Marduk battles a monster. Bas relief from a small temple in Nimrud. British Library.
Enuma Elish: Babylonia’s Creation Myth and the Enthronement of Marduk
The new year and Akitu festivals in Babylonia were celebrated in the spring, during which the high priest of Marduk’s Esagil temple would read the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish. This narrative tells how the young god Marduk became king of the gods by saving them from Tiamat and her army of monsters.
Published: September 11, 2023
|
Last Updated: September 7, 2026
Editor’s note: For the ancient pedigree of the autumn new year festival, see Karel van der Toorn, “Rosh Hashanah with the Early Israelites,” TheTorah (2020); Zev Farber, “The Origins of Sukkot,” TheTorah (2017); Harvey N. Bock, “Is the Autumn Ingathering Festival at the Beginning, Middle, or End of the Year?” TheTorah (2019).
The Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 1:1) refers to this date as the New Year of Kings. For more on the introduction of the spring new year into the Israelite calendar, see Jonathan Ben Dov, “The First Month of the Year,” TheTorah (2013). For how Jewish texts deal with the multiple new years in its sources, see Aaron Demsky, “The Essence of the Hebrew Calendar,” TheTorah (2016).
This is parallel to the use of Baʿal for the storm god Hadad/Adad in the Bible, or Adonai for YHWH. Marduk was the chief god of Babylon dating back at least into the third millennium B.C.E., i.e., for as long as we have evidence.
Editor’s note: For more on this structure and a possible biblical reference to it, see Takayoshi M. Oshima, “The Tower of Babel: A Polemic against Marduk’s Temple Esagil,” TheTorah (2022).
For more on the Akitu festival, see Uri Gabbay, “Babylonian Rosh Hashanah,” TheTorah (2014). For a translation and edition, see Marc J.H. Linnsen, The Cults of Uruk and Babylon: The Temple Ritual Texts as Evidence for Hellenistic Cult Practice, Cuneiform Monographs 25 (Leiden: Brill/Styx, 2004).
The names for the Hebrew months in the Jewish calendar come from the Akkadian names used in Babylonia, and were adopted from the exilic period and on.
The other great god, Enki/Ea isn’t mentioned here, ostensibly because, as Marduk’s father he has no reason to be offended by the Enuma Elish narrative.
For the full text, see A. Sachs, “Temple Program fo the New Year’s Festivals at Babylon,” in the Akkadian Rituals section of Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament [ANET], 3rd edition with supplement, ed. James B. Pritchard (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969 [orig. 1950]) 331–334. For further discussion, see Linnson, The Cults of Uruk and Babylon, 81.
Translation from Stephanie Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, revised edition, Oxford World Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000 [orig. 1989]), 228–277.
Editor’s note: For more on the firmament, see Oren Fass, “My Encounter with the Firmament,” TheTorah (2017).
This is reminiscent of the claim in the Song of the Sea that YHWH built his own Temple (Exod 15:17).
These two rivers are also mentioned in the Adam and Eve story (Gen 2). Note the Akkadian pun here, the Akkadian word for eye, like Hebrew עין (ayin) can mean both eyes of humans and animals, as well as sources of water, for example the oasis of Ein Gedi.
Note the pun: in Akkadian, šadû can mean mountain and breast. Compare Hebrew שדיים shadayim.
Certainly, this YHWH’s dominance over the world is a major theme in the prophecies of Deutero-Isaiah, who depicts the Persian emperor Cyrus as a servant of YHWH (Isa ch. 45).
Editor’s note: See discussion in Marc Zvi Brettler, “God’s Coronation on Rosh Hashanah,” TheTorah (2014); David Frankel, “God Is King: Now or Only in the Future?” TheTorah (2017).
