Enuma Eliš: The Babylonian Cosmogonic Poem — Complete Translation of the Seven Tablets with Preface, Genealogy of the Gods and Introduction to the Origins of Creation - Sacred Text in English

When the heavens above did not exist, and the earth below had not come into being... With these solemn words the Enûma opens Eliš , the oldest and most majestic cosmogonic poem of humanity, composed on seven cuneiform tablets in Babylon over three thousand years ago and rediscovered only in the nineteenth century among the ruins of Ashurbanipal 's library in Nineveh.

This complete edition brings back to the reader an absolute masterpiece of world literature, a text that predates the biblical Genesis and Greek theogonies by centuries, influencing both in a profound and lasting way.

The poem unfolds a story of dizzying scope: from the undifferentiated waters of Apsû and Tiāmat, the male and female principles of origin, the Mesopotamian pantheon emerges generation after generation, until the appearance of the young god Marduk, a hero destined to face the primordial mother transformed into a dragon in a cosmic duel. From Tiāmat's torn body, heaven and earth are born, from her eyes the Tigris and Euphrates flow, from the blood of the rebel Qingu, humanity is fashioned—not to dominate, but to serve the gods and relieve them from the toil of labor.

What the reader will find in this volume:

The complete and faithful translation of all seven tablets of the poem, with rigorous verse numbering according to the standards of international Assyriology.

An in-depth preface that frames the history of the text's discovery, questions of dating and authorship, the liturgical context of the Babylonian festival of Akītu , and the theological and political implications of the work.

A genealogical map of the deities to orient oneself in the complex relationships of the Mesopotamian pantheon.

Brief introductions to each tablet, illustrating its narrative, dramatic, and cosmological function within the overall architecture.

A fundamental work for those interested in:

Comparative mythology and history of religions; biblical origins and the roots of Western culture; ancient literature and epic poetry; philosophy, theology, and cultural anthropology; Mesopotamian archaeology and Sumero-Akkadian civilization; symbolism, esotericism, and wisdom traditions.

Marduk's battle against Tiāmat—the famous Chaoskampf , the primordial struggle against chaos—is the prototype of countless subsequent narratives: from the biblical Leviathan to the Typhoeus of Hesiod's Theogony, up to the most distant echoes that permeate modern European culture. Reading the Enûma Eliš means descending to the source of an imaginary that still today structures our way of thinking about order, the cosmos, power, and the human condition.

A book that speaks of primordial waters and celestial battles, of divine assemblies and sacred cities, of names that create and words that order the world. A text to be read slowly, to be treasured, to be revived over time. A voice that, after three millennia of silence beneath the sand, returns to question us on the most ancient mystery: how the world came to be.

An edited edition, with a critical preface, introductions to the tablets, and a genealogical apparatus of the deities. Suitable for both the curious reader approaching the literatures of the ancient Near East for the first time and the scholar seeking a reliable and annotated version of one of the founding texts of civilization.

Rediscover the origins. Listen to the voice that gave the cosmos its name.