THE BABYLONIAN STORY OF THE CREATION. 



39 



beasts of the earth in the Semitic account of the Creation, 

 of which an outline has just been given, this is probably the 

 place to refer to the bilingual version, of which I published 

 translations in 1890 and 1891. 



The second text is of an entirely different nature, bringing 

 the work of creation before us with the intention of showing 

 how, among other things, the great and holy cities of Babylonia 

 came into existence ; and in this the origin of evil, as typified 

 by the dragon of Chaos, and its destruction, are left entirely 

 aside. If we may judge from one of the omen-tablets, it was 

 the custom among the Babylonians to make pilgrimages to the 

 holy places of the land, with the expectation of obtaining benefit 

 therefrom, and there is no doubt that the cities founded by 

 Merodach, and mentioned in this inscription, namely, Babylon, 

 Erech and Ur, with 6ridu, were classed as the chief among them. 

 It is apparently on this account that the bilingual story of the 

 Creation was written, for it is nothing more nor less than the 

 introduction to an incantation, in which the temple of ISTebo at 

 Borsippa, now called the Birs-jSTimroud, and generally identified 

 with the tower of Babel, is poetically spoken of in a way which 

 suggests that the writer of this text wished it to be regarded as 

 of equal importance with the great shrines and cities created by 

 Merodach, or existing from the period of the gods before him. 



It begins with a reference to the time when the glorious 

 house of the gods (apparently the heavens) had not been made, 

 a plant had not been brought forth, and a tree had not been 

 created ; when a brick had not been laid, a beam not shaped, a 

 house not built, a city not constructed, and no human site had 

 been formed. Mffer and its temple- tower E-kura, Erech and 

 its temple-tower E-ana, the abyss or waters under the earth, 

 and Eridu, " the good city," and the glorious seat of the house 

 of the gods, had also not been made, and " the whole of the lands 

 were sea." When within the sea there was a stream, at that 

 time Eridu was formed, E-sagila, " the lofty-headed house," was 

 constructed — E-sagila, which the god Lugal-du-azaga, " the lord 

 of the glorious abode," had founded within the abyss. Then, 

 too, the city of Babylon, and the earthly E-sagila within it, were 

 completed ; and in connection with this it is worthy of note 

 that the word used allows it to be inferred that this fane, which 

 ISTebuchadnezzar calls " the tower of Babylon," had been begun 

 at an earlier date, but that the v/ork had been interrupted. 

 The word " completed," however, may be simply due to the 

 desire not to use the same expression too often. 



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