Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations Part 26

Then Tiamat attacked Merodach the counsellor of the G.o.ds; in combat they joined; they engaged in battle.

Then Bel opened his net and enclosed her; the evil wind that seizes behind he sent before him.

Tiamat opened her mouth to swallow it; he made the evil wind to enter so that she could not close her lips.

The violence of the winds tortured her stomach, and her heart was prostrated, and her mouth was torn open.

He swung the club; he shattered her stomach; he cut out her entrails; he divided her heart; he overpowered her and ended her life; he threw down her corpse; he stood upon it.

When Tiamat who marched before them was conquered, he dispersed her forces, her host was overthrown, and the G.o.ds her allies who marched beside her trembled and feared and turned their backs.

They fled away to save their lives; they clung to one another, fleeing helplessly.

He followed them and broke their arms; he flung his net and they are caught in the snare.

Then filled they the world with their lamentations; they bear their sin and are shut up in prison, and the elevenfold creatures are troubled with fear.

The host of spirits (?) who marched beside them (?) he throws into fetters and [binds] their hands, and [tramples] their opposition under him.

And the G.o.d Kingu who [had been made leader over] them, he bound him also and did to him as to the [other] G.o.ds.

And he took from him the tablets of destiny [that were on] his breast; he sealed them with his pen and hung them from his own breast.

From the time he had bound and overmastered his foes he led the ill.u.s.trious foe captive like an ox, bringing to full completion the victory of Ansar over his antagonists.

The warrior Merodach (thus) performed the purpose of Ea.

Over the G.o.ds in bondage he strengthened his watch, and he turned backwards Tiamat whom he had overpowered.

Then Bel trampled on the body of Tiamat; with his club that spares not he smote her skull, he broke it and caused her blood to flow; the north wind bore it away to secret places.

Then his fathers beheld, they rejoiced and were glad; they bade peace-offerings to be brought to him.

And Bel rested; his body he fed; he strengthened his mind (?), he formed a clever plan, and he stripped her like a fish of her skin in two halves; one half he took and with it overshadowed the heavens; he stretched out the skin, he appointed watchers bidding them that her waters should not issue forth; he lit up the sky, the sanctuary rejoiced, and he set it over against the deep, the seat of Ea.

Then Bel measured the form of the deep; as a palace like unto it he made E-Sarra (the upper firmament).

The palace of the upper firmament, which he created as heaven, he caused Anu, Bel and Ea to inhabit as their stronghold.

TABLET V.

He made the stations of the great G.o.ds; he fixed the stars, even the twin-stars, to correspond with them; he ordained the year, appointing the signs of the Zodiac over it; for each of the twelve months he fixed three stars, from the day when the year issues forth to its close.

He established the station of Jupiter that they might know their bounds, that they might not err, that they might not go astray in any way.

He established the station of Bel and Ea along with himself.

He opened also the gates on either side, the bolts he strengthened on the left hand and on the right, and in their midst he set the zenith.

He illuminated the Moon-G.o.d that he might watch over the night, and ordained him for a guardian of the night that the time might be known, (saying): 'Month by month, without break, make full thine orb; at the beginning of the month, when the night begins, s.h.i.+ne with thy horns that the heaven may know.

On the seventh day, halve thy disk; stand upright on the Sabbath with the [first] half.

At the going down of the sun [rise] on the horizon; stand opposite it [on the fourteenth day] in full splendour (?).

[On the 15th] draw near to the path of the sun; [on the 21st] stand upright against it for the second time."

TABLET VI. (?)

The G.o.ds in their a.s.sembly created [the beasts], they made perfect the mighty [monsters]; they caused the living creatures of the [field] to come forth, the cattle of the field, the wild beasts of the field, and the creeping things of the [field]; [they fixed their habitations] for the living creatures [of the field]

[and] adorned [the dwelling-places] of the cattle and creeping things of the city; [they created] the mult.i.tude of creeping things, all the offspring [of the earth]!

XIII

A SUMERIAN ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION FROM THE CITY OF ERIDU

The glorious temple, the temple of the G.o.ds, in the holy place (of Eridu) had not yet been made; no reed had been brought forth, no tree had been created; no brick had been made, no roof had been formed; no house had been built, no city had been constructed; no city had been made, no dwelling-place prepared.

Nippur had not been built, E-kur (the temple of Nippur) had not been constructed.

Erech had not been built, E-Ana (the temple of Erech) had not been constructed.

The deep had not been created, Eridu had not been constructed.

The glorious temple, the temple of the G.o.ds, its seat had not been made.

All lands were sea.

When within the sea there arose a movement, on that day Eridu was built, E-Sagila was constructed, E-Sagila where the G.o.d Lugal-du-azaga dwells within the deep.

Babylon was built, E-Sagila was completed.

The G.o.ds and the spirits of the earth were created all together.

The holy city (Eridu), the seat of the joy of their hearts, they proclaimed supreme.

Merodach bound together a reed-bed on the waters; dust he made, and he poured it out on the reed-bed.

That the G.o.ds might dwell in a seat of the joy of their hearts, he formed mankind.

The G.o.ddess Aruru created the seed of mankind along with him.

He made the beasts of the field and the living creatures of the desert He made the Tigris and Euphrates and set them in their place; he declared their names to be good.

The _ussu_-plant, the _dittu_-plant of the marshland, the reed and the forest he created.

He created the verdure of the plain, the lands, the marshes, and the greensward also, oxen, and calves, the wild ox and its young, the sheep and the lamb, meadows and forests also.

The he-goat and the gazelle brought forth (?) to him.

Then Merodach heaped up an embankment at the edge of the sea; ... as it had not before been made, ... he caused it to exist.

[Bricks] he made in their place, ... roofs he constructed; [houses he built], cities he constructed; [cities he made], dwelling-places he prepared; [Nippur he built], E-kur he constructed; [Erech he built], E-Ana he constructed.