Enuma Elish Research Paper

Since the invention of writing, civilizations have documented the accounts of how they believe themselves and the world around them were created. In this essay, I will describe and explain three of these ancient creation accounts. First, I will summarize the Enuma Elish, the creation myth of the Mesopotamian civilization. Second, I will summarize the Book of Genesis, the creation story of the ancient Israelites. Lastly, I will summarize Theogony, the creation epic of the ancient Greek people. Following my summarizations, I will compare and contrast these accounts by several criteria. I will examine: how the world was created; who created the world; what was created; and what was present at the time of creation. The Enuma Elish tells of how

In the organization of the accounts, each story starts with very little. In the beginning of The Book of Genesis, there is only one God. Likewise, in the beginning of the Enuma Elish there are only two Gods. In the same way, Theogony begins with nothing more than void, earth, and eros. With respect to the general idea of the accounts, in all three creation myths, the god or gods have the power to create aspects of the universe. Each account also portrays the gods as being very powerful. The earth is seen as a major creation in these creation accounts, with the exception of Theogony, as the earth already existed in the beginning of the story. Additionally, we see conflict in each of these three accounts. In The Book of Genesis, there is the conflict between God, the man, the woman, and the serpent, after they eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. In both Theogony and the Enuma Elish, there is conflict between the gods; as the Titans fight the Olympians in the Greek myth and as Marduk fights Tiamat and her allies in the Mesopotamian myth. Another notable similarity is that in both of these accounts, the younger generation of gods are victorious; the Olympians in the case of the Greek myth, and Marduk and his followers in the Mesopotamian

The first series of variances are found in the organization of the myths. In The Book of Genesis, God creates the earth and the universe step by step. In Theogony, the earth is created in a series of events that involve two existing beings having sex and bearing a new being. Even more dissimilar, in the Enuma Elish, the creation of the universe is the aftermath of a conflict between the gods. Conceptually, these stories differ in what is created and for what purpose. The Book of Genesis says that God created all of the universe and that man his dominion over this creation. The Enuma Elish shows that the defeated gods form the universe, and that man is created for the sole purpose of serving the gods. Surprisingly, Theogony does not even mention the existence of man. This story focuses mainly on the natural creation of the universe through eros. A major detail that separates The Book of Genesis from the other accounts is that God is portrayed as all powerful and all knowing. Man is made in God’s image and does not carry the purpose of serving the gods. The Enuma Elish is the only creation account that begins to describe certain details of the universe. An example of this is the splitting on Tiamat in two, which describes the existence of the water of the sky (rain) and the water of the land