2661 AM · 1100 BCE · world history
Enuma Elish
The Babylonian poem of creation explains how Marduk became head of the gods.
When on high—so begins the text on seven tablets. At first there are only the fresh and salt waters, Apsu and Tiamat; from them the gods are born, and strife breaks out among them. Young Marduk goes out to battle Tiamat, cleaves her body in two and makes heaven and earth of the halves, sets the luminaries and the calendar, and creates mankind to carry the gods' burden of toil. In reward he receives fifty names and the first place. The poem was read aloud at the New Year festival in Babylon—it was not only an account of the world, but a warrant for the city's power.
Sources
Documents of the period
- cuneiform chronicles and king lists — the poem itself on seven tablets from Ashurbanipal’s library
Scholarship
- archaeology of Mesopotamia — the recitation of the poem at the Babylonian new year festival
Basis: documents and evidence.