The Seven Tablets of Creation: The Enuma Elish

Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth, centers on a dispute among dozens of gods prior to the creation of the world or of any living thing. The story begins in the First Tablet, which reveals that there are three distinct generations of gods in existence. The story describes Anshar as the progenitor of all other gods, and thus the first-generation god. Among the second-generation gods, the direct children of Anshar, there is the god Apsu, who complains that certain divine newcomers from the third generation of gods are interfering with his peace of mind. Prior to the arrival of the newest gods, only darkness and chaos existed. The new generation of gods brought light into the primordial murkiness, meaning suddenly there is a form of orderliness. Night and day came into existence, and the two are totally different from one another. Apsu finds this change outrageous and decides to destroy the new, orderly gods.

Apsu confides his plan to Tiamat, a second-generation goddess with whom he has conceived a number of these new gods and who is in complete accord with his sentiments and plan. Their brother, Ea, however, happens to be