lives, if they could,
they turned their backs on danger But they were surrounded,
held in a tight circle, and there was no way out.

He smashed their weapons and tossed them into the net;
they found themselves inside the snare,
they wept in holes and hid in corners suffering the wrath of god.

When they resisted he put in chains the eleven monsters,
Tiamat's unholy brood, and all their murderous armament.
The demoniac band that has marched in front of her he trampled in the ground;

But Kingu the usurper, he chief of them, he bound and made death's god.
He took the Tables of Fate, usurped without right,
and sealed them with his seal to wear on his own breast.

When it was accomplished, the adversary vanquished, the haughty enemy humiliated;
when the triumph of Anshar was accomplished on the enemy,
and the will of Nudimmud was fulfilled, the brave Marduk tightened the ropes of the prisoners.

He turned back to where Tiamat lay bound,
he straddled the legs and smashed her skull ( for the mace was merciless),
he severed the arteries
and the blood streamed down the north wind to the unknown ends of the world.

When the gods saw all this they laughed out loud,
and they sent him presents. They sent him their thankful tributes.

The lord rested; he gazed at the huge body,
pondering how to use it, what to create from the dead carcass.
He split it apart like a cockle-shell;
with the upper half he constructed the arc of sky,
he pulled down the bar and set a watch on the waters,
so they should never escape.

He crossed the sky to survey the infinite distance;
he stationed himself above apsu,
that apsu built by Nudimmud over the old abyss which now he surveyed,
measuring out and marking in.

He stretched the immensity of the firmament,
he made Esharra, the Great Palace, to be its earthly image,
and Anu and Enlil and Ea had each their right stations.

Main Page |:| dianna@padgett-online.com |:| Tarot |:| Gematria |:| Astrology |:| Becoming Manifest Transformation: A New Translation of Genesis |:| Sumerian Creation Myth |:| The Thunder, Perfect Mind |:| Dance of Jesus |:| Astrological Books |:| Aleister Crowley |:| Dion Fortune |:| Sacred Geometry |:| Isis Books and Gifts, Denver, CO |:| OVE VON SPAETH's intriguing books on the historical Moses |:| Alchemy Lab's Table of Alchemy Correspondences |:| The Banners |:| The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) |:| Circulation of Light |:| The Elements |:| The Paths |:| Hebraic Letters |:| Tree of Life |:| An Ancient Riddle |:| Fifty Gates of Binah |:| Resh - The Sun Card |:| Tau - The Universe Card |:| Thoughts on the Tetragrammaton |:| Deities |:| Sepheroth