SECOND TABLET.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
1. Tiâmat made solid that which she had moulded.
2. She bound the gods her children with [evil bonds].
3. Tiâmat wrought wickedness to avenge Apsu.
4. When ... had harnessed his chariot he went to meet Ea,
5. Ea hearkened to his story,
6. He was sorely afflicted and abode in sorrow,
7. The days were long, his wrath died down.
8. He went his way to the dwelling of Anshar, his father,
9. He went into the presence of Anshar, the father who begat him,
Portion of a tablet inscribed in Assyrian with a text of the Second Tablet of the Creation Series. [No. 40,559.]
10. Whatsoever Tiâmat had devised he repeated unto him,
11. Mother Tiâmat who gave us birth hath sown these things.
12. She hath set in order her assembly, she rageth furiously,
13. All the gods have joined themselves to her.
14. They march by her side together with those whom ye have created.
15. They formed a band and went forth to battle to help Tiâmat,
16. They were exceedingly wroth, they made plots by day and by night without ceasing,
17. They offered battle, fuming and raging,
18. They set the battle in array, they uttered cries of defiance.
19. Ummu-Khubur,29 who fashioned all things,
20. Set up the unrivalled weapon, she spawned huge serpents
21. Sharp of tooth, pitiless in attack (?)
22. She filled their bodies with venom instead of blood,
23. Grim, monstrous serpents arrayed in terror.
24. She decked them with brightness, she fashioned them in exalted forms,
25. So that fright and horror might overcome him that looked upon them,
26. So that their bodies might rear up, and no man resist their attack.
27. She set up the Viper, and the Snake, and the god Lakhamu,
28. The Whirlwind, the ravening Dog, the Scorpion-man,
29. The Storm-wind, the Fish-man, the Horned Beast.
30. They carried the Weapon which spared not, nor flinched from the battle.
31. Most mighty were Tiâmat's allies, they could not be resisted.
32. Thus she caused eleven [monsters] of this kind to come into being.
33. Among the gods, her first-born son who had collected her company,
34. That is to say, Kingu, she set on high, she made him the great one amongst them.
35. Leader of the hosts in battle, disposer of the troops,
36. Bearer of the firmly-grasped weapon, attacker in the fight,
37. He who in the battle is the master of the weapon,
38. She appointed, she made him to sit down in [goodly apparel]
39. [Saying], "I have recited the incantation for thee, I have magnified thee in the assembly of the gods,