Wilfred G. Lambert 2013 Creation
Lambert 2013 Creation Myths
Babylonian Creation Myths,
(Mesopotamian Civilization 16), Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns
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ToC of Lambert 2013 Creation Myths
| Table of Contents |
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| General topic(s) of the book |
For much of the last half of the twentieth century, W. G. Lambert devoted much of his research energy and effort to the study of Babylonian texts dealing with Mesopotamian ideas regarding creation, including especially Enuma Eliš. This volume, which appeared almost exactly 2 years after Lambert’s death, distills a lifetime of learning by the world’s foremost expert on these texts. Lambert provides a full transliteration and translation of the 7 tablets of Enuma Eliš, based on the known exemplars, as well as coverage of a number of other texts that bear on, or are thought to bear on, Mesopotamian notions of the origin of the world, mankind, and the gods. New editions of seventeen additional “creation tales” are provided, including “Enmesharra’s Defeat,” “Enki and Ninmah,” “The Slaying of Labbu,” and “The Theogony of Dunnu.” Lambert pays special attention, of course, to the connection of the main epic, Enuma Eliš, with the rise and place of Marduk in the Babylonian pantheon. He traces the development of this deity’s origin and rise to prominence and elaborates the relationship of this text, and the others discussed, to the religious and political climate Babylonia. The volume includes 70 plates (primarily hand-copies of the various exemplars of Enuma Eliš) and extensive indexes. |
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Excerpts from Lambert 2013 Creation Myths
NOTE: The notes in square brackets and in smaller font are by the author of this excerpts page.
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Cosmology
| Cosmology | p. 169 | Other than Enuma Eliš, there is no systematic treatment of cosmology in Sumero-Babylonian literature. The longest literary text dealing with any aspect of this topic is the Atrahasis Epic [for which see, e.g. Ermidoro 2017 Atrahasis], but this has rightly been called “a Babylonian history of mankind,” for it begins with the universe in essentially its present form and takes up the circumstances which led to the creation of man, with subsequent history up to the flood. But this does not mean that Enuma Eliš presents all that is known of Babylonian cosmology. On the contrary, the Epic uses only a selection of the wealth of available material, as will be seen in the case of the theogony (see pp. 405–426). Here, too, parallels to Marduk’s work have to be collected from allusions and incidental comments. |
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The decreeing of destinies
| The decreeing of destinies | p. 304 | Enlil's prestige had always been associated with the "determining of destinies" in Nippur, a ceremony to which all the major deities came. The place in which this occurred was Duku(g), a part of the Nippurian shrine of Enlil. An Old Babylonian copy of a Sumerian liturgical text already refers to this: VAS II 8 i 36.37. In later times when Marduk or Nabu "determined the destinies" in a similar rite, it was again in Duku(g) – but this time a Duku(g) in Babylon – in which it took place. Since towns generally did not boast a shrine with this name, that of Babylon was presumably consciously modelled on Nippurian custom, in order that the change in the headship of the gods should be made quite clear. Duku(g) means "pure [i.e., Sumerian kug] du" and du has two meanings corresponding with two Akkadian words: tīlu "hill," and dû "platform of bricks (in a shrine)." The latter seems to refer to the cultic Duku(g), while the former is cosmic. A bilingual hymn to Shamash speaks of his arising at dawn from "Duku, where the destinies are determined," and the Akkadian translation freely renders Duku with "mountain." |
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The organization of the Earth
| The organization of the Earth | pp. 192-193 | The section dealing with Marduk’s arrangement of the lower part of Tiamat’s body is both briefer than that about heaven, and fewer parallels can be adduced. This is a not unexpected phenomenon, as the organization of heaven was a traditional topic of mythology, as demonstrated, though none of the examples has any connection with Tiamat’s body. Thus, in Enuma Eliš the only part of the body named in connection with the heavens is Tiamat’s belly (kabattu: V 11), where Marduk located the height of heaven. The organization of earth was much more an invention of the author of the Epic, and here all the parts of Tiamat’s body turn up: head, eyes, nostrils, udder, and tail. |
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The organization of the Heavens
| The organization of the Heavens | p. 172 | The ordering of the heavens in Enuma Eliš proceeds on what might at first sight seem astronomical principles. More careful study shows that the real interest of the author lay in fixing the calendar rather than in astronomy per se. The stars with which he deals fix the year, then he passes to the moon, by which the month is fixed, and he concludes this part of his work by treating the sun, the regulator of the day. This orderly treatment and the neglect of anything else astronomical shows where his real interests lay. A contrast is offered by the account of Berossus, according to which Bel stationed the stars, sun, moon, and the five planets. The planets offer no guide to fixing the calendar. The same phenomenon occurs in chaps. 72.82 of the Book of Enoch, which, despite the title "Book of the Courses of the Luminaries of Heaven," is, like its prototype Genesis chap. 1, concerned mainly with the sun and moon. Another noteworthy feature of this part of Enuma Eliš is the scientific treatment of the whole topic. Very little mythology is present. Somehow, the author managed to deal with the function of the moon without so much as a mention of the name Sin. |