Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Enuma Elish, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Order, Civilization, and Religion
The Sovereignty of Marduk
Chaos vs. Council
Feminine Power and Subjugation
Summary
Analysis
When Marduk hears the gods’ praises of him, he decides to “perform miracles.” He plans to combine blood and bone to form the creature called “Man.” The “work of the gods shall be imposed” on man, allowing the gods to rest. When Marduk tells Ea this plan, Ea recommends that people be created from “one who is hostile” to the gods.
Marduk calls an assembly of the gods. He tells them that whoever started Tiamat’s war and gathered her army shall be surrendered to him and bear the penalty for his actions. The gods reply that the war was Qingu’s fault. They bind Qingu, and Ea creates humanity from his blood. The work of the gods is then imposed on humanity.
Tiamat’s commander, Qingu, ultimately takes the fall for the war among the gods. Throughout the epic, the “work of the gods” has been to create order and keep chaos at bay; now these tasks will fall upon human society.
Themes
Marduk appoints places for all the gods in the heavens. The gods then request permission to construct shrines for themselves, so Marduk, “his face lit up greatly,” commands them to create Babylon. The gods spend a whole year shoveling and making bricks; in the second year, they build high dwellings for themselves and especially for Anu, Ellil, and Ea.
The gods are settled in the heavens instead of the earth, since the earth will be the realm of humanity. However, the gods themselves construct the earthly dwellings (shrines) in which they will sometimes stay, where humans will worship them. Religious practice is initiated and given shape by the gods, not by the invention of humans.
Themes
After all the shrines have been constructed, Marduk invites all the gods to a merry banquet, where they all drink beer. They establish all the “decrees and designs” for heaven and earth and for the religious cult. Finally they swear an oath and confirm Marduk’s kingship and mastery over all. Anshar gives him another new name, Asarluhi, and decrees that he will be “shepherd over the black-headed people, his creation,” who are to revere him and bring him offerings.
Another celebratory banquet takes place, at which the gods solemnly affirm all that they’ve done and decreed. While human beings haven’t featured significantly in the epic, here humans—specifically the “black-headed people,” the Babylonians—are charged to worship Marduk and receive his protection in turn. The title Asarluhi is often used for Marduk in religious incantations.
Themes
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Though humans may worship many different gods, the gods themselves will have only Marduk as their god. They decide to proclaim Marduk’s fifty names and his ways and deeds, starting with “Marduk,” the one who saved the gods; “Majesty of the gods,” the creator of people; “Bel,” the king of all gods; and many more. The gods “sat in their assembly and began to call out the destinies, pronounced his name in all their rites.”
Though the text acknowledges that Babylonian society will be polytheistic, Marduk will have supremacy among the society of the gods. The assembly of the gods then models a religious rite, pronouncing the names and deeds of Marduk.
Themes
