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On Enuma Elish, the Babylonian Epic of Creation
'The opening lines of Enuma Elish
describe a sacred marriage between Apsu and Tiamat in the heavens. The waters of Apsu and Tiamat are joined together (line 4), and gods are formed inside their collective body (line 8). These gods are Lahmu, Lahamu, Anshar, Kishar, Anu and Ea. The Epic describes these gods causing a tremendous noise in the heavenly abode and upsetting the belly of Tiamat as they surged back and forth within her. Apsu then decided to destroy these gods, but Ea, catching wind of the plan, made a pre-emptive strike and destroyed Apsu. Tiamat, it would seem, stood idly by while her consort Apsu was vanquished, and hence she became the target for revenge by Marduk - a theme which dominates the remainder of the Epic.'
(www.eridu.co.uk 'Ancient Astronauts' March 2000)'Enuma Elish
begins by describing a battle in the heavens, in which a planetary god, Apsu, was vanquished by Ea (Enki), and it ends by describing a second celestial battle in which another planetary deity, Tiamat, was vanquished by the Titan-god Marduk. It is thus no surprise to find that both Apsu and Tiamat were credited in the text as forming gods within them, and bringing forth those gods from within their interiors.'
(When The Gods Came Down p. 310) 'Apsu failed in his plan to destroy the gods inside Tiamat, and ended up being put into a deep sleep himself by Ea, who cast him down to the Earth. As for the gods, they were
seemingly released from inside Tiamat, and took up an independent existence. Tiamat, however, continued to bring forth ferocious monsters from her insides, thus acquiring the nickname Mother Hubur, meaning 'Mother of
Noise'. Eventually, Tiamat was destroyed and cast down into the Earth, hence the underworld was said to contain a River Hubur - a 'River of Noise'.'
(When The Gods Came Down p. 311) 'Apsu was a god of Heaven who
had been cast down to the Earth by Enki. Enki had then descended to the Earth himself and had established his 'sacred chamber' and 'cult hut' upon the Apsu.'
(When The Gods Came Down p. 173) 'Ea (Enki) also
descended to the Earth, where he took as his wife the goddess Damkina (presumably an Earth-goddess like Ninharsag). The next thing that happened was that Marduk appeared on the scene as their son - the offspring no
doubt of a sacred marriage rite. Marduk then escaped from the 'mountain' of the underworld, and ascended up into the Sky (metaphysically) like a Greek Titan.'
(When The Gods Came Down p. 100) 'In Tablet VI of
Enuma Elish, after Marduk had vanquished Tiamat, and buried her body in the Earth, he decided to create 'mankind' in order to relieve the gods of their toil. However, as a result of this creation of 'mankind' (with
the help of Ea), Marduk was also able to 'set the gods free', by dividing them into two groups - the Anunnaki and the Igigi.'
(When The Gods Came Down p. 318) 'the three hundred Anunnaki-gods in the underworld were
made to spawn three hundred metaphysical doubles, the Igigi-gods. Whilst the group of Anunnaki remained in the Earth - set free from their toil by the creation of 'man' - the group of Igigi were raised to Heaven,
metaphysically, and were thus truly set free.'
(When The Gods Came Down p. 319) 'So, returning to Tablet VI of Enuma Elish, and the construction of Marduk's E-sag-ila
temple, what we are looking at is a mythical, metaphysical temple... The 'head' of E-sag-ila, we are told, would be equal in size to the fallen 'mountain' of the underworld, and it would be raised 'as high as
the Apsu is deep', i.e. as high relative to the underworld, as the Apsu was deep relative to Heaven. In other words, the temple would stretch to the exact place where Heaven had been before the catastrophe. And this
[new] Heaven would become an abode for Marduk, Enlil (and) Ea (Enki).'
(When The Gods Came Down p. 101) |
