Out of Tiamat's corpse, Marduk creates the heavens and the earth, he appoints gods to various duties and binds Tiamat's eleven creatures to his feet as trophies (to much adulation from the other gods) before setting their images in his new home. Marduk defeats Quingu and kills Tiamat by shooting her with an arrow which splits her in two from her eyes flow the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Once differentiated, the union of these two entities gave birth to the younger gods.Įa, Enki, and the younger gods fight against Tiamat futilely until, from among them, emerges the champion Marduk who swears he will defeat Tiamat. Out of this swirl, the waters divided into sweet, fresh water, known as the god Apsu, and salty bitter water, the goddess Tiamat. In the beginning, there was only undifferentiated water swirling in chaos. The story, one of the oldest in the world, concerns the birth of the gods and the creation of the universe and human beings. Even so, Ea does still play an important part in the Babylonian version of the Enuma Elish by creating human beings. Marduk, the god of Babylon, only figures as prominently as he does in the story because most of the copies found are from Babylonian scribes. The god of each city was always considered the best and most powerful. The copy found at Ashur has the god Assur in the main role as was the custom of the cities of Mesopotamia.
As Marduk, the champion of the young gods in their war against Tiamat, is of Babylonian origin, the Sumerian Ea/ Enki or Enlil is thought to have played the major role in the original version of the story.
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