Religion and Humanity in Mesopotamian Myth and Epic

Enuma Elish
Enuma Elish is a Babylonian creation narrative which tells the story of how the primary 
Babylonian god, Marduk, ascended to power, through his battle with the primordial ocean 
goddess, Tiamat. The poem gets its name from the opening words “when on high,” a method of 
naming commonly used by scribes to identify literary compositions.
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In Tablet VI of Enuma Elish, 
the first humans are created by Marduk from the blood of the dead warrior, Kingu; Marduk in this 
narrative is credited with the idea of creating humans, rather than Ea.
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From the body of Tiamat, 
Marduk creates the heavens and the earth, and he provides structure and order to the pantheon. 
In this way, Enuma Elish shows a focus on structure, order, and division that is a common feature 
of many ancient Near Eastern creation accounts. The creation of humans by a divine ruler, from 
the body of a dead god, demonstrates the close ties between creation, humanity, and religion in 
Mesopotamian literature. Foster observes the absence in Enuma Elish of the “rebellious human 
spirit”
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 seen in Atrahasis, and the shaping role of the mother goddess in creation of humans is 
also lacking. In both Atrahasis and Enuma Elish, the benefits to the deities of creating humanity 
are presented as coming at the cost of a divine life.
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Religion and Humanity in Mesopotamian Myth and Epic
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Alternate accounts of the creation of humans and the world they inhabit, through the endeavors 
of divine beings, are also seen in narratives involving the hero Gilgamesh, considered below. The 
creation of individual humans by two Sumerian deities forms the basis of the myth Enki and 
Ninmah. Again, the motivation for creating humankind is to appease the complaints of 
overworked deities.
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 In this myth, Enki, the god of wisdom, competes with the goddess Ninmah 
to create a human whose physical form is unsuitable to perform any functions or to have an 
improved destiny. Prior to the competition, Ninmah performed midwifing duties for Enki’s 
mother, Namma, in her creation of humankind. Enki advises Namma how to create humans in 
order to free the deities from the toil of menial tasks such as the digging of canals. During the 
competition, Enki is able both to improve the destiny and to find a place in human society for 
each of Ninmah’s creations; however, when the roles of the two deities are reversed, Ninmah 
cannot help the human created by Enki because of the extreme nature of its disabilities. This 
myth gives an etiology for the causation of the difficult physical labors of humankind, and also 
for the reality of human frailties and disabilities. While in Atrahasis humans and the divine are 
linked by the continuing “spirit” which forms a reminder of the blood spilt in human creation, 
and the body of Kingu is used to create humans in Enuma Elish, divine blood is absent from the 
creative enterprises of Enki and Ninmah. Abusch notes that the flesh and blood used in the 
creation of humanity is unnecessary, as it is clay (as seen in Enki and Ninmah) that is the forming 
element in the “original model” of divine creative acts.
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 Humans are again created for the 
benefit of divine beings in Enki and Ninmah, but humans can also benefit from their relationship 
with the divine, as is seen in Enki’s efforts to decree good destinies for each of Ninmah’s 
creations, and to provide them with a role in society and sustenance.