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Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Epic of Creation
350 pages, Hardcover
Published October 31, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 10, 2024
The Lord grew calm and examined her corpse
to carve up the watery mass and create artful things.
He split her in two, like a dried fish,
set half of her up as a roof above heaven,
stretched out her skin and appointed a watch,
ordering them not to let her waters escape
This new translation (the first of an exciting new series of Babylonian Literature translations), accompanied by many excellent essays discussing its form, prosody, history and strange character, is open-access and available for free here: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com...
Many people like to think of this as the original creation myth, or even the wellspring of all literature, but Helle in his introduction makes it clear that this is not the case. In actual fact, the epic came relatively late in Mesopotamian civilization, written in order to enshrine the ascendant Babylon's city-god Marduk as the supreme deity above previous Sumerian deities like Enlil or Ea. Both appear here, and are shown as unable to defeat the roaring marsh Tiamat.
The Enuma Elish, after detailing (in misogynistic detail) the destruction of Tiamat, her army of serpent demons, and her appointed general/consort Qingu, details Marduk's brutal reshaping of her corpse to create the skies, the seas and the earth. From her eyes flow the Tigris and the Euphrates, her ribs are the gates through which the jewels of the sun, moon and stars pass, her skin is pierced through to let waters flow out, her breasts become mountains, her tail(?!) the 'Durmahu' (the cosmic bond between heaven and earth), and her groin is made to "keep heaven in place".
Finally, her lover Qingu is punished: his veins are slit and from his flowing blood humans are created, in order to "impose the toil of the gods on them, setting the gods free". Love that humans always get such a raw deal in creation myths (why? isn't it a glorious gift being alive?) - in this case being made from the blood of the chaos-demon's Doug Emhoff
(also, love the image of creation occurring through the two seas of Abzu and Tiamat commingling their waters - bodies of gods emerging from the froth)
January 18, 2025
Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Epic of Creation, eds. Haubold, Helle, and others, inaugurates the groundbreaking series of the Library of Babylonian Literature. The aim of the series is to make Babylonian literature accessible to a wider audience.
The volume is in three parts. Part 1 is an introduction to the Enuma Elish which provides a general overview of the epic and highlights some of the points to be explored later in the volume. Part 2 is a transcription of the text with a translation on the facing page. Variations in translation and gaps in the material are signaled in extensive footnotes. The transcription and translation are based on the electronic Babylonian literature (eBL) platform which hosts other Akkadian texts. Part 3 consists of a selection of critical essays by leading scholars in the field. These essays offer an extensive exploration of different aspects of the epic, including its historical context; the historical and current reception of the epic; textual and gendered analysis; literary and cultural significance; intertextual resonance; diction, rhythm, and style; connection with Babylonian astronomy; major themes; and various interpretative approaches. Each essay is followed by suggestions for further reading and an extensive bibliography.
The volume is illuminating, inspiring, and breath-taking. The translation, highlighting as it does the multi-layered meanings of some of the words, is eye-opening. Each essay in the anthology deconstructs the epic, opening it up to new readings and understandings. The quality of scholarship is of the highest order with each scholar building on the work of previous scholarship and grounding his/her in-depth analysis and interpretation on historical context and the words in the text. The notes, suggestions for further reading, and extensive bibliographies are indispensable.
This brilliant, groundbreaking work will serve as an indispensable resource to those seeking to explore the literature, culture, and mythos of Mesopotamia. Very highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
The volume is in three parts. Part 1 is an introduction to the Enuma Elish which provides a general overview of the epic and highlights some of the points to be explored later in the volume. Part 2 is a transcription of the text with a translation on the facing page. Variations in translation and gaps in the material are signaled in extensive footnotes. The transcription and translation are based on the electronic Babylonian literature (eBL) platform which hosts other Akkadian texts. Part 3 consists of a selection of critical essays by leading scholars in the field. These essays offer an extensive exploration of different aspects of the epic, including its historical context; the historical and current reception of the epic; textual and gendered analysis; literary and cultural significance; intertextual resonance; diction, rhythm, and style; connection with Babylonian astronomy; major themes; and various interpretative approaches. Each essay is followed by suggestions for further reading and an extensive bibliography.
The volume is illuminating, inspiring, and breath-taking. The translation, highlighting as it does the multi-layered meanings of some of the words, is eye-opening. Each essay in the anthology deconstructs the epic, opening it up to new readings and understandings. The quality of scholarship is of the highest order with each scholar building on the work of previous scholarship and grounding his/her in-depth analysis and interpretation on historical context and the words in the text. The notes, suggestions for further reading, and extensive bibliographies are indispensable.
This brilliant, groundbreaking work will serve as an indispensable resource to those seeking to explore the literature, culture, and mythos of Mesopotamia. Very highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
May 7, 2026
Ancient cuneiform scholarship in open access ebook form, as the supreme deity Marduk intended!
Floodwaters could destroy language itself, turning clay tablets to mud.
The primordial sea was bound and restricted gradually through words and text.
Even now words and text shape water (data centers!)
The best parts I thought came from Sophus Helle’s essay:
“Cosmogony as the emergence of a language-like structure from a primordial fluidity that defied all words and writing”
“names depend on the separation of the things they name, and that separation has yet to happen. In the beginning was no word.”
“It is not that the universe has not been created at this point, but that it has not yet been separated out into shapes. To exist, in the logic of Enuma Elish, is to be an entity distinguishable from the surrounding cosmos.”
“Shapes, names, and fates are thus depicted as fundamentally interconnected, and their absence from the beginning of the story foreshadows what the world will be like at the end of it.”
Floodwaters could destroy language itself, turning clay tablets to mud.
The primordial sea was bound and restricted gradually through words and text.
Even now words and text shape water (data centers!)
The best parts I thought came from Sophus Helle’s essay:
“Cosmogony as the emergence of a language-like structure from a primordial fluidity that defied all words and writing”
“names depend on the separation of the things they name, and that separation has yet to happen. In the beginning was no word.”
“It is not that the universe has not been created at this point, but that it has not yet been separated out into shapes. To exist, in the logic of Enuma Elish, is to be an entity distinguishable from the surrounding cosmos.”
“Shapes, names, and fates are thus depicted as fundamentally interconnected, and their absence from the beginning of the story foreshadows what the world will be like at the end of it.”
April 5, 2025
Facing (transliterated) Babylonian - English text in a good translation, with surrounding essays. Open source!
This is such a neat text, and I really appreciate all of the efforts Assyriologists have made to make things accessible to general audiences. Digital humanities yay!
This is such a neat text, and I really appreciate all of the efforts Assyriologists have made to make things accessible to general audiences. Digital humanities yay!
December 13, 2025
Extremely thorough and varied analysis of a Babylonian creation epic poems that may have influenced the writer(s) of Genesis. A fascinating look into how a people attempted to make sense of their universe.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews