The Babylonian World - Historia Antigua

— Takayoshi Oshima —
The plot of the story is as follows: Apsu, ‘the Deep Water’, and Tiamat, ‘the Sea’,
are the first gods, and the father and the mother of the gods. After the gods of the
younger generation become numerous, they start making too much noise and disturb
Apsu. Following the advice of Mummu, his vizier, Apsu decides to exterminate his
children. However, Ea, of the fourth generation from Apsu and Tiamat, learns their
plan and kills Apsu by means of an incantation. Ea builds Apsu, his temple, using
the corpse of the god Apsu, wherein, Marduk is born as the son of Ea.
After having been accused for coolly allowing the death of Apsu, Tiamat decides
to wage war against her children. She creates 11 creatures as her army, chooses Kingu
as her consort and the military commander. Tiamat also grants the Tablet of Destiny
to Kingu. 23 None of the younger gods, not even Ea, dare to confront Tiamat. When
asked, Marduk agrees to wage battle against Tiamat, but he demands the kingship
in return. The gods can do nothing but accept his request. Marduk fights against
Tiamat and her army, and defeats her. Marduk, then, fashions the world by using
the corpse of Tiamat, and builds Babylon as its centre.
After the creation of the universe, Marduk assumes the kingship and the gods
recite his Fifty Names. The last name, bēl mātāti, ‘the Lord of the Lands’, was originally
an epithet of Enlil, the god of the ancient city of Nippur and the traditional
Mesopotamian supreme deity. This name marks the canonization of Marduk’s status
as the ‘King of the Gods’ and his take-over of Enlil’s authority. 24 Enuma Elish also
acted as theo-political propaganda affirming the position of Babylon as the new
political and/or spiritual centre instead of the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur.
In certain Mesopotamian traditions, the water of the Sea (Akk. tâmtu/(tiāmtu) was
also identified with the underground water. 25 In Atra-hasis, the Babylonian Flood
Story, Enlil attempts, among other measures, to wipe out the noisy human beings by
bringing famine, he blocks the rains and the seasonal floods from emerging from the
deep. Enki/Ea finds a way to save the people. Although he was supposed to guard it,
Enki/Ea allowed the Bolt – The Snare of the Sea – to be broken in half, letting the
water and agricultural products escape, and thus end the drought. 26 A similar concept
of the Sea as the source of underground water is attested in Enuma Elish. Tiamat was
initially the mother-goddess, the gods are her children. But after her death, Marduk
creates the deep springs by drilling into Tiamat’s head, and the Tigris and the Euphrates
by opening her eyes. This means that the water running on the surface of the earth
was considered ultimately to be the water of the Sea. If so, the choice of Tiamat as
the opponent of Marduk might not be just coincidence or a reflection of a historical
event. The motif – Marduk subduing the chaotic waters (Tiamat) and turning them
instead into a source of fertility (springs and rivers) – is a reflection of his aspects as
the god of watercourses and fertility. 27
LUDLUL BEL NEMEQI28 – MARDUK AS THE
DIVINE SAVIOUR
While Enuma Elish speaks of the victory of Marduk over Tiamat and his rise to the
supremacy, Ludlul Bel Nemeqi presents Marduk as the ultimate divine saviour of
human beings. The theological base of this composition is the Babylonian belief in
protective spirits and especially of a personal god who, like a guardian angel, protects
his protégé and keeps away attacks of evil spirits which were thought to cause illness.
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