Creation Stories from Ancient Mesopotamia | Middle East And North Africa

ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN CREATION STORIES

creation of light

Ira Spar of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote: “Stories describing creation are prominent in many cultures of the world. In Mesopotamia, the surviving evidence from the third millennium to the end of the first millennium B.C. indicates that although many of the gods were associated with natural forces, no single myth addressed issues of initial creation. It was simply assumed that the gods existed before the world was formed. [Source: Spar, Ira, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Epic of Creation (Mesopotamia)", Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York:, April 2009, metmuseum.org \^/]

“Unfortunately, very little survives of Sumerian literature from the third millennium B.C. Several fragmentary tablets contain references to a time before the pantheon of the gods, when only the Earth (Sumerian: ki) and Heavens (Sumerian: an) existed. All was dark, there existed neither sunlight nor moonlight; however, the earth was green and water was in the ground, although there was no vegetation. More is known from Sumerian poems that date to the beginning centuries of the second millennium B.C. \^/

“In Mesopotamia, the surviving evidence from the third millennium to the end of the first millennium B.C. indicates that although many of the gods were associated with natural forces, no single myth addressed issues of initial creation. "The Creation of Humankind" is a bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian story also referred to in scholarly literature as KAR 4. This account begins after heaven was separated from earth, and features of the earth such as the Tigris, Euphrates, and canals established. At that time, the god Enlil addressed the gods asking what should next be accomplished. The answer was to create humans by killing Alla-gods and creating humans from their blood. Their purpose will be to labor for the gods, maintaining the fields and irrigation works in order to create bountiful harvests, celebrate the gods' rites, and attain wisdom through study.” \^/

Websites on Mesopotamia: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; International Association for Assyriology iaassyriology.com ; Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago isac.uchicago.edu ; University of Chicago Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations nelc.uchicago.edu ; University of Pennsylvania Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (NELC) nelc.sas.upenn.edu; Penn Museum Near East Section penn.museum; Ancient History Encyclopedia ancient.eu.com/Mesopotamia ; British Museum britishmuseum.org ; Louvre louvre.fr/en/explore ; Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org/toah ; Ancient Near Eastern Art Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org; Iraq Museum theiraqmuseum ABZU etana.org/abzubib; Archaeology Websites Archaeology News Report archaeologynewsreport.blogspot.com ; Anthropology.net anthropology.net : archaeologica.org archaeologica.org ; Archaeology in Europe archeurope.com ; Archaeology magazine archaeology.org ; HeritageDaily heritagedaily.com; Live Science livescience.com/

Books: Black, J. A., G. Cunningham, E. Flückiger-Hawker, E. Robson, and G. Zólyomi, trans. The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.. Oxford: , 1998–2006. Foster, Benjamin R. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. 3d ed.. Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2005. Jacobsen, Thorkild The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. Jacobsen, Thorkild, trans. and ed. The Harps That Once . . . : Sumerian Poetry in Translation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. Lambert, W. G. "Mesopotamian Creation Stories." In Imagining Creation, edited by Markham J. Geller and Mineke Schipper, pp. 17–59. IJS Studies in Judaica 5.. Leiden: Brill, 2008. Lambert, W. G., and Alan R. Millard. Atra-Hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.

Website: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

Sumerian Creation Stories

Enlil

Ira Spar of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote: “A Sumerian myth known today as "Gilgamesh and the Netherworld" opens with a mythological prologue. It assumes that the gods and the universe already exist and that once a long time ago the heavens and earth were united, only later to be split apart. Later, humankind was created and the great gods divided up the job of managing and keeping control over heavens, earth, and the Netherworld.[Source: Spar, Ira, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 2009, metmuseum.org \^/]

“The origins of humans are described in another early second-millennium Sumerian poem, "The Song of the Hoe." In this myth, as in many other Sumerian stories, the god Enlil is described as the deity who separates heavens and earth and creates humankind. Humanity is formed to provide for the gods, a common theme in Mesopotamian literature. \^/

“In the Sumerian poem "The Debate between Grain and Sheep," the earth first appeared barren, without grain, sheep, or goats. People went naked. They ate grass for nourishment and drank water from ditches. Later, the gods created sheep and grain and gave them to humankind as sustenance. According to "The Debate between Bird and Fish," water for human consumption did not exist until Enki, lord of wisdom, created the Tigris and Euphrates and caused water to flow into them from the mountains. He also created the smaller streams and watercourses, established sheepfolds, marshes, and reedbeds, and filled them with fish and birds. He founded cities and established kingship and rule over foreign countries. In "The Debate between Winter and Summer," an unknown Sumerian author explains that summer and winter, abundance, spring floods, and fertility are the result of Enlil's copulation with the hills of the earth. \^/

