Epic of Anzu

Akkadian mythological epic (*Bīn šar dadmē*, "Son of the King of the Inhabited World") preserved in an Old Babylonian single-tablet version and a Standard Babylonian three-tablet recension (~720 lines). It relates how the lion-headed storm bird Anzû steals the Tablet of Destinies from Enlil while the god is bathing, paralyzing cosmic authority until the warrior god Ninurta (Ningirsu in the Old Babylonian version), aided by the counsel of Ea and the mother goddess Belet-Ili, slays Anzû and restores the Divine Hierarchy.

Core Themes

• Power of the Tablet of Destinies (ṭuppi šīmāti): while Anzû holds it, his spoken word turns Ninurta's arrows backward into their component reed, wood, and sinew (Fate).
• Stratagem of Ea (Enki): Ninurta uses the South Wind to strip Anzû's wing-feathers and commands his dart to return "feathers to the forest" so the arrow strikes Anzû's heart.
• Syncretic hymn in Tablet III praising Ninurta with the names and cultic honors of deities across Mesopotamia.

Primary Text & Editions

• Untranslated Akkadian (cuneiform & transliteration): electronic Babylonian Literature (eBL) — Anzû Epic (OB & SB Tablets I–III)
• English translation & lemmatized text: Oracc CAMS/GKAB — Anzû; eBL Parallel English Translation
• Primary tablet witnesses (CDLI): Nineveh (K.3454+), Sultantepe & Susa tablets on CDLI
• Critical edition: Annus, A. 2001. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Anzu. State Archives of Assyria Cuneiform Texts 3. Helsinki; Foster, B. R. 2005. Before the Muses, pp. 555–578.

Related Concepts & Sources

Ninurta (warrior champion), Enlil (holder of the Tablet of Destinies), Ea (strategic counselor), Fate (Tablet of Destinies), Divine Hierarchy (authority)