The Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Myth

A reading and analysis of the Babylonian Creation Myth (Enuma Elish), to help understand the evolution of the Proto-Indo European Creation Myth. To me I treat it as the missing link of how we get to the Abrahamic religions from the PIE Creation Myth, and I will talk about that step in a video soon.

Here I read through a contemporary translation I've compiled, and add commentary as I go, to explain the references, the ideas it is trying to apply to the culture, and the hidden footprints of the PIE myths it is walking in.

I do reference a paper (I use JSTOR as most Universities subscribe to it and so it is free for me):

The Fifth Tablet of the Enuma Elis, by Landsberger and Kinnier Wilson, from the Journal of Near Eastern Studies (July 1961)

But I also use the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, and the Jewish Publishing Society Commentary version of the Genesis story in the Torah, as biblical reference.

Chapters
================================================
0:00 Introduction
2:25 A Brief History of the Enuma Elish
4:50 Story: The First Gods + Commentary on who Apsu and Tiamat really were
7:25 Story: The Birth of Ea + Commentary
8:32 Story: The Killing of Apsu + Commentary on Order versus Chaos
11:14 Story: The Birth of Marduk + Commentary on Temples
12:45 Story: Marduk acquires Power + Commentary on Henotheism
13:48 Story: The Rise of Kingu and the Anunnaki + Commentary on Chaos
16:48 Story: The Rise of Marduk + Commentary on Cloth
20:52 Story: Weapons and Winds and the Marduk fights Tiamat
25:53 Story: Creating the world from parts of Tiamat
27:25 Commentary: Tiamat the Cow
28:25 Story: Homes for all the gods + Commentary on Ea's role
29:25 Story: Creating man from Kingu
30:48 Story: Building Temples
33:53 The 50 Names of Marduk
47:32 Story: Ea acknowledges Marduk
49:17 Further analysis of the Proto-Indo European links

[Crecganford]

What is the creation myth you want to hear most? England's? Persians? or someone else?

[GustavoTrejoPerez]

You have a real smooth very detailed awesome way of narrating thank you

[ragnarshadow]

The thing that always threw me about this story is that the ones humans worship and thought of as basically good guys are basically bullies. They be as annoying as possible and pester Apsu until he snaps then kill him in a long drawn out taunting way, and when Tiamat and Kingu seek justice for it they are killed in horrific ways, it almost seems like Tiamat is the more logical one objecting to killing their kids and then seeking justice making her the good guy in my eyes.

[MitchellJohnsonRoseWoodTheBand]

Let’s watch and listen while buddy directly channels ancient Babylonian storyteller priests. Fascinating!

[eriknelson]

[42:00] throwing a mountain atop the dragon Tiamat resembles the Chinese dragoon myth (of the Jade Emperor throwing mountains atop the 4 dragons). Humans created from the blood of gods to serve them resembles myths from Meso-America, which also include twins

[DavidLightbringer]

Hey Mr. White, it’s me again. So, something wasn’t quite sitting right with the idea that the Proto Indo European influences on Mesopotamian myth only comes from Iran. It seems too late of an influence to be so pervasive, and as it turns out, there is evidence that a Proto Indo-European speaking people preceded the Sumerians in the Fertile Crescent. The presence of a few polysyllabic words in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages have long presented a mystery, it seems, and these words seem to be on loan from PIE. They’re mostly words that have to do with irrigation and farming in the area, and there’s no horses, so this would have been some sort of non-horse migration over the Caucus mountains and down through Armenia, before the primary PIE outward expansion. This makes more sense to me, and notice at the very end of the article I’m linking to that the linguistic evidence points to this culture - referred to as Euphratic - had some sort of believe about calling on serpents or the wind... so perhaps evidence of the chaos struggle myth. I’m digging deeper but the point is, yes, obviously the Mesopotamian creation myths are PIE influenced, and this research provides a more satisfactory explanation for how this happened far enough back in history for it to have become so pervasive in Fertile Crescent culture. Additionally, trade routes show contact between Harrapan, Fertile Crescent, and Egyptian culture before the Aryan migration, so that’s another avenue for idea dispersal. Finally, what about the presence of a “separating the waters from the waters to make the first land” myth in ancient Egypt as well? It’s very similar to the Babylonian and Biblical ideas. Was that a later addition to Egyptian mythology? Cheers

