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Page 11
[Footnote 1: See Poebel, _Historical Texts_, No. 1.]
[Footnote 2: See King, _Cuneiform Texts_, Part XIII, Plate 33;
and Ebellog, _Assurtexte_, I, No. 6.]
[Footnote 3: The _biru_ was the distance which a man would travel
in two hours.]
The literary form of the text of the Seven Tablets fulfils the
requirements of Semitic poetry in general. The lines usually fall into
couplets, the second line being the antiphon of the first, e.g.:--
"When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name."
Each line, or verse, falls into two halves, and a well-marked caesura
divides each line, or verse, into two equally accented parts. And the
half-lines can be further resolved into two halves, each containing a
single accented word or phrase. This is proved by tablet Spartali ii,
265A, where the scribe writes his lines and spaces the words in such a
way as to show the subdivision of the lines. Thus we have:--
_enuma_ | _elish_ || _l� nab�_| _shamamu_
_shaplish_| _ammatum_|| _shuma_ | _l� zakrat_
Here there is clearly a rhythm which resembles that found in the poems
of the Syrians and Arabs, but there are many instances of its
inconsistent use in several parts of the text. Both rhyme and
alliteration appear to be used occasionally.
THE SEVEN TABLETS OF CREATION.--TRANSLATION.
FIRST TABLET.[1]
[Footnote 1: This translation is made from transcripts of the British
Museum fragments (_Cuneiform Texts_, Part XIII), and transcripts
of the Berlin fragments (Ebeling, _Keilschrifttexte aus Assur_,
Nos. 117, 118).]
1. When the heavens above were yet unnamed,[1]
[Footnote 1: The name of an object was the object itself, and it was
believed that nothing could exist apart from its name.]
2. And the name of the earth beneath had not been recorded,
3. Apsu, the oldest of beings, their progenitor,
4. "Mummu" Ti�mat, who bare each and all of them--
5. Their waters were merged into a single mass.
6. A field had not been measured, a marsh had not been searched out,
7. When of the gods none was shining,
[Illustration: Portion of a tablet inscribed in Assyrian with a text
of the First Tablet of the Creation Series. [K. 5419C.]]
8. A name had not been recorded, a fate had not been fixed,
9. The gods came into being in the midst of them.
10. The god Lakhmu and the goddess Lakhamu were made to shine, they
were named.
11. [Together] they increased in stature, they grew tall.
12. Anshar and Kishar came into being, and others besides them.
13. Long were the days, the years increased.
14. The god Anu, their son, the equal of his fathers, [was created].
15. The god Anshar made his eldest son Anu in his own image.
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