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ENUMA ELISH
Enuma Elish (‘When on High’) is the name given
to the Babylonian Epic of Creation, which was composed circa 1000
BC.
To orthodox scholars, Enuma Elish is almost totally beyond
comprehension. But, as I will now demonstrate, the Epic makes complete
logical sense when viewed as an exploded planet myth.
Before I set out the exploded planet interpretation of Enuma
Elish, it is worth outlining one particular theory, advocated
by the American author Zecharia Sitchin, which has gained some popularity
in recent years (it was borrowed without credit, for example, by
the writers D.S. Allan and J.B. Delair in their book ‘Cataclysm’,
alias ‘When the Earth Nearly Died').
Sitchin’s interpretation of Enuma Elish focuses on the
battle between Marduk and Tiamat. In his view, Marduk originates
from the abyss of space as an intruder planet, and proceeds to undergo
various encounters with the outer planets of our solar system, followed
by a climactic and catastrophic encounter with a planet named Tiamat.
According to Sitchin’s interpretation, the scarred planet Tiamat
was then shifted by the impact of Marduk’s satellites into
a new orbit to become the Earth, acquiring in the process a Moon
(named Kingu) which was previously the satellite of Tiamat. Marduk,
meanwhile, sailed off into space to begin a vast elliptical orbit
which would bring it back to the site of the celestial battle every
3,600 years.
As I have pointed out in my book ‘The Phoenix Solution’,
Sitchin’s scenario is totally contrary to the laws of celestial
dynamics, and cannot possibly represent a scientific record of the
history of the solar system. But beyond that, his reading of Enuma
Elish is based on a highly subjective interpretation. This will
become clear as I now set forth an entirely different interpretation.
The following section summarises my understanding of the Babylonian
Epic.
Enuma
Elish – the Exploded Planet Interpretation
The opening lines of Enuma Elish refer to a time ‘when
Heaven and Earth had not been named’. It is important to understand
that this does not mean that Heaven and Earth did not exist. Rather,
it means that the Heaven and Earth of the current Universe had not
yet been created by the interaction of the Heaven and Earth of the
old Universe.
In the lines that follow, the Heaven of the old Universe is named
Apsu-Tiamat. The text describes how the waters of Apsu and Tiamat
are mingled together (line 4), and how the gods are formed inside
their joint body (line 8). These gods are named Lahmu, Lahamu, Anshar,
Kishar, Anu and Ea (they are known collectively as the Anunnaki).
The Epic describes the gods causing a tremendous noise in the heavenly
abode and upsetting the belly of Tiamat as they surge back and forth
within her (lines 21-28). Apsu then decides to destroy the gods
in order to put an end to their noise, but Ea, catching wind of
the plan, makes a pre-emptive strike; he puts Apsu to sleep and
then slays him, whereupon he establishes his dwelling place upon
Apsu (lines 65-77). The meaning of this – we know from other
texts – is that Apsu fell from Heaven and became an ocean of
the Underworld, i.e. a subterranean sea. Hence the fact that Ea
(alias Enki) was the ruler of this subterranean sea (cf the ‘drawing
of lots’ passage in the Epic of Atra-Hasis).
The Epic now alludes to a sacred marriage between Ea and Damkina,
the latter almost certainly a personification of Mother Earth (their
union is thus a sacred marriage of Heaven and Earth, resulting from
the fall of the sky). The result of this union is the birth inside
Damkina (the Earth) of the young god Marduk, who is described in
supernatural terms: ‘flashing the look of his eyes... when
his lips moved, fire blazed forth... his members were gigantic,
he was surpassing in height’ (lines 78-100).
The Epic now switches its focus to Tiamat and her brood of gods
in Heaven. These gods accuse Tiamat of having stood idly by when
Apsu was vanquished. The gods of Tiamat plot a war of vengeance,
announcing that they will descend from Heaven into the Underworld
and prevail over Ea and the Anunnaki. Tiamat agrees with this action
and produces from within herself a brood of evil gods and appoints
Marduk their chief. The text refers to her, rather aptly, as Mother
Hubur, literally ‘Mother of Noise’.
In the Underworld, the Anunnaki-gods hear of the impending attack,
and seek a hero who will ascend into Heaven to make a precipitative
strike against Tiamat and her demons. The stage is set for Marduk
to step forward as the hero of the Epic, demanding that he be made
king of the gods if he can vanquish the enemy. The remainder of
the Epic is dominated by the war between Marduk and Tiamat and her
army, with Tablets II and III building up the suspense towards the
dramatic climax.
In Tablet IV, lines 19-32, the Anunnaki put Marduk’s powers
to the test by having him destroy a constellation and then bring
it back into existence (this act encapsulates the essential physical-metaphysical
duality of the exploded planet religion). Marduk passes the test,
collects his arms, and ascends into Heaven to do battle. To cut
a long story short, he vanquishes Tiamat with an arrow into her
interior, and casts her lifeless body down into the Underworld,
interring it beneath a mountain. In addition, he rounds up Kingu
and the other demons, binds them in fetters, and confines them in
the Underworld for eternity.
