The Enuma Elish was a Mesopotamian creation story. It may have eventually become the precursor of the first creation story in Genesis, as there are similarities, or both may have come from a common source.
C. The main purpose is to explain a natural disaster
AnswerThe Sumerians occupied Mesopotamia before the Babylonians, who adopted and refined the Sumerian religion. The belief systems were essentially very similar, but the gods and goddesses of Babylonian times had Babylonian names, adn the myths had evolved to become more sophisticated. There is nothing in the myths of the Sumerians that corresponds to the Enuma Elish, or Epic of Creation, of the Assyro-Babylonians.
Enuma Elish is the Babylonian creation mythos. It was recovered by Austen Henry Layard in 1849 (in fragmentary form) in the ruined Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq), and published by George Smith in 1876. When the seven tablets that contain this were first discovered, evidence indicated that it was used as a "ritual", meaning it was recited during a ceremony or celebration. It supposedly was written no later than the reign of Nebuchadrezzar in the 12th century B.C. But there is also little doubt that this story was written much earlier, during the time of the Sumerians. Drawing some new light on the ancients, Henry Layard found within the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, texts that were not unlike the Genesis creation in the Bible. George Smith first published this text in 1876 under the title, The Chaldean Genesis, Akkadian text written in the old Babylonian dialect. In the related links box below, I posted the tablet contents.
Hammurabi, and the people of his empire, worshiped several gods. Their chief god was Marduk. The Babylonians built temples, called ziggurats, to worship their gods. The city of Babylon had an especially beautiful temple dedicated to Marduk. It may have looked something like this imagined construction. From the Enuma Elish, the epic poem of this ancient religion, we learn how Marduk becomes the chief god. (The link takes you to a picture of some of the tablets written in Cuneiform, in the Akkadian language.) The people eventually called him "Bel" which means "lord." From the epic creation poem Gilgamesh, we learn how man survived a Great Flood.
Hammurabi, and the people of his empire, worshiped several gods. Their chief god was Marduk. The Babylonians built temples, called ziggurats, to worship their gods. The city of Babylon had an especially beautiful temple dedicated to Marduk. It may have looked something like this imagined construction. From the Enuma Elish, the epic poem of this ancient religion, we learn how Marduk becomes the chief god. (The link takes you to a picture of some of the tablets written in Cuneiform, in the Akkadian language.) The people eventually called him "Bel" which means "lord." From the epic creation poem Gilgamesh, we learn how man survived a Great Flood.
C. The main purpose is to explain a natural disaster
Enuma Elish is pronounced as "eh-NOO-mah EH-lish." The emphasis is typically placed on the second syllable of "Enuma" and the first syllable of "Elish." Each syllable should be clearly articulated, with a smooth flow between them.
Enuma Elish
It is the Babylonian creation myth that shares striking similarities to the Genesis cosmogony (Genesis 1).
Enuma Elish was written by the Babylonians as a creation myth. It is believed to have been composed in the late 2nd millennium BCE and was later incorporated into the Babylonian epic of creation.
Pinga.
Enuma Elish means 'When On High' or 'When Above'.
"Enuma Elish" is the title of the Babylonian creation myth, with the name itself meaning "When on high." It is one of the oldest creation stories known to humanity and describes the emergence of the world and the cosmos through a series of conflicts and primordial events.
The parent gods in the Enuma Elish are Apsu (the personification of fresh water) and Tiamat (the personification of salt water). They were the primordial deities who gave birth to the gods and other beings in the Babylonian creation myth.
Enuma elish
The Enuma Elish is a Babylonian creation myth that describes the emergence of the world from a primordial chaos and the establishment of Marduk as the chief god after defeating the chaos monster Tiamat. In contrast, the Book of Genesis, part of the Hebrew Bible, presents a monotheistic account of creation, where God creates the universe in six days and rests on the seventh, focusing on the goodness of creation and humanity's unique role. While both texts address the origins of the world, Enuma Elish emphasizes divine conflict and polytheism, whereas Genesis highlights a singular, benevolent deity and a structured creation process.
C. to explain the origin of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers Source: e2020 Quiz