The Babylonian Legends of the Creation | Page 3

house had been made, no city had been built.
[Illustration: The Bilingual Version of the Creation Legend. [No.
93,014.]]
5. "No city had been made, no creature had been constituted.
6. "Enlil's city, (i.e., Nippur) had not been made, E-kur had not been
built,
7. "Erech had not been made, E-Aena had not been built,

8. The Deep[1] (or Abyss) had not been made, Eridu had not been built.
[Footnote 1: APSÛ. It is doubtful if APSÛ here really means the great
abyss of waters from out of which the world was called. It was, more
probably, a ceremonial object used in the cult of the god, something
like the great basin, or "sea," in the court of the temple of King
Solomon, mentioned in I Kings, vii, 23; 2 Kings, xxv, 13, etc.]
9. "Of the holy house, the house of the gods, the dwelling-place had not
been made.
10. "All the lands were sea
11. "At the time that the mid-most sea was [shaped like] a trough,
12. "At that time Eridu was made, and E-sagil was built,
13. "The E-sagil where in the midst of the Deep the god
Lugal-dul-azaga [1] dwelleth,
[Footnote 1: This is a name under which Marduk was worshipped at
Eridu.]
14. "Babylon was made, E-sagil was completed.
15. "The gods the Anunnaki he created at one time.
16. "They proclaimed supreme the holy city, the dwelling of their
heart's happiness.
17. "Marduk laid a rush mat upon the face of the waters,
18. "He mixed up earth and moulded it upon the rush mat,
19. "To enable the gods to dwell in the place where they fain would be.
20. "He fashioned man.
21. "The goddess Aruru with him created the seed of mankind.

22. "He created the beasts of the field and [all] the living things in the
field.
23. "He created the river Idiglat (Tigris) and the river Purattu
(Euphrates), and he set them in their places,
24. "He proclaimed their names rightly.
[Illustration: Terra-cotta figure of a god. From a foundation deposit at
Babylon. [No. 90,9961]]
25. "He created grass, the vegetation of the marsh, seed and shrub;
26. "He created the green plants of the plain,
27. "Lands, marshes, swamps,
28. "The wild cow and the calf she carried, the wild calf, the sheep and
the young she carried, the lamb of the fold,
29. "Plantations and shrub land,
30. "The he-goat and the mountain goat ...
31. "The lord Marduk piled up a dam in the region of the sea (i.e., he
reclaimed land)
32. "He ... a swamp, he founded a marsh.
33. "... he made to be
34. "Reeds he created, trees he created,
35. "... in place he created
36. "He laid bricks, he built a brick-work,
37. "He constructed houses, he formed cities.

38. "He constructed cities, creatures he set [therein].
39. "Nippur he made, E-Kur he built.
40. "[Erech he made, E-Anna] he built.
[The remainder of the text is fragmentary, and shows that the text
formed part of an incantation which was recited in the Temple of
E-Zida, possibly the great temple of Nabu at Borsippa.]
[Illustration: Bronze figure of a Babylonian god. [No. 91,147]]

THE LEGEND OF THE CREATION ACCORDING TO BEROSUS
AND DAMASCIUS.
Versions in Greek of the Legends found by George Smith had long
been known to classical scholars, owing to the preservation of
fragments of them in the works of later Greek writers, e.g., Eusebius,
Syncellus, and others. The most important of these is derived from the
History of Babylonia, which was written in Greek by BEROSUS, a
priest of Bel-Marduk, i.e., the "Lord Marduk," at Babylon, about 250
B.C. In this work Berosus reproduced all the known historical facts and
traditions derived from native sources which were current in his day. It
is therefore not surprising to find that his account of the Babylonian
beliefs about the origin of things corresponds very closely with that
given in the cuneiform texts, and that it is of the greatest use in
explaining and partly in expanding these texts. His account of the
primeval abyss, out of which everything came, and of its inhabitants
reads:--
[Illustration: Babylonian Monster. [No. 108,979.]]
"There was a time in which there existed nothing but darkness and an
abyss of waters, wherein resided most hideous beings, which were
produced on a two-fold principle. There appeared men, some of whom
were furnished with two wings, others with four, and with two faces.
They had one body but two heads; the one that of a man, the other of a

woman; and likewise in their several organs both male and female.
Other human figures were to be seen with the legs and horns of goats;
some had horses' feet; while others united the hind-quarters of a horse
with the