and Ea or Aa, also called Enki, the god of the abyss and of deep
wisdom. In order to show this, and at the same time to give an idea of
their theory of the beginning of things, a short paraphrase of the
contents of the seven tablets will be found in the following pages.


An Embodiment of doctrine.

As far as our knowledge goes, the doctrines incorporated in this
legend would seem to show the final official development of the
beliefs held by the Babylonians, due, in all probability, to the
priests of Babylon after that city became the capital of the federated
states. Modifications of their creed probably took place, but nothing
seriously affecting it, until after the abandonment of Babylon in the
time of Seleucus Nicator, 300 B.C. or thereabouts, when the deity at
the head of the pantheon seems not to have been Merodach, but Anu-Bel.
This legend is therefore the most important document bearing upon the
beliefs of the Babylonians from the end of the third millennium B.C.
until that time, and the philosophical ideas which it contains seem to
have been held, in a more or less modified form, among the remnants
who still retained the old Babylonian faith, until the sixth century
of the present era, as the record by Damascius implies. Properly
speaking, it is not a record of the creation, but the story of the
fight between Bel and the Dragon, to which the account of the creation
is prefixed by way of introduction.


Water the first creator.

The legend begins by stating that, when the heavens were unnamed and