A Guide to Understanding Cosmogonic Myths and Theoretical Science
Enuma Elish: Variation 1; Variation 2; Variation 3 | Volupsa (Iceland) | Runelore | Bibliography
One of the most ancient of the cosmogonic tales, the account is in two parts: the origin of the basic features of the universe and how the present world order was created. The "When above" is more than just a great cosmogonic myth, it is a great poem. Ti'amat is not just any old mother - she is the Great-mother. In Sanskrit Ma (or matyr) means production. In Babylonian it means math. The language derivations include: mother, mater, menses, measure, metrical. In Hebrew Ti'amat translates as Tehom ("deep"). In Sumerian Ti means life. In fact, the Enuma Elish has been through countless translations and changes). Three different variations are included in this chapter.
Variation I (1)
When a sky above had not been mentioned The name of firm ground below had not been thought of; Only primeval Apsu, their begetter, And Mummu and Ti'amat -- she who gave birth to them all -- Were mingling their waters in one; When no bog had formed, no island could be found; When no god whosoever had appeared, Had been named by name, had been determined as to (his) lot, Then were Gods formed within them.
Lahmu and Lahamu appeared and they were named; Increasing through the ages they grew tall.
Anshar and Kishar were formed surpassing them; They lived for many days, adding year unto year.
Their son was Anu, equal to his fathers.
Anshar made his firstborn, Anu, to his own likeness, Anu, to his own likeness, Nudimmut. Nuddimut excelled among the gods, his fathers; With ears wide open, wise, mighty in strength, Mightier than his father's father Anshar, He had no equal among his fellow-gods.
The divine companions thronged together and, restlessly surging back and forth, they disturbed Ti'amat, Disturbed Ti'amat's belly, Dancing within (her depth).
Apsu could not subdue their clamor, And Ti'amat was silent.... But their actions were abhorrent to her and their ways Not good....
Then Apsu, the begetter of the great gods, Called his servant Mummu, saying to him: "Mummu, my servant, who dost gladden my heart, Come let us go to Ti'amat." They went; and seated before Ti'amat, About the gods their firstborn they took counsel. Apsu began to speak saying to pure Ti'amat: "Abhorrent have become their ways to me, I am allowed no rest by day, by night no sleep. I will abolish, yes I will destroy their ways, That peace may reign and we may sleep."
Ea (Enki, Nuddimut), who knows all things, saw through their scheme. He formed, yea, he set up against it The configuration of the universe, And skillfully made his overpowering sacred spell. Reciting it he cast it on the water ( -- on Apsu -- ) Poured slumber over him so that he soundly slept.
Variation II (2)
When heaven above had not been named, nor the earth beneath; when the primal Apsu, their begetter, together with Mummu and Tiamat herself, she who gave birth to all, still mingled their waters and no pasture land had yet been formed, nor was there even a reed marsh to be seen; when none of the generation of the gods had yet been brought into being, called by name or given a destiny: at that time, within Apsu and Tiamat, the great Gods were created.
Lahmu and Lahamu came into being and were called by their names. Even before they had matured and became tall, Anshar and Kishar were created and surpassed them in stature. These lived many days adding years to days, and their first-born, heir presumptive was Anu, the rival of his fathers equaling Anshar.
Anu begot his own likeness Ea the master of his fathers, broad of understanding, greatly wise and mighty in strength, even stronger than Anshar, his grandfather, with no rival among the gods, his brothers.
And these divine brothers troubled and disturbed the inner parts of Tiamat. Moving, running about within their divine abode, they gave Apsu reason for concern. He could not diminish their clamor. And Tiamat remained silent concerning them, though what they were doing gave pain. Their behavior was not good.
Therefore Apsu, the begetter of the great gods, called his vizier, Mummu, and said to him: "My vizier, Mummu, You who gladden my heart, come let us go to Tiamat." Going, they reposed before Tiamat and took counsel concerning the gods, their first-born.
Apsu opened his mouth and said in a loud voice to the glistening one, Tiamat: "Their behavior has become an annoyance to me. By day I cannot rest; by night I cannot sleep. I shall destroy them, put an end to their behavior; and when silence has been restored let us sleep."
But Tiamat hearing this, became angry, and cried out to her spouse, raging furiously, pondering his evil in her heart. "Why destroy what we ourselves have produced? Their behavior is indeed painful but let us take it with good will."
Variation III - BABYLONIAN (3)
In the beginning there was Apsu the Primeval, and Tiamat, who is Chaos. There were no other beings. The waters were not separated; they and the earth mingled, and there was no ground for the growth of anything. Then nothing bore name; no destinies had been ordained.
Then the Gods came into existence: Lakhmu and Lakhamu. Ages passed. Other Gods came into existence: Anshar and Kishar. Ages passed. Then Ea, Anu, and Bel came into existence.
The Gods considered how the waters might be separated from each other, how the earth might be separated from the waters, how names might be given and destinies ordained. And as the Gods considered the realm of Tiamat, the Mother of All, was made small for her. She conceived a hatred for the Gods; with Apsu she plotted the destruction of those whom she had borne.