“Another early second-millennium Sumerian myth, "Enki and the World Order," provides an explanation as to why the world appears organized. Enki decided that the world had to be well managed to avoid chaos. Various gods were thus assigned management responsibilities that included overseeing the waters, crops, building activities, control of wildlife, and herding of domestic animals, as well as oversight of the heavens and earth and the activities of women. \^/

“According to the Sumerian story "Enki and Ninmah," the lesser gods, burdened with the toil of creating the earth, complained to Namma, the primeval mother, about their hard work. She in turn roused her son Enki, the god of wisdom, and urged him to create a substitute to free the gods from their toil. Namma then kneaded some clay, placed it in her womb, and gave birth to the first humans.” \^/

Babylonian Creation Stories

Marduk

Ira Spar of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote:“Babylonian poets, like their Sumerian counterparts, had no single explanation for creation. Diverse stories regarding creation were incorporated into other types of texts. Most prominently, the Babylonian myth "Enuma Elish" is a theological legitimization of the rise of Marduk as the supreme god in Babylon, replacing Enlil, the former head of the pantheon. The poem was most likely compiled during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I in the later twelfth century B.C., or possibly a short time afterward. At this time, Babylon, after many centuries of rule by the foreign Kassite dynasty, achieved political and cultural independence. The poem celebrates the ascendancy of the city and acts as a political tractate explaining how Babylon came to succeed the older city of Nippur as the center of religious festivals. [Source: Spar, Ira, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 2009, metmuseum.org \^/]

“The short tale "Marduk, Creator of the World" is another Babylonian narrative that opens with the existence of the sea before any act of creation. First to be created are the cities, Eridu and Babylon, and the temple Esagil is founded. Then the earth is created by heaping dirt upon a raft in the primeval waters. Humankind, wild animals, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the marshlands and canebrake, vegetation, and domesticated animals follow. Finally, palm groves and forests appear. Just before the composition becomes fragmentary and breaks off, Marduk is said to create the city of Nippur and its temple, the Ekur, and the city of Uruk, with its temple Eanna.” \^/

Creation of the Pickax

The Myth of the Creation of the Pickax or Hoe adds some details to the creation of mankind: Enlil removed heaven from earth in order to make room for seeds to come up. After he created the hoe he used it to break the hard crust of earth in Uzumua (the flesh-grower), a place in the Temple of Inanna in Nippur. Here, out of the hole made by Enlil's hoe, man grew forth. [Source: Kenneth Sublett, piney.com]

The Creation of the Pickax by Enlil (the Babylonian Holy Spirit) goes: The lord did verily produce the normal order,
The lord whose decisions cannot be altered,
Enlil quickly removed heaven from earth
So that the seed, from which the nation grew, could sprout up from the field;
He quickly brought the earth out from under the heaven as a separate entity
And bound up for the earth the gash in the "bond of heaven and earth"
So that the earth could grow humankind.;

He created the pickax when daylight was shining forth,
He organized the tasks, the pickman's way of life;
Stretching out his arm straight toward the pickax and the basket,
Enlil sang the praises of his pickax.
He drove his pickax into the earth.
In the hole which he had made was humankind.
While the people of the land were breaking through the ground,
He eyed his black-headed ones in steadfast fashion.
The pickax and the basket build cities,
The steadfast house of the pickax builds, the steadfast house of the pickax establishes,
The steadfast house it causes to prosper.
The house which rebels against the king,
The house which is not submissive to its king,
The pickax makes it submissive to the kingÉ
The pickax, its fate is decreed by father Enlil,
The pickax is exalted.

