Due Jan 28
Sacred Performance in Babylon
Reading: Enuma Elish (Blackboard: EnumaElish.pdf)
Writing: Respond to ONE of the following prompts. Keep your response short, and post as a reply under the appropriate heading in the comments section:
- Marduk proves himself the equal of Tiamat when he kills her. But does this mean he is simply her replacement? Or is he different from her, qualitatively? Quote or paraphrase a moment that strikes you as presenting these two characters as similar or as strikingly different entities.
- In the introduction I wrote to the Enuma Elish, I suggested that this epic is a political as well as a cosmic myth of creation. Quote or paraphrase a moment when the action strikes you as foregrounding the creation of a political order.
Responses contrasting Marduk with Tiamat
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I think that comparing Marduk and Tiamat is not exactly fair, because they represent fundamentally different things. Marduk is more than just a god, he embodies order and structure, whereas Tiamat represents chaos and destruction. This contrast is clear when Tiamat “appointed Kingu as her consort and raised an army of monsters to fight the younger gods,” showing her commitment to disorder and rebellion. In defeating Tiamat, Marduk proves himself her equal in power, but he is qualitatively different, because he does not simply replace her. Instead of using the destruction he caused for personal gain, “he used one half to create the sky and the other half to form the earth, establishing the rivers, mountains, and boundaries of the world.” Through this act, Marduk gives the gods, and later humans, direction, purpose, and stability. His victory shows that he is not just another force of power like Tiamat, but a creator and ruler who establishes order.
I agree that Marduk is not just Tiamat’s replacement, and instead is someone completely different than her qualitatively. Even though they were on the same level in terms of power, Marduk takes on a completely different approach when he comes into the role of a new leader. Just like you said, Tiamat exists for destruction and to create disorder. When facing Tiamat to defeat her, Marduk asks why she stirred up conflict, turned her back on her family, and appointed Kingsu as consort, even though that rank is not rightfully his. Nothing she has done shows traits of a good ruler, contrasting greatly with Marduk, who does display the traits needed to be a great ruler. Right after defeating Tiamet, he immediately works on fixing things by organizing the universe, and then later on creates Earth, as you mentioned. He doesn’t want there to be chaos, and instead yearns for a functioning society that has order. While their physical power might make them seem as equals, who they are as individual beings completely juxtapose one another.
Marduk is most definitely not just a replacement for Tiamat. For that to be true Tiamat would have needed to actually have been a leader of some sort, have any actual authority, but this was not the case. Marduk immediately steps into a role that Tiamat had not even previously possessed, as he has the respect and complete devotion of the gods, allowing him to actually rule. There are a few similarities between the two, one being they both created the civilizations they rule through power and destruction of some sort, neither did so peacefully. Another being they both condemn those they believe to have done wrong. When I think of the teachings of god, I think of the ideal of unconditional forgiveness, humans are able to repent their sins and god will take them in. But Tiamat wanted to kill all the gods because they killed Apsu, and Marduk killed Tiamat and her servants because they had ill intentions, the world and humankind was literally created through hate and the inability to grow and forgive. However, Tiamat and Marduk are also different in that Tiamat created the gods in a bout of chaos, and she did not create a structure for their society, allowing for more chaos to breed. But Marduk was more structured with his approach to ruling, as he put in place a hierarchy, roles and a structure for their society.
I think thats a really good point. Some people would argue that Marduk is Tiamat’s replacement in the sense that a president replaces another president even if they have different political agendads. They are still a continuation of the same regime. But your post says that they are in different roles as Tiamat never really had any authority and that Marduk is creating this new role where someone actually has power and authority over other beings. Marduk would be the first to fit his role meaning he can’t truly be a replacement for a role that hadn’t existed prior to him.
Yes, this is such a great way to look at it, I hadn’t thought of it this way. To continue your thought, through his ability to win over the gods, Marduk is able to remain secure in his position as king with how beyond devoted the gods are to him, Marduk does not even need to ask for the gods to serve him or do things for him, they offer to unprompted, as is seen when the gods say, “let him prepare the plans, we will be the workers.”
I agree that qualitatively, they are different rulers and that Marduk is better at appeasing the other gods. However, I think that they replaced one another in the sense of being leaders of creation. Tiamat and Apsu with the creation of the gods, and Marduk with the creation of mankind and earth. Though again, I agree that their motivations to create differed immensely. In Tiamat’s rebellion, she created the eleven monsters to fight the younger gods and cause harm. Marduk’s intentions in creating the heavens, earth, and humanity were to establish order and fix the chaos left by Tiamat’s rule.
Marduk is most definitely qualitatively different from Tiamat. She is the mother of all, the wellspring of life, but she is also destructive and vengeful. Marduk, on the other hand, is a deity that sees the life that sprang from Apsu and Tiamat and seeks to protect and order it into a society. He actively shapes and brings order to the entire world. “When he had designed his rules and fashioned his ordinances, He founded the shrines and handed them over to Ea.” Before Marduk there were no rules or ordinances, and the world was a place of primordial chaos. He singlehandedly introduced structure into the world.
I think that Marduk proves himself the equal of Tiamat when he kills her, yet it doesn’t mean that he is the replacement of Tiamat. We know that both of them are gods, however Tiamat is a primordial goddess, relating more to nature “Mummu-Tiamat, she who bore them all, their waters co-mingling as a single body;” showing how she is the mother and a creator before the world was civilised. Whilst Marduk is younger, and more of a city god “I will build a house…I will found therein its temple”. Furthermore, both exercise power to protect their own belief. However, Tiamat shows the side where she is more rebellious and chaotic “Tiamat plotted, gradually winning rebel gods to her side…neither Ea nor nor any of the other gods dared stand against her” but for Marduk, he tend to create structure and order and the new politics “I will call its name ‘Babylon’ which means ‘the houses of the great gods”. He aims to develop the world creating cities human.
Responses regarding the politics of the Enuma Elish
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In the fifth tablet, where Marduk is working, it states, “He formed the clouds and filled them with water. The raising of winds, the bringing of rain and cold, Making the mist smoke, piling up her poison: These he appointed to himself, took into his own charge.” Marduk takes control of nature and forms it into his own liking, and then establishes himself as a ruler or god. This action struck me as foregrounding politics because power, order, and structure are usually the foundation of politics, having the means and accessibility to change or rule over something or some people. This also caught my attention immediately because I noticed he started playing and leading into a role of a god of some sort, and that’s usually how politics come to take place with a ruler, king, god, or President at the top of this order.