Enuma Elish: The Epic of Creation · 5 of 12 · tr. L.W. King
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Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them ...
the Anunnaki." She hath given him the Tablets of Destiny, on his breast she laid them, saying: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established." Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the fate for the gods, her sons, saving: Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god; Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!" I sent Anu, but he could not withstand her; Nudimmud was afraid and turned back.
But Marduk hath set out, the director of the gods, your son; To set out against Tiamat his heart hath prompted him.
He opened his mouth and spake unto me, saying: "If I, your avenger, Conquer Tiamat and give you life, Appoint an assembly, make my fate preeminent and proclaim it.
In Upsukkinaku seat yourself joyfully together; With my word in place of you will I decree fate.
May whatsoever I do remain unaltered, May the word of my lips never be changed nor made of no avail."' Hasten, therefore, and swiftly decree for him the fate which you bestow, That he may go and fight your strong enemy.
Gaga went, he took his way and Humbly before Lahmu and Lahamu, the gods, his fathers, He made obeisance, and he kissed the ground at their feet.
He humbled himself; then he stood up and spake unto them saying: "Ansar, your son, hath sent me, The purpose of his heart he hath made known unto me.
He saith that Tiamat our mother hath conceived a hatred for us, With all her force she rageth, full of wrath.
All the gods have turned to her, With those, whom ye created, they go at her side.
They are banded together and at the side of Tiamat they advance; They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day.
They prepare for battle, fuming and raging; They have joined their forces and are making war.
Ummu-Hubur, who formed all things, Hath made in addition weapons invincible; she hath spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth and merciless of fang.
With poison, instead of blood, she hath filled their bodies.
Fierce monster-vipers she hath clothed with terror, With splendor she hath decked them, she hath made them of lofty stature.
Whoever beboldeth them, terror overcometh him, Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack.
She hath set up vipers, and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes, and raging hounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, and fish-men, and rams; They bear merciless weapons, without fear of the fight.
Her commands are mighty; none can resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, hath she made eleven monsters.
Among the gods who are her sons, inasmuch as he hath given her support, She hath exalted Kingu; in their midst she hath raised him to power.
To march before the forces, to lead the host, To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack, To direct the battle, to control the fight, Unto him hath she entrusted; in costlv raiment she hath made him sit, saving: I have uttered thy spell; in the assembly of the gods I have raised thee to power, The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted unto thee.
Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them...the Anunnaki.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The Enuma Elish is the canonical Babylonian creation epic, and this passage narrates the primordial conflict between Tiamat (chaos) and the younger gods that constitutes the origin of the ordered cosmos.
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 gods are depicted as actively ordering events and decreing fate for themselves and others.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The passage repeatedly emphasizes the causal power of the spoken word: 'Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established' and 'May the word of my lips never be changed nor made of no avail.'