The Babylonian Legends of the Creation | Page 8

Tiâmat split
asunder, and her womb fell out from it. Marduk leaped upon her body
and looked on her followers as they attempted to escape. But the Four
Winds which he had stationed round about Tiâmat made all their
efforts to flee of no effect. Marduk caught all the Eleven allies of
Tiâmat in his net, and he trampled upon them as they lay in it helpless.
Marduk then took the TABLET OF DESTINIES from Kingu's breast,
and sealed it with his seal and placed it on his own breast.
[Footnote 1: Or perhaps the "belly of Tiâmat." The Egyptians
distinguished a portion of the heavens by the name of "Khat Nut," "the
belly of Nut," [Heiroglyphics] and two drawings of it are extant. The
first shows an oval object rimmed with stars and the other a
pear-shaped object, with a god inside it. (See Brugsch, _Inschriften
(Astronomische)_ Leipzig, 1883, p, 146.) [Illustration]]

Then returning to the dead body of Tiâmat he smashed her skull with
his club and scattered her blood to the north wind, and as a reward for
his destruction of their terrible foe, he received gifts and presents from
the gods his fathers.
The text then goes on to say that Marduk "devised a cunning plan," i.e.,
he determined to carry out a series of works of creation. He split the
body of Tiâmat into two parts; out of one half he fashioned the dome of
heaven, and out of the other he constructed the abode of Nudimmud, or
Ea, which he placed over against Apsu, i.e., the deep. He also
formulated regulations concerning the maintenance of the same. By this
"cunning plan" Marduk deprived the powers of darkness of the
opportunity of repeating their revolt with any chance of success.
Having established the framework of his new heaven and earth Marduk,
acting as the celestial architect, set to work to furnish them. In the first
place he founded E-Sharra, or the mansion of heaven, and next he set
apart and arranged proper places for the old gods of the three
realms--Anu, Bel and Ea.
[Illustration: Tablet sculptured with a scene representing the worship of
the Sun-god in the Temple of Sippar. The Sun-god is seated on a throne
within a pavilion holding in one hand a disk and bar which may
symbolize eternity. Above his head are the three symbols of the Moon,
the Sun, and the planet Venus. On a stand in front of the pavilion rests
the disk of the Sun, which is held in position by ropes grasped in the
hands of two divine beings who are supported by the roof of the
pavilion. The pavilion of the Sun-god stands on the Celestial Ocean,
and the four small disks indicate either the four cardinal points or the
tops of the pillars of the heavens. The three figures in front of the disk
represent the high priest of Shamash, the king (Nabu-aplu-iddina, about
870 B.C.) and an attendant goddess. [No. 91,000.]]
The text of the Fifth Tablet, which would undoubtedly have supplied
details as to Marduk's arrangement and regulations for the sun, the
moon, the stars, and the Signs of the Zodiac in the heavens is wanting.
The prominence of the celestial bodies in the history of creation is not
to be wondered at, for the greater number of the religious beliefs of the

Babylonians are grouped round them. Moreover, the science of
astronomy had gone hand in hand with the superstition of astrology in
Mesopotamia from time immemorial; and at a very early period the
oldest gods of Babylonia were associated with the heavenly bodies.
Thus the Annunaki and the Igigi, who are bodies of deified spirits, were
identified with the stars of the northern and southern heaven,
respectively. And all the primitive goddesses coalesced and were
grouped to form the goddess Ishtar, who was identified with the
Evening and Morning Star, or Venus. The Babylonians believed that
the will of the gods was made known to men by the motions of the
planets, and that careful observation of them would enable the skilled
seer to recognize in the stars favourable and unfavourable portents.
Such observations, treated from a magical point of view, formed a huge
mass of literature which was being added to continually. From the
nature of the case this literature enshrined a very considerable number
of facts of pure astronomy, and as early as the period of the First
Dynasty (about 2000 B.C.), the Babylonians were able to calculate
astronomical events with considerable accuracy, and to reconcile the
solar and lunar years by the use of epagomenal months. They had by
that time formulated the existence of the Zodiac, and fixed the
"stations" of the moon, and the places of the planets with it; and they
had distinguished between the planets