Legends of Babylon and Egypt in Relation to Hebrew Tradition.pdf

dominant place in the national literature. This is the version in which so many points of resemblance to the first
chapter of Genesis have long been recognized, especially in the succession of creative acts and their relative order. In
the Semitic-Babylonian Version the creation of the world is represented as the result of conflict, the emergence of
order out of chaos, a result that is only attained by the personal triumph of the Creator. But this underlying dualism
does not appear in the more primitive Sumerian Version we have now recovered. It will be remembered that in the
second lecture I gave some account of the myth, which occurs in an epitomized form as an introduction to the
Sumerian Version of the Deluge, the two narratives being recorded in the same document and connected with one
another by a description of the Antediluvian cities. We there saw that Creation is ascribed to the three greatest gods of
the Sumerian pantheon, Anu, Enlil, and Enki, assisted by the goddess Ninkharsagga.
It is significant that in the Sumerian version no less than four deities are represented as taking part in the Creation. For
in this we may see some indication of the period to which its composition must be assigned. Their association in the
text suggests that the claims of local gods had already begun to compete with one another as a result of political
combination between the cities of their cults. To the same general period we must also assign the compilation of the
Sumerian Dynastic record, for that presupposes the existence of a supreme ruler among the Sumerian city-states. This
form of political constitution must undoubtedly have been the result of a long process of development, and the fact that
its existence should be regarded as dating from the Creation of the world indicates a comparatively developed stage of
the tradition. But behind the combination of cities and their gods we may conjecturally trace anterior stages of
development, when each local deity and his human representative seemed to their own adherents the sole objects for
worship and allegiance. And even after the demands of other centres had been conceded, no deity ever quite gave up
his local claims.
Enlil, the second of the four Sumerian creating deities, eventually ousted his rivals. It has indeed long been recognized
that the /rôle/ played by Marduk in the Babylonian Version of Creation had been borrowed from Enlil of Nippur; and
in the Atrakhasis legend Enlil himself appears as the ultimate ruler of the world and the other gods figure as "his
sons". Anu, who heads the list and plays with Enlil the leading part in the Sumerian narrative, was clearly his chief
rival. And though we possess no detailed account of Anu's creative work, the persistent ascription to him of the
creation of heaven, and his familiar title, "the Father of the Gods", suggest that he once possessed a corresponding
body of myth in Eanna, his temple at Erech. Enki, the third of the creating gods, was naturally credited, as God of
Wisdom, with special creative activities, and fortunately in his case we have some independent evidence of the varied
forms these could assume.
According to one tradition that has come down to us,[1] after Anu had made the heavens, Enki created Apsû or the
Deep, his own dwelling- place. Then taking from it a piece of clay[2] he proceeded to create the Brick-god, and reeds
and forests for the supply of building material. From the same clay he continued to form other deities and materials,
including the Carpenter-god; the Smith-god; Arazu, a patron deity of building; and mountains and seas for all that they
produced; the Goldsmith-god, the Stone-cutter-god, and kindred deities, together with their rich products for offerings;
the Grain-deities, Ashnan and Lakhar; Siris, a Wine-god; Ningishzida and Ninsar, a Garden-god, for the sake of the
rich offerings they could make; and a deity described as "the High priest of the great gods," to lay down necessary
ordinances and commands. Then he created "the King", for the equipment probably of a particular temple, and finally
men, that they might practise the cult in the temple so elaborately prepared.
[1] See Weissbach, /Babylonische Miscellen/, pp. 32 ff.
[2] One of the titles of Enki was "the Potter"; cf. /Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus., Pt. XXIV, pl. 14 f., ll. 41, 43.
It will be seen from this summary of Enki's creative activities, that the text from which it is taken is not a general
Creation myth, but in all probability the introductory paragraph of a composition which celebrated the building or
restoration of a particular temple; and the latter's foundation is represented, on henotheistic lines, as the main object of
creation. Composed with that special purpose, its narrative is not to be regarded as an exhaustive account of the
creation of the world. The incidents are eclective, and only such gods and materials are mentioned as would have been
required for the building and adornment of the temple and for the provision of its offerings and cult. But even so its
mythological background is instructive. For while Anu's creation of heaven is postulated as the necessary precedent of
Enki's activities, the latter creates the Deep, vegetation, mountains, seas, and mankind. Moreover, in his character as