Marduk then creates the new Universe. First, he splits Tiamat’s
fallen body into two parts. With one half of her body, he creates
the visible heavens; the other half he secures in the Underworld
with a bolt, so that her waters cannot escape. Having done this,
Marduk measures the fallen body of Apsu and creates an invisible
Heaven, Esharra, in its image. He then organises the constellations
(this part of the text is not altogether clear) and appoints the
orbit of the Moon. Finally, in Tablet VI, Marduk creates mankind
from the blood of Kingu, and sets the Anunnaki free from the Underworld
by splitting off their spiritual doubles, the Igigi, whom he raises
to Heaven to live in Esharra for ever.
The Epic ends with the celebration of Marduk’s act of creation
and the listing of his fifty victorious titles.
Further
Comment on Alternative Interpretations
Several points now need to be made to clarify our understanding
of the Epic.
Firstly, there is no basis whatsoever for supposing that Apsu was
the Sun, as Zecharia Sitchin has suggested. In fact, the text describes
how Apsu was vanquished by Ea and cast down from Heaven to Earth.
Anyone who is familiar with the ancient Mesopotamian texts should
know that Apsu was the name for the subterranean sea.
Secondly, there is no basis whatsoever for supposing that the gods
produced by Apsu were planets of the solar system, as Sitchin suggested.
Yes, these gods were produced from within Apsu himself (Tablet
I, lines 3 and 9; the Epic describes the gods running around in
Apsu-Tiamat’s insides). But Apsu was not the Sun, but a celestial
body which fell from Heaven into the Underworld, i.e. an exploded
planet (hence the cataclysmic imagery in the text). There is no
basis, therefore, for supposing that Lahmu and Lahamu were Mars
and Venus, or that Anshar and Kishar were Saturn and Jupiter, or
that Anu and Ea were Uranus and Neptune, as Sitchin suggests. These
are all completely false premises.
Thirdly, Marduk did not appear from the cosmic abyss, as Sitchin
suggested, but was born from the interior of the Earth – a
mode of birth that is well-attested in the myths of the Greek gods.
This is evident from lines 73-84 of the Epic, which describe Marduk’s
mother and father as Damkina and Ea (incidentally, the Assyrian
version of the Epic suggests that Marduk’s mother and father
were Lahmu and Lahamu). But Ea, we are told, resided in a ‘sacred
chamber’, otherwise known as ‘the chamber of fates’
(lines 75 and 79). Where was this chamber and dwelling place of
Ea? We know from line 71 that it was ‘established upon the
Apsu’. Where was the Apsu? It was the Underworld of the Earth,
for it had earlier been cast down from Heaven (lines 60-70). In
summary, then, Marduk was created in the heart of the holy Apsu
(line 82), which was the Underworld of the Earth, and from there
he soared up into the heavens to do battle against the planet of
Tiamat. (This type of cosmic battle myth is well-attested in the
myths of ancient Egypt and Greece.)
Fourthly, there is no basis whatsoever for suggesting (as Sitchin
did) that Marduk encountered the other planets of the solar system
en route to his battle with Tiamat. These other ‘planets’
(Ea and Anu) were in fact the gods which had emanated from the interior
of the exploded planet Apsu.
Fifthly, the battle between Marduk and Tiamat was not a collision
between two planetary systems. Yes, Tiamat was envisioned as a physical
planet, but Marduk was envisioned as a metaphysical avenger-god
who rose up from the Earth to Heaven. The result of the battle was
the death of Tiamat, which is to be understood as a second planetary
explosion (following the explosion of Apsu recorded earlier in the
Epic).
Sixthly, it is incorrect to imagine (as Sitchin did) a break in
the battle, pending a future orbital return of Marduk. What the
Epic actually says is that ‘Valiant Marduk... turned back to
Tiamat’ (Tablet IV, line 128). This could be read in many different
ways, but in any event Marduk did not take the form of a
physical planet with a conventional orbit.
Seventhly, where ancient texts referred to Marduk as travelling
between the locations AN.UR and E.NUN, it must be understood that
these were not the perigee and apogee of an orbiting planet . On
the contrary, AN.UR was simply the Earth, whilst E.NUN was simply
the Deep, i.e. Heaven. By the same token, when Marduk saw ‘all
the quarters of the universe’, this meant that his realm spanned
the twin planets of Heaven and Earth, for the Sumerian term for
‘Universe’ was simply AN.KI, meaning ‘Heaven and
Earth’. (Virtually all of the activities of the gods in Sumerian
myths occurred between these two planets, which were at the heart
of the exploded planet mythos.)
Summary
In summary, Enuma Elish describes two linked planetary explosions
and their role in the creation of the Universe. It does not
describe a planetary collision. It does not describe Marduk
as an intruder planet. And it does not describe a race of
ancient astronauts descending from Marduk to Earth (nowhere does
any text state that the gods came down to Earth ‘from Marduk’;
on the contrary the gods came down to Earth from the destroyed celestial
body Apsu-Tiamat).
For further information on Enuma Elish and the exploded planet hypothesis,
see my books ‘When the Gods Came Down’ and ‘The Atlantis
Secret’, available from the Eridu
on-line bookshop.
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