The Babylonian Legends of the Creation
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
41. Reading, ishtenish lu kuppudu-ma ana shina lu uzizu.
42. I.e., "to cause the gods to be content,"
43. Literally "they (indefinite) opposed me."
44. See Cuneiform Texts, Part XXIV, Plate 50, where it is said that the god Sin is "Marduk, who maketh bright the night."
45. Lines 44 and 45 announce Marduk's determination to build Babylon.
46. This is the word commonly used for "temple-tower." The famous ziggurat of E-Sagila here mentioned was built in Seven Stages or Steps, each probably having its own distinctive colour. It was destroyed probably soon after the capture of Babylon by Cyrus (539 B.C.) and when Alexander the Great reached Babylon he found it ruins.
47. This is the first known mention of the "horns" of a ziggurat, and the exact meaning of the word is doubtful.
48. From this text it seems clear that Up-shukkinaku was the name of a chamber in the temple of E-Sagila. This name probably means the "chamber of the shakkanaku," i.e., the chamber in which the governor of the city (shakkanaku) went annually to embrace the hands of the god Bel-Marduk, from whom he thereby received the right of sovereignty over the country.
49. This line seems to imply that Marduk was regarded as the instructor of the "old" gods; the allusion is, probably, to the "ways" of Anu, Bel and Ea, which are treated as technical terms in astrology.
50. Here the title "Black-headed" refers to all mankind, but it is sometimes used by the scribes to distinguish the population of the Euphrates Valley from foreign peoples of light complexions.
51. Compare the language of the Kur'ân (Surah II, v. 256), "He (Allah) knoweth what is before them and what is behind them."
52. These lines suggest that the fight between Marduk and Tiâmat was recurrent; it is incorrect to translate the verbal forms as preterites.
53. "To open the ears" -- to give understanding.
54. The Egyptian Sheta