Enūma Eliš (the Babylonian Epic of Creation)
A young god agrees to fight the monstrous sea — but only if they crown him king of the gods first.
Also: Enuma Elish · Enūma eliš · Epic of Creation · Babylonian creation epic · When on high · Marduk and Tiamat · the seven tablets of creation
Named from its opening words, 'When on high' (Enūma eliš), this is the great Babylonian epic of creation, written across seven clay tablets. It tells how, in the beginning, only the fresh waters (Apsû) and the salt sea (Tiamat) existed, mingled together; how successive generations of gods were born and their clamor provoked the elders; and how, when Tiamat raised an army of monsters to destroy the young gods, the warrior Marduk agreed to fight her on condition that he be made king. Marduk slays Tiamat, splits her body to form sky and earth, sets the stars and calendar in order, creates humankind from the blood of the rebel god Qingu to free the gods from labor, and is enthroned with fifty names by the grateful gods, who build him Babylon and its temple. It is at once a cosmogony and a political theology exalting Babylon's city-god.
In short
The seven-tablet Akkadian creation epic in which the young god Marduk defeats the primeval sea-goddess Tiamat, forms the cosmos from her body, is proclaimed king of the gods, and founds Babylon — a myth that doubles as the charter of Marduk's (and Babylon's) supremacy.
Where it’s found
Enūma Eliš, Standard Babylonian Akkadian, 7 tablets (NOT freely served on ORACC — akkadian-pending; ed. W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Creation Myths, 2013; P. Talon, SAACT 4, 2005). Its motifs are grounded in our corpus through the Sumerian combat/creation material (e.g. 'Ninurta's exploits', ETCSL 1.6.2; 'Enki and the world order', ETCSL 1.1.3).
How the idea developed across Sumer, Babylon & Assyria
Composed in Standard Babylonian Akkadian; its date is debated — many scholars place it in the later second millennium (often associated with the rise of Marduk under the Second Dynasty of Isin / Nebuchadnezzar I, c. 12th century BCE), though earlier and later dates have been argued. It was recited during the Babylonian akītu (New Year) festival. Assyrian scribes produced a recension substituting Aššur for Marduk. It draws on older combat-myth material (Ninurta/Anzû) and reworks it around Babylon's god.
A myth, not history; the Marduk/Babylon supremacy it asserts is political theology. The composition date is genuinely debated — present it as such, not as fixed.