CASANOWICZ— COSMOGONIC PARALLELS 



I. A PRIMEVAL WATER-CHAOS AS THE PRIUS OF THE 

 EXISTING WORLD 



Common to nearly all races is the opinion that before the present 

 order of things water held all things in solution. We begin with the 

 Babylonians. 



The Babylonian story of creation is a kind of epic, composed in 

 poetic diction and supposed to have covered seven clay tablets. Of 

 most of them only fragments thus far have come to us. Considerable 

 lacuna?, however, have been filled from parallel sources. The poem 

 begins with the declaration that in the beginning, before heaven and 

 earth were created, there was a primeval ocean flood ; this is personified 

 as a male and a female being: 



"When above the heaven was not named, 1 

 When below the earth was not named, 

 Apsu, the generator of them, 

 Mummu Tiamat, the mother of all of them — 

 Their waters combined together, 



When fields were unformed, sprouts had not come forth, 

 When of the gods no one had arisen, 

 When no name had been named, 

 No destinies had been fixed — 

 Then gods were created." 



Hatred of the new-born light causes Tiamat (represented in Bab- 

 ylonian art as a dragon or griffin) to rebel against the gods. Some of 

 the gods side with her, and to aid her in her fight she produces huge 

 monsters. At the request of the other gods in solemn assembly 

 Marduk (Merodach), the god of light, offers to subjugate her on condi- 

 tion that the supreme rule over heaven and earth be accorded to him. 

 He equips himself with the necessary weapons, a simitar and a bow, and 

 rides in a chariot to meet Tiamat and her crew. He overcomes her by 

 forcing open her mouth, which he fills with a hurricane so that she 

 bursts in twain, and puts her crew in chains. He then divides her 

 carcass, out of half of which he creates heaven, out of the other, earth. 



The story reflects the climatic conditions of Babylonia. In fact, 

 it is a mythic description of one of the most familiar natural phe- 

 nomena of the Euphrates valley. During the long winter the Babylo- 

 nian plain looks like a sea (Tiamat), owing to the heavy rains. Then 

 comes spring, when the god of the vernal sun (Marduk) and the winds 

 divide and subjugate the waters. So, the Babylonian fancy assumed, 



1 That is, did not exist. To have a name, according to ideas widely prevalent in antiquity, was 

 to exist; per contrary, non-existence is indicated by the term lessness. 



[45] 



