Enuma Elish

Babylonian creation epic (*Enūma eliš*, "When on High") composed across seven cuneiform tablets of roughly 1,100 lines and recited annually during the Akitu New Year festival in Babylon. It traces theogony from the mingling of primordial Apsu (fresh water) and Tiamat (salt sea) to the cosmic victory of Marduk, who fashions heaven and earth from Tiamat's divided body, creates humankind from the blood of Kingu, and is proclaimed supreme king of the Anunnaki and Igigi with fifty sacred names.

Core Themes

• Succession of divine generations (Lahmu and Lahamu, Anshar and Kishar, An, and Ea/Nudimmud) leading to Marduk's investiture by the Assembly of the Gods.
• Ordering of the stars, calendar, lunar phases (Nanna/Sin), and the celestial station Nēberu (Nibiru) in Tablet V.
• Division of 300 Igigi in the heavens and 600 Anunnaki in heaven and the underworld, construction of the Esagila temple and ziggurat in Babylon, and the recitation of Marduk's Fifty Names (Tablets VI–VII).

Primary Text & Editions

• Untranslated Akkadian (cuneiform & transliteration): electronic Babylonian Literature (eBL) I.1 — Enūma eliš Tablets I–VII
• English translation & lemmatized edition: Oracc CAMS/GKAB — Enūma eliš (Tablets I–VII); eBL Parallel English Translation
• Primary tablet witnesses (CDLI): Nineveh (Kuyunjik), Assur & Kish cuneiform witnesses on CDLI
• Critical edition: Lambert, W. G. 2013. Babylonian Creation Myths. Mesopotamian Civilizations 16. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Talon, P. 2005. The Standard Babylonian Creation Myth Enūma Eliš (SAACT 4).

Related Concepts & Sources

Marduk (champion and king of the gods), Tiamat (primordial sea), Apsu (primordial freshwater), Kingu (commander of Tiamat's host), Divine Hierarchy (cosmic order)