Inanna, Utu, Enki, and Isimud

Babylonian Version of a Sumerian Creation Myth

This myth was written in the 12th century B.C., but the myths on which it was based date back to ancient Sumer. The most complete text was found on seven clay tablets. Below is a translation from Tablet IV which tells of the great battle between the sky god Marduk and the earth goddess Tiamat. [Source: Then Again]

Tablet IV: “They set up a throne for Marduk and he sat down facing his forefathers to receive the government. 'One god is greater than all great gods, a fairer fame, the word of command, the word from heaven, O Marduk, greater than all great gods, the honor and the fame, the will of Anu, great command, unaltering and eternal word! Where there is action the first to act, where there is government the first to govern; to glorify some, to humiliate some, that is the gift of the god, Truth absolute, unbounded will; which god dares question it? In their beautiful places a place is kept for you, Marduk, our avenger. 'We have called you here to receive the scepter, to make you king of the whole universe. When you sit down in the Synod you are the arbiter; in the battle your weapon crushes the enemy. 'Lord, save the life of any god who turns to you; but as for the one who grasped evil, from that one let his life drain out.' They conjured then a kind of apparition and made it appear in front of him, and they said to Marduk, the first-born son, 'Lord, your word among the gods arbitrates, destroys, creates: then speak and this apparition will disappear. Speak again, again it will appear.' He spoke and the apparition disappeared. Again he spoke and it appeared again. When the gods had proved his word they blessed him and cried, 'MARDUK IS KING!'

“They robed him in robes of a king, the scepter and the throne they gave him, and matchless war-weapons as a shield against the adversary. 'Be off. Slit life from Tiamat, and may the winds carry her blood to the world's secret ends.'The old gods had assigned to Bel what he would be and what he should do, always conquering, always succeeding; Then Marduk made a bow and strung it to be his own weapon, he set the arrow against the bow-string, in his right hand he grasped the mace and lifted it up, bow and quiver hung at his side, lightnings played in front of him, he was altogether an incandescence. He netted a net, a snare for Tiamat; the winds from their quarters held it, south wind, north, east wind, west, and no part of Tiamat could escape.

“With the net, the gift of Anu, held close to his side, he himself raised up IMHULLU the atrocious wind, the tempest, the whirlwind, the hurricane, the wind of four and the wind of seven, the tumid wind worst of all. All seven winds were created and released to savage the guts of Tiamat, they towered behind him. Then the tornado ABUBA his last great ally, the signal for assault, he lifted up. He mounted the storm, his terrible chariot, reins hitched to the side, yoked four in hand the appalling team, sharp poisoned teeth, the Killer, the Pitiless, Trampler, Haste, they knew arts of plunder, skills of murder. He posted on his right the Batterer, best in the mêlée; on his left the Battle-fury that blasts the bravest, lapped in this armor, a leaping terror, a ghastly aureole; with a magic word clenched between his lips, a healing plant pressed in his palm, this lord struck out.

Genealogy of Sumerian gods

“He took his route towards the rising sound of Tiamat's rage, and all the gods besides, the fathers of the gods pressed in around him, and the lord approached Tiamat. He surveyed her scanning the Deep, he sounded the plan of Kingu her consort; but so soon as Kingu sees him he falters, flusters, and the friendly gods who filled the ranks beside him- when they saw the brave hero, their eyes suddenly blurred.

“But Tiamat without turning her neck roared, spitting defiance from bitter lips, 'Upstart, do you think yourself too great? Are they scurrying now from their holes to yours?' Then the lord raised the hurricane, the great weapon he flung his words at the termagant fury, 'Why are you rising, your pride vaulting, your heart set on faction, so that sons reject fathers? Mother of all, why did you have to mother war? 'You made that bungler your husband, Kingu! You gave him the rank, not his by right, of Anu. You have abused the gods my ancestors, in bitter malevolence you threaten Anshar, the king of all the gods. 'You have marshaled forces for battle, prepared the war-tackle. Stand up alone and we will fight it you, you and I alone in battle.'

“When Tiamat heard him her wits scattered, she was possessed and shrieked aloud, her legs shook from the crotch down, she gabbled spells, muttered maledictions, while the gods of war sharpened their weapons. Then they met: Marduk, that cleverest of gods, and Tiamat grappled alone in singled fight. The lord shot his net to entangle Tiamat, and the pursuing tumid wind, Imhullu, came from behind and beat in her face. When the mouth gaped open to suck him down he drove Imhullu in, so that the mouth would not shut but wind raged through her belly; her carcass blown up, tumescent.

“She gaped- And now he shot the arrow that split the belly, that pierced the gut and cut the womb. Now that the Lord had conquered Tiamat he ended her life, he flung her down and straddled the carcass; the leader was killed, Tiamat was dead, her rout was shattered, her band dispersed.

