Enuma Elish: Tablet 1 Summary & Analysis

Before the skies or earth are named, Apsu, the “begetter,” and Tiamat, the “maker,” dwell together, “[mixing] their waters.” No pastures, reed-beds, or other gods exist; no names have been pronounced, “nor destinies decreed.”

Then, gods are born within Apsu and Tiamat: Lahmu and Lahamu, Anshar and Kishar. Anshar has a son named Anu, and Anu begets Nudimmud, also called Ea. Each successive generation of gods surpasses the previous one. Nudimmud is “profound of understanding” as well as strong.

The gods of this generation sometimes get together, and their noise disturbs Tiamat; “their clamor reverberated.” The noise of their play “[stirs] up Tiamat’s belly.” Apsu can’t quiet them down, and Tiamat indulges their noise, even though it upsets her.

Finally Apsu summons his vizier, Mummu. The two sit before Tiamat and discuss the gods’ behavior. Apsu tells Tiamat, “I shall abolish their ways and disperse them!” Then he and Tiamat will be able to sleep. But Tiamat becomes furious at this. She asks Apsu how they can allow their creations to perish, and argues that they should bear patiently with their children’s ways.

Mummu disagrees with Tiamat and counsels Apsu accordingly, urging him to put an end to the playful gods and their noisy ways. Apsu’s face lights up at this “evil” suggestion, and he embraces Mummu.

When the gods hear of Apsu’s plan to destroy them, they fall silent. Ea, “superior in understanding,” finds out everything about the plot, then concocts a spell of his own. The spell stills the tumultuous waters and causes Apsu to fall into a sound sleep and Mummu into a daze. Then Ea slays Apsu.

After Ea’s triumph over Apsu, he builds his dwelling atop Apsu’s remains and gives a “triumphal cry.” He rests inside his new quarters, which he calls “Apsu.” He and his lover, Damkina, dwell there in splendor. Inside this “chamber of destinies,” Marduk, “cleverest of the clever, sage of the gods,” is begotten and born.

Marduk “[suckles] the teats of goddesses,” which “[fills] him with awesomeness.” He has a “proud” form and a “piercing” stare, and he is mature and powerful from the beginning. Anu, his grandfather, rejoices with pride when he sees Marduk, who is so perfect that “his godhead [is] doubled,” “elevated […] above” and superior to his predecessors “in every way.” He has four all-perceiving eyes, four enormous ears, and lips that blaze forth fire.

Anu creates the four winds and gives them to Marduk to play with. Marduk then creates waves, which stir up Tiamat, who “[heaves] restlessly day and night,” disrupting the other gods’ rest. In response, the weary gods “[plot] evil” and tell Tiamat that because she did not stop Ea from slaying Apsu, they are now suffering. They ask her, “Are you not a mother? […] Don’t you love us? Our grip is slack, and our eyes are sunken.” They beg Tiamat to avenge Apsu.

Tiamat listens to her children’s speech and is pleased by it. She says they should do as the children say; the gods who dwell within Apsu “adopted evil for the gods who begot them,” so they, in turn, should be disturbed. The gods rally around Tiamat, “fierce” and “scheming,” and “working up to war.” They also “[convene] a council and [create] conflict.”

Tiamat—here referred to as “Mother Hubur, who fashions all things”—makes an “unfaceable weapon” of giant, venom-filled snakes. She also makes “ferocious dragons” and chants a spell over them. A variety of other creatures join this fearsome menagerie, including a dragon, demons, a fish-man, and a bull-man.

Tiamat then promotes her consort, Qingu, and gives him leadership of her whole army. She sets him on a throne and announces that he now rules over the gods and, as her only lover, will be the greatest of all. She grants him the Tablet of Destinies and declares that his word will be law. Qingu then “[decrees] destinies” for the gods.