[AdrianBoyko]

It’s amazing how bizarrely random and petty creation myths are. There’s about 10 seconds of mystical yin/yang stuff and then it devolves into the equivalent of a daytime soap opera crossed with DragonballZ.

[AlxKrex]

This one came at the right time. I teach my children history in homeschooling and with my young daughter we had finished prehistory last month and started with history in Mesopotamia. When I read the Enûma Eliš to her, she noticed some relationship between Tiamat/Ymir/Jörmungandr and Marduk/Odin/Thor (we are Heathens so the Norse myth of creation she already knows well) and she asked me what the Mesopotamian names were for Týr, Wotan, Donar and Freya :). She was very interested and I confess that I must read more about comparative mythology. Soon we will see Egypt and I am sure the same questions will come up. I really like your work and now I have my oldest son watching and sharing your videos too. Thank you.

[theostickle]

Thank you 😊. Listening to you this evening has brought back many good memories from the first time I heard these stories. I could almost feel the camp fire and smell that forest that is no more.

[John]

Could you do a video on Zoroastrianism and any parallels with Judaism and or Christianity ?

[TarninTheGreat]

I've read a lot of translations of Enuma Elis, and this one was great.
Amazing work. Love your channel, still have a bunch to get through.
Keep up the amazing work, it's highly appreciated.
And thank you so much for not skipping the 50 names. (And for the subtitles, I sometimes have trouble with your accent, so it's super appreciated!)

[virginie]

Thank you from the heart.
I just discovered your channel a few days ago and it's so informative, I love it.
And then your way of telling these myths is perfect, you transport us on the spot.
I look forward to listening to all of your past and future videos.

[Dubs_D]

Really nice videos and a calm voice, keep up the nice work

Cheers from Germany

[rachel_v_k]

It's interesting to note that "Ea" can also be spelled "Ia, " which can be pronounced "Yah, " the ancient name for "God, " which carries over into the Bible. It's a fascinating connection from the ancient to the very ancient.
To give credit where it's due, this is not my own original observation, but from the channel "JayDreamerZ."

[zenflowlife]

Marduk has 4 horses 🐎, then Yahweh has 4 horses in revelations 🐎 📚 I love seeing how each has parts of others. One day we may all figure out that they're all the ancient "telephone game version " of the same thing. ❤ great episode

[Hypatiaization]

You have explained it all in a way I could understand

[petronellaeiksson]

I love your work! But I have a question I can't find an answer to. The Babylonians spok a semitik language.. not a an indo European.. apart from when the wher under the Hettits... So, how and why did the story pas the language barrier?

[jmarsh]

Another gem from Crecganford, thanks, really interesting. Looking forward to the video about the step between PIE Creation myths to Abrahamic religions.

[ihdwiih]

Thank you, very clear and informative!

"Crecgranford" is a mouthful at first sight btw, and, although beautiful, the Celtic font that flashes briefly at the beginning, required me to scroll back and again and pause, to figure out your channel name.

[babylonsburning]

Hi John. I really enjoy your vids and your bringing to life the ancient stories.

Listen to the beginning of this tale, I was wondering if the Apsu, Fresh water on high, could be referring to glacial ice locked up in the mountains during the ice age and the melting causing the rivers to over flow causing the mud, slit children of the fresh and salt waters, much like the nile floods rather than refering the river delta.
This would place the creation myth squarely, in the land between the two rivers rather than on the coast. Thus focusing the activity on the fertile plain as the cause of all the noise. Just a thought.