“Those gods who had marched beside her now quaked in terror, and to save their own lives, if they could, they turned their backs on danger But they were surrounded, held in a tight circle, and there was no way out. He smashed their weapons and tossed them into the net; they found themselves inside the snare, they wept in holes and hid in corners suffering the wrath of god. When they resisted he put in chains the eleven monsters, Tiamat's unholy brood, and all their murderous armament. The demoniac band that has marched in front of her he trampled in the ground.

“But Kingu the usurper, he chief of them, he bound and made death's god. He took the Tables of Fate, usurped without right, and sealed them with his seal to wear on his own breast. When it was accomplished, the adversary vanquished, the haughty enemy humiliated; when the triumph of Anshar was accomplished on the enemy, and the will of Nudimmud was fulfilled, then brave Marduk tightened the ropes of the prisoners. He turned back to where Tiamat lay bound, he straddled the legs and smashed her skull (for the mace was merciless), he severed the arteries and the blood streamed down the north wind to the unknown ends of the world.

“When the gods saw all this they laughed out loud, and they sent him presents. They sent him their thankful tributes. The lord rested; he gazed at the huge body, pondering how to use it, what to create from the dead carcass. He split it apart like a cockle-shell; with the upper half he constructed the arc of sky, he pulled down the bar and set a watch on the waters, so they should never escape. He crossed the sky to survey the infinite distance; he station himself above apsu, that apsu built by Nudimmud over the old abyss which now he surveyed, measuring out and marking in. He stretched the immensity of the firmament, he made Esharra, the Great Palace, to be its earthly image, and Anu and Enlil and Ea had each their right stations.

Enuma Elish (The Babylonian Creation Story), c. 2000 B.C.

Ira Spar of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote:“The Babylonian myth "Enuma Elish" is a theological legitimization of the rise of Marduk as the supreme god in Babylon, replacing Enlil, the former head of the pantheon. The poem was most likely compiled during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I in the later twelfth century B.C., or possibly a short time afterward. At this time, Babylon, after many centuries of rule by the foreign Kassite dynasty, achieved political and cultural independence. The poem celebrates the ascendancy of the city and acts as a political tractate explaining how Babylon came to succeed the older city of Nippur as the center of religious festivals. The myth itself has 1,091 lines written on seven tablets.[Source: Spar, Ira, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 2009, metmuseum.org \^/]

Mircea Elaide of the University of Chicago wrote: “The long Babylonian creation epic 'Enuma elish' ('When on High'), so called from the first two words of the poem, narrates a chain of events beginning with the very first separation of order out of chaos and culminating in the creation of the specific cosmos known to the ancient Babylonians. As the gods are born within the commingled waters of their primeval parents, Apsu and Tiamat, their restlessness disturbs Apsu. Over Tiamat's protests, he plans to kill them; but the clever Ea learns of his plan and kills Apsu instead. Now Tiamat is furious, she produces an army of monsters to avenge her husband and to wrest lordship from the younger generation. The terrified gods turn to Ea's son Marduk for help. Marduk agrees to face Tiamat, but demands supremacy over them as compensation. They promptly assemble, declare him king, and send him forth, armed with his winds and storms. The battle is short; the- winds inflate Tiamat's body like a balloon and Marduk sends an arrow through her gaping mouth into her heart. He then splits her body, forming heaven and earth with the two halves. After putting the heavens in order, he turns to Ea for help in creating, out of the blood of Tiamat's demon-commander Kingu, the black-haired men of Mesopotamia. The poem concludes as the gods build a temple for Marduk and gather in it to celebrate his mighty deeds. Enuma elish was probably composed in the early part of the second millennium B.C. [Source: Eliade Site]

Atrahasis: Human Creation

The Atrahasis is an 18th-century B.C. Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets, named for its main character Atrahasis (“Exceedingly Wise'”.The Atra-Hasis tablets include both a cosmological creation myth and one of three surviving Babylonian flood myths. The name "Atrahasis" also appears, as a king of Shuruppak in the times before a flood, on one of the Sumerian King Lists. [Source: Wikipedia]

When the Gods did the work they grew weary and decided to create man. This concept appears in all legalism.This later Akkadian version of the flood story and the creation of humanity and fits between the Sumerian version and the Babylonian version in the Epic of Gilgamesh. This following outline is from "The Treasures of Darkness" by Thorkild Jacobsen, Yale University. Press, 1967). It begins:

When ILU (that is ENLIL) was the boss they (the gods) were burdened with toil, lugged the work basket; the god's work basket . . . was big, so that the toil was heavy, great the straits.

