Enuma Elish: The Epic of Creation · 1 of 12 · tr. L.W. King
1a
THE FIRST TABLET When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval Apsu, who begat them, And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both Their waters were mingled together, And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; When of the gods none had been called into being, And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained; Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven, Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being...
Ages increased,...
Then Ansar and Kisar were created, and over them....
Long were the days, then there came forth.....
Anu, their son,...
Ansar and Anu...
And the god Anu...
Nudimmud, whom his fathers, his begetters.....
Abounding in all wisdom,...' He was exceeding strong...
He had no rival - Thus were established and were...
the great gods.
But Tiamat and Apsu were still in confusion...
They were troubled and...
In disorder...
Apru was not diminished in might...
And Tiamat roared...
She smote, and their deeds...
Their way was evil...
Then Apsu, the begetter of the great gods, Cried unto Mummu, his minister, and said unto him: "O Mummu, thou minister that rejoicest my spirit, Come, unto Tiamut let us go!
So they went and before Tiamat they lay down, They consulted on a plan with regard to the gods, their sons.
Apsu opened his mouth and spake, And unto Tiamut, the glistening one, he addressed the word: ...their way...
By day I can not rest, by night I can not lie down in peace.
But I will destroy their way, I will...
Let there be lamentation, and let us lie down again in peace." When Tiamat heard these words, She raged and cried aloud...
She...
grievously..., She uttered a curse, and unto Apsu she spake: "What then shall we do?
Let their way be made difficult, and let us lie down again in peace." Mummu answered, and gave counsel unto Apsu, ...and hostile to the gods was the counsel Mummu gave: Come, their way is strong, but thou shalt destroy it; Then by day shalt thou have rest, by night shalt thou lie down in peace." Apsu harkened unto him and his countenance grew bright, Since he (Mummu) planned evil against the gods his sons.
...
he was afraid..., His knees became weak; they gave way beneath him, Because of the evil which their first-born had planned.
...
their...
they altered.
...
they..., Lamentation they sat in sorrow ..................
Then Ea, who knoweth all that is, went up and he beheld their muttering.
[about 30 illegible lines] ...
he spake: ...
thy...
he hath conquered and ...
he weepeth and sitteth in tribulation.
...
of fear, ...
we shall not lie down in peace.
...
Apsu is laid waste, ...
and Mummu, who were taken captive, in...
...
thou didst...
...
let us lie down in peace.
...
they will smite....
...
let us lie down in peace.
...
thou shalt take vengeance for them, ...
unto the tempest shalt thou...!" And Tiamat harkened unto the word of the bright god, and said: ...
shalt thou entrust!
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
[auto] The passage explicitly attributes human characteristics such as gender (father/mother), familial relations (son), and emotions (troubled, roared) to the divine beings.
All passages →Apophatic Theologytheology
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
[auto] The primordial state is described primarily through negation, stating what was not named, formed, or ordained before the gods came into being.
All passages →Cosmic Dualismtheology
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
[auto] The text establishes two distinct primal principles, Apsu and Tiamat, whose mingled waters form the basis of creation before conflict arises between them.
All passages →Divine Providencetheology
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The text references the ordaining of destinies and depicts Ea's omniscient intervention to order the cosmos against chaos.
All passages →Living Godtheology
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
[auto] The deities are portrayed as active, dynamic agents who feel trouble and roar rather than abstract static principles.
All passages →Sacred Namestheology
Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.
[auto] The text links existence and identity to naming, noting that initially none bore a name until gods were called into being.
All passages →Related passages · 8 parallels
christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology|Chapter III-b
“Now in the former treatises the course of the argument, as it came down from the highest to the lowest categories, embraced an ever-widening number of conceptions which increased at each stage of the descent, but in the present treatise it…”
Shared concept: Apophatic Theology — Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa. (derived)
christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 4, Section 1l
“Need is there to understand that in proper truth we do but use the elements and syllables and phrases and written terms and words as an aid to our senses; inasmuch as when our soul is moved by spiritual energies unto spiritual things, our s…”
Shared concept: Apophatic Theology — Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite)|Page 38 (part 2)
“The attempt to propitiate the Deity by means of prayers, sacrifices and abstinence, and thus to obtain the Divine assistance for the successful consummation of hideous offences and preposterous or impossible undertakings, is, of course, mad…”
Shared concept: Sacred Names — Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice. (derived)
egyptian|The Egyptian Heaven and Hell|Chapter 6 (part 5)
“The Rubric had, in fact, so far back as B.C.
2600, become a traditional magical formula of a most powerful character, and it must have been composed at the time when the abode of the blessed was supposed to resemble the "great field" in wh…”
Shared concept: Sacred Names — Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice. (derived)
western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter XVI (part 8)
“188 So writes Schopenhauer in his Counsels and Maxims , and indeed it is very effectively expressed, but we have no foundation whatsoever for regarding man as the summit of that which nature has created.
This is only THE HIGHEST THAT WE KN…”
Shared concept: Cosmic Dualism — Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality. (derived)
christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 4, Section 1k
“and all things are moved by a longing for the Beautiful and Good, to accomplish every outward work and form every act of will.
And true reasoning will also dare to affirm that even the Creator of all things Himself yearneth after all thing…”
Shared concept: Living God — The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 161
“Section 5 5. Still more unreasonably: There are men, bound to human bodies and subject to desire, grief, anger, who think so generously of their own faculty that they declare themselves in contact with the Intelligible World, but deny that…”
Shared concept: Divine Providence — Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XXVII-a
“Moreover, neither is it sufficient to assert, “ that nature, art, and the sympathy of things in the universe, as if they were the parts of one animal, contain premanifestations of certain 188 things with reference to each other; nor that bo…”
Shared concept: Divine Providence — Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity. (derived)