Ancient text
The Seven Tablets of Creation, Vol. II
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The second volume of King's work on the Babylonian creation tablets. It is mostly supporting texts and notes, so read volume 1 first.
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Where this comes from
This is a public-domain copy. The line below says where the file comes from and why we may host it.
Why we can share it: Published 1902, before 1931, so public domain in the US (reasoning). The Internet Archive record for this upload states no copyright status; a separate University of Toronto scan of the same work is marked NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT, US.
Read the story behind it
TextEnuma ElishThe Babylonian creation poem ends by handing its hero fifty different names, each a title with its own meaning, including Nibiru. Before that come a war among the gods, a sea-monster split to make the sky, and humans made from a rebel god's blood. Why does a creation story finish with a list of names?BeingTiamatIn the Babylonian creation epic, the Tigris and Euphrates flow out of the eyes of a dead goddess; Tiamat is the primeval salt sea and mother of the first gods. She prepares for war, gives birth to eleven kinds of monsters, and then her split body becomes the sky and the earth. Who won?GodMardukWhen enemies captured Marduk's statue and carried it abroad, Babylonian writers explained the loss as the god choosing to go on a journey. He began as the minor god of a minor city; in the epic Enuma Elish he splits the sea-monster Tiamat in two and earns fifty names. How does a small-town god become king?
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