{"id":18922,"date":"2026-10-07T09:42:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T15:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/?p=18922"},"modified":"2026-10-07T09:49:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T15:49:06","slug":"enuma-elish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/enuma-elish\/","title":{"rendered":"Enuma Elish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>From <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/En%C5%ABma_Eli%C5%A1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>En\u016bma Eli\u0161<\/strong>  (also spelled &#8220;Enuma Elish&#8221;), meaning &#8220;When on High&#8221;, is a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Babylon\">Babylonian<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Creation_myth\">creation myth<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Incipit\">named after its opening words<\/a>) from the late 2nd millennium BCE and the only complete surviving account of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ancient_near_eastern_cosmology\">ancient near eastern cosmology<\/a>. It was recovered by English archaeologist <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Austen_Henry_Layard\">Austen Henry Layard<\/a> in 1849 (in fragmentary form) in the ruined <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Library_of_Ashurbanipal\">Library of Ashurbanipal<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nineveh\">Nineveh<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mosul\">Mosul<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Iraq\">Iraq<\/a>). A form of the myth was first published by English <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Assyriologist\">Assyriologist<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Smith_(Assyriologist)\">George Smith<\/a> in 1876; active research and further excavations led to near completion of the texts and improved translation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>En\u016bma Eli\u0161 has about a thousand lines and is recorded in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Akkadian_language\">Akkadian<\/a> on seven <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Clay_tablet\">clay tablets<\/a>, each holding between 115 and 170 lines of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cuneiform_script\">Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform script<\/a>. Most of Tablet V has never been recovered, but, aside from this <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lacuna_(manuscripts)\">lacuna<\/a>, the text is almost complete.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Over the seven tablets, it describes the creation of the world, a battle between gods focused on the offering to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marduk\">Marduk<\/a>, the creation of man destined for the service of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mesopotamian_deities\">Mesopotamian deities<\/a>, and it ends with a long passage praising Marduk. The rise of Marduk is generally viewed to have started from the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_kings_of_Babylon#Second_Isin\">Second Dynasty of Isin<\/a>, triggered by the return of the statue of Marduk from <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Elam\">Elam<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nebuchadnezzar_I\">Nebuchadnezzar I<\/a>, although a late Kassite date is also sometimes proposed. It may have been recited during the Akitu festival.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Some late Assyrian versions replace Marduk with <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ashur_(god)\">Ashur<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Wikipedia. En\u016bma Eli\u0161 (also spelled &#8220;Enuma Elish&#8221;), meaning &#8220;When on High&#8221;, is a Babylonian creation myth (named after its opening words) from the late 2nd millennium BCE and the only complete surviving account of ancient near eastern cosmology. It was recovered by English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in 1849 (in fragmentary form) in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[422],"tags":[421],"class_list":["post-18922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mesopotamia","tag-othermyths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18928,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18922\/revisions\/18928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}