BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGY

By Amy Patel

GeographyLocated in Mesopotamia (between

Tigris and Euphrates rivers)Now IraqClimate

○ Hot and dry in the summer○ Cold and wet in the winter

Physical Challenges○ Drought in the summer○ Rivers would occasionally flood○ Located between numerous other tribes

Map

Creation Story In beginning, there was only water, represented by

the primal gods Apsu (male) and Tiamat (female)

They create several other gods that live inside them and make a lot of babel (noise), including Ea (the chief god)

Ea has a son named Marduk

Apsu tries to kill the younger gods, but Ea kills Apsu instead

Tiamat attacks some of the younger gods with the help of her new husbands Kingu, some other gods, and 11 monsters she creates

The younger gods decide to give a lot of power to Marduk so he can fight Tiamat

Marduk defeats Tiamat and rips her in half, creating the Earth and the Sky

Marduk also arranges the stars, rivers, mountain, the calendar, etc.

Creation Story continued …

Creation Story continued … The Marduk kills Kingu and uses his

blood to create humankind The gods who allied with Marduk

become the chief gods of Babylon (because they made much babel or noise)

Story suggests . . . Crime begets crime Working together is more powerful

than working alone This explains how Babylon got its

name and why it was such an important city

Major Mythological Characters Tiamat

The great goddess of sea and chaosRepresents Primordial ChaosLooks like a winged dragonDefeated in a battle with MardukHer body became the Earth and Sky

Characters continued . . . Marduk

God of thunderstormsRuler of the other GodsKilled Tiamat the water god to create

Earth and SkyHad four ears and eyes; breathed fire

Characters continued . . . Enlil

○ Sun god○ In charge of earth and air○ Also in charge of fate○ Caused a great flood

Ishtar○ Goddess of love and war○ Famously descends to the Underworld ○ Vengeful and jealous—cruel to her lovers

Tries to kill Gilgamesh when he spurns her advances

Story of the Flood Ea, god of wisdom, and the other gods decide

that they want to kill all humans Enlil is going to flood the world Ea likes one human named Utnapishtim, so he

gives him advice Utnapishtim builds an ark for him and his wife,

as well as “the seed of all living creatures” They survive the flood and are given

immortality

Story suggests . . . Gods can be merciful to those they

favor. Angering the gods can have severe

consequences. It explains some major flood that

occurred in prehistoric Babylon

Visual

Marduk fights Tiamat

Visual

Marduk and his pet dragon

Sources

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/u/utnapishtim.html

http://www.cresourcei.org/enumaelish.html

http://www.bible-history.com/babylonia/BabyloniaBabylonian_Gods00000027.htm

http://www.gods-heros-myth.com/godpages/enlil.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/egypt/a/babygodsindex.htm