The beautiful poem begins:

When above no sky had yet been mentioned
And below no earth was named . . .

THEN in the beginning there was only the great primeval water, named Apsu, the begetter, and chaos, named Tiamat, the deep, the mother, the dragon of the deep, the salt sea, the deep itself, who gave birth to the gods.

There was no sky, no earth before the mingling of these two. Before any little swampy place existed, before any little island took shape, from the mingling of the primeval waters and the waters of chaos, Apsu and Tiamat, two gods, were born.

Two gods were born and were named. Lachmu and Lachamu were the names. This pair, formed of the silt of the two great waters, grew and increased through the ages. Two gods were born of Lachmu and Lachamu and were named. Anshar and Kishar were the names. These two arose from the primeval silt to be the two horizons. Anshar, the male, was to encircle the sky, and Kishar, the female, was to encircle the earth. They are there now, these two great circles.

Ages passed and of them Anu was born, Anu, the sky. Time passed (year unto year the poem says) and then came Nudimmut, the earth. This is another name for Enki, lord of the earth, later known as Ea or Ea-Enki. Anshar shaped them into roundness like himself: Anu, the circling dome of sky, encircles the round earth.

Thus the gods were born, and took it upon themselves to dance for joy. And the running to and fro disturbed Tiamat. Her labors were over. She longed only to sink into herself. She longed to sleep. Neither could Apsu stand the noise. He tried to quiet the merry crew but the clamor and uproar continued. So he went to consult with Tiamat.

"I get no rest," he said, "all day, all night this to-do continues. I cannot sleep."

Tiamat said nothing.

"I will destroy them," said Apsu, "and then we two may rest."

This news reached the gods and they were confounded. They did not know how to save themselves.

Of them all only Ea was wise enough to think up something. To outwit the primeval deep, Ea sang a sacred spell over the waters of Apsu, so that Apsu slept. And with the holy words the universe swung into motion, as it is today. The primeval waters never rose again, and Ea, as earth, dwelt upon the sleeping waters.

Then on the earth was born Marduk, son of Ea, tall, beautiful, terrible, strong, fearless, four-eyed, four-eared, and lips ablaze. He grew up among the gods, increasing daily in strength and subtlety.

The primeval waters slept but chaos did not sleep.

The hosts of chaos grew apace. Tiamat was moved to avenge Apsu and prepared to destroy the gods. Prowling monsters she gathered together, serpents and great dragons filled with poison, crowned with fire, and so deadly that the sight of them would kill the beholder. Tiamat made Kingu, her second husband, leader of this ugly horde, and gave him power over the fate of the universe.

When Ea ]earned that the powers of annihilation were amassing, he sat in silence till his heart emptied itself of fear. Then he went to Anshar, his father, and revealed the plot of Tiamat.

"You overcame Apsu," said Anshar. "Do the same with Tiamat."

So Ea went forth against Tiamat, but he knew no sacred spell that would conquer chaos. There was no word of power more powerful than Tiamat.

"You go," Anshar then said to Anu. "Speak the word to make Tiamat subside." But Anu had no words more powerful than Tiamat.

"Call Marduk," then said Anshar. "Call Ea's strong young son."

Marduk was delighted with the prospect of vanquishing Tiamat. He would go, he would win, he said, "but first give me your word, if I conquer Tiamat and save the gods, that you will proclaim me supreme among you."

So the gods assembled at a great feast in Nippur in central Babylonia. They ate the rich food and drank the strong wine and forgot their fears and sang for joy and promised Marduk everything. They gave him the kingship and power: power of weapon and power of word. And to test the power they laid out a garment and said to Marduk: "With a word destroy the garment, and with a word restore it." So Marduk spoke and there was no garment; he spoke again, and there lay the garment in their midst. And the gods said, "Thou art king."

So Marduk prepared for battle. He made a great bow that arched across the heavens; he took lightning for his arrows, and the arrows flashed ahead of him as he went. He made a great net to ensnare Tiamat, and the four winds held the corners of it. So riding the tempest, followed by seven terrible storms, and with the floods at his fingertips, Marduk advanced against the powers of chaos. And the gods watched.

When Kingu and the hosts of chaos saw him coming, terror consumed them. But Tiamat knew no fear and stood unconcerned, awaiting battle.

Marduk flung the net and encircled the great dragon of the deep. Tiamat opened her jaws to swallow him and the winds rushed into her open mouth and swelled the great belly till it burst. When the armies and monsters saw this, they turned and tried to escape; but Marduk caught them all in the huge net and they were destroyed.

Marduk then cut Tiamat's body in two and lifted up half of it to be the sky, and there (just as Ea had made his dwelling upon Apsu) did Marduk establish his dwelling on that half of Tiamat which was the sky. The other half of Tiamat became the rolling oceans which wash the edges of the lands.

Thus did Marduk win for the restless living gods the battle against chaos and nonmotion. In the sky which he had lifted up he placed the stars and the swinging planets. He made the moon to travel through the night and measure time.

Then, because Kingu was judged to have incited Tiamat against the gods, they placed on him the war guilt, and bound him so that he could not move and killed him. Blood from his arteries poured out upon the earth, and from this blood the first man was created.

"Man shall be formed
Lullu shall be his name"

sang the gods. "Man shall toil for the gods" they said, "and the gods shall be free."

And so it is. Man toils and serves his gods.

Every year on New Year's Day in ancient Babylon, the Enuma Elish was recited in the temple of the god Marduk, and the religious drama of the creation of the world and Marduk's victory over Tiamat was enacted- for the day the world was created was the first New Year's Day.