Creation of the World (Cosmogony)
In the beginning was not nothing, but water — and the gods who divided and named it.
Mesopotamian texts do not tell one creation story but several. Sumerian poems open with heaven (An) and earth (Ki) parted from a primeval unity, after which the gods set the world in order; the great Babylonian epic Enuma Elish has the god Marduk form sky and earth from the body of the slain sea-goddess Tiamat. Creation here is organization, not creation out of nothing: pre-existing waters and matter are shaped, named, and assigned their places. The emphasis falls on order, kingship among the gods, and the founding of cities and temples.
Key passages(5)
Not only did the lord make the world appear in its correct form -- the lord who never changes the destinies which he determines: Enlil, who will make the human seed of the Land come forth up from the
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[... ] her (Tiamat's) hearing [... ], [... ] she cried out to her lover (Apsu). [... ] bitterly, alone being furious, she consigned the evil to her heart: ' What? Shall we destroy what we created? ' A
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In those days, in those distant days, in those nights, in those remote nights, in those years, in those distant years; in days of yore, when the necessary things had been brought into manifest existen
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[... ]... [... ] he made (them) billow. [... ], to cause the rain to fall, [... ] the fog [... ], to pile up her (Tiamat's) poison, [... ] to himself (and) he took (it) in his hand. He put down her he
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In those ancient days, when the good destinies had been decreed, and after An and Enlil had set up the divine rules of heaven and earth, then the third of them, ……, the lord of broad wisdom, Enki, the
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