ENLIL, having charge of the earth put the other gods to work digging the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Tired of their condition and at the instigation of one of the gods they burned their tools one night and surrounded ENLIL's house. ENLIL was alarmed and sent for AN and ENKI. After the striking gods told them that the work was killing them and that they would not continued ENLIL burst into tears and offered his resignation. ENKI then proposed a compromise. They would create man to bear the burden to that the gods would be free.

With the birth goddess, NINTUR, ENKI used the flesh and blood of the strike's ringleader (killed by the other gods) to fashion clay into 7 male and 7 female embryos in the "house of destiny". After 9 months humanity was born and put to work.

After 1,200 years the growing human population kept ENLIL awake nights. So ENLIL and the gods sent a plague which was ended when ENKI told the human Atrahasis to shift all offerings to the god of the plague, NAMTAR who became to abashed to harm the people further.

The story of Second Adam and Eve define how the second thousand years began. As with all traditions of instrumental music and choir to manipulate other people, Satan is always the source.

After another 1,200 years the noise was back so ENLIL and the gods sent a drought. ENKI advised Atrahasis to shift all offering to ADAD, the god causing the drought, and the drought stopped.

Soon the noise returned so the gods ceased to perform their duties so all of natures bounty disappeared. This was only ended when ENKI let large quantities of fish into the rivers (accidentally, he maintained).

ENLIL, by now enraged, bound his fellow gods by an oath to annihilate humanity by a flood. ENKI got around this oath and managed to warn Atrahasis by speaking not to him but to the reed hut in which he was lying. Atrahasis built a large boat explaining to the town elders that he was leaving because of the bad blood between his personal god, ENKI, and ENLIL in whose domain his town of Shuruppak lay. After having loaded the boat with all kinds of animals and his family the flood came.

The gods were horrified at the destruction of the flood which lasted 7 days and nights. In addition they became hungry as no offerings were made to sustain them. When Atrahasis left the ship he prepared a sacrifice around which the hungry gods gathered like flies.

Creation Account From Ashur

Creation Account From Ashur:
“A holy house, a house of the gods, in a holy place had not been made;
No reed had spring up, no tree had been created.
No brick had been made, no foundation had been built,
No house had been constructed, no city had been built;
No city had been built, thrones had not been established:
Nippur had not been constructed, Ekur had not been built;
Erech had not been constructed, Eanna had not been built;
The deep had not been formed, Eridu had not been built; [Source: George Barton, “Archaeology and the Bible”, 7th Edition, p. 303-305, Kenneth Sublett, piney.com]

“The holy house, the house of the gods, the dwelling had not been made, —
All lands were sea, —
Then in the midst of the sea was a water-course;
In those days Eridu was constructed, Esagila was built,
Esagila where, in the midst of the deep, the god Lugal-dul-azaga abode,
(Babylon was made, Esagila was completed_.
The gods and the Anunaki he made at one time.
(The holy city, the dwelling of their hearts' desire, they named as first),
Marduk bound a structure of reeds upon the face of the waters,
He formed dust, he poured it out beside the reed-structure.
To cause the gods to dwell in the habitation of their heart's desire

“He formed mankind.
the goddess Aruru with him created mankind,
Cattle of the field, in whom is breath of life, he created.
He formed the Tigris and Euphrates and set them in their places,
Their names he did well declare.
The grass, marsh-grass, the reed and brushwood he created,
The green grass of the field he created,
The land, the marshes, and the swamps;
The wild cow and her young, the wild calf; the ewe and her yhoung, the lamb of the fold;
Gardens and forests;
The wild goat, the mountain goat, (who) care for himself .

The lord Marduk filled a terrace by the seaside,
.......a marsh, reeds he set,
...........he caused to exist.
[Reeds he creat]ed; trees he created;
In their.....in their place he made;
[Bricks he laid, a founda]tion he constructed;
[Houses he made], a city he built;
[A city he built, a throne] he established;
[Nippur he constructed], Ekur he built;
[Erech he constructed], Eanna he built.
The godess Aruru, when she heard this,
A man like Anu she formed in her heart.
Aruru washed her hands;
Clay she pinched off and spat upon it;
Eabani, a hero she created,
An exalted offspring, with the might of Ninib.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu , National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, especially Merle Severy, National Geographic, May 1991 and Marion Steinmann, Smithsonian, December 1988, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated July 2024