Then, behold Tiamat roused up the Ancient Monsters: she spawned monsters never known before. She made ready to destroy the Gods. The Gods felt their realm shake, and they were affrighted.
Then Anshar opened his mouth and spoke to Anu, his son. He said to Anu, "Go forth and appease Tiamat, so that the Gods may not be destroyed by her who bore them." Anu went forth. He saw the monsters that Tiamat had formed; his heart failed him, and he turned back to the dwelling-place of the Gods. They were filled with fear when they looked upon the countenance of Anu.
Then Ea was sent forth to appease Tiamat. He saw the Ancient Monsters that she had roused up. They were sharp of tooth and cruel of fang; they bore merciless weapons. Ea was affrighted, and he turned back to the dwelling place of the Gods. The Gods looked upon his countenance and they were affrighted. The lesser Gods wailed bitterly, crying, "What has changed that she should conceive this hatred for us? We do not understand the evil will of Tiamat!"
Then Marduk, his heart promptlng him, rose in the assembly of the Gods. He opened his mouth and spoke, saying, "Lo, I, Marduk, will be the champion of the Gods if ye decree in your council that what ever I do shall remain unaltered, and that whatsoever my mouth speaketh shall never be changed nor made of no avail." Then the Gods said, "Thou shalt be the chiefest among the great Gods; established shall he the words of thy mouth; irresistible shall be thy command; none of the Gods shall transgress thine ordinances, O Marduk, thou art our champion!"
They prepared for him a lordly chamber; they bestowed upon him the scepter, the throne, and the ring. And the Gods girded weapons upon their champion; they gave him his bow and his spear; they put a club in his right hand and he grasped it; they hung a quiver by his side. He himself prepared a great net for the taking of the monsters that Tiamat had formed and the Ancient Monsters that she had roused up.
Tiamat raged; she was full of wrath against the Gods. With terror and splendor she clothed her monsters so that their crested heads were lifted high. She gave them invincible weapons. With poison instead of blood their bodies were filled. The dwelling-places of the Gods were shaken as she gave the battle signal to her hosts, as Tiamat uttered the spell that aroused them for battle.
Then Marduk went into his chariot; the lightning and the thunderbolt were in his hands. The Gods beheld him and knew that none could inspire such terror as he. He harnessed his four horses; he yoked them to chariot. Ferocious, high of courage, swift of pace were Marduk's horses; moreover, they had been trained to trample enemies underfoot. They gnashed with their bodies were flecked with foam. So Marduk went forward, and the seven winds he had created followed in his course. They were the Storm and the Hurricane; the Whirlwind, the Four-fold Wind and the Seven-fold Wind; the Wind that has no Equal, and the Wind that is called the Evil Wind. The Gods followed Marduk.
Now when Marduk neared where Tiamat was, the movement of Tiamat's ceased; the monsters were affrighted by the appearance of Marduk. But Tiamat rushed on; she uttered angry cries; with unbent neck she taunted the Gods. All things were shaken.
Marduk let loose the Evil Wind. Tiamat's mouth was opened; the wind rushed in and filled her belly. She lay down: no more could she give battle-orders to her monsters. Marduk drove his spear through the heart of Tiamat. He stood upon her prone body. Then, sweeping his net around, he took the monsters in his net. The whole world was filled with their cries.
He trampled on Tiamat, and she, the Mother of All, was as a reed that is broken. With his club he shattered her skull. He cut channels for the blood to flow out of her, and he bade the winds bear her blood away into the secret places.
As a man splits a flat fish, Marduk split the body of Tiamat. He set one half of her above as a covering for the heavens; he fixed bolts there so that the floods that are above may not be voided upon the earth, and he stationed a watchman to guard the bolts. Of the other half of Tiamat's body he made the earth. He divided all that was made between Anu, Bel, and Ea. -- the Heavens, the Earth, and the Abyss. He fixed the stars in their places; he ordained the year and divided it; he caused the Moon God to shine, and he gave him the night for his portion.
Thereafter Marduk devised a plan. He opened his mouth and he spoke to Anu, Bel, and Ea. "My blood I will take and bone I will fashion; I will make man to inhabit the earth so that the service of the Gods may not fail ever." So Marduk spoke, and man began to live upon the earth.
Late on the scene, the people of the North perceive a Creation of Fire and Ice - of emanation and formation.
Voluspa (9CE - 10CE) (4)
In the beginning was Yawning Gap: to one side of it was the Place of Fog and Mist; to the other side was the Place of Fire. Ginnunga Gap, Niflheim, Muspellsheim -- these were in the beginning. Yawning Gap filled up with chill streams flowing from the Place of Fog and Mist; the heat from the Place of Fire turned the chill streams into mist; out of the mist was formed two beings -- Ymir the ancient Giant, and the cow Audhumla.
Ymir stayed by Audhumla and drank her milk. Giants and Giantesses came from his feet; the race of Giants multiplied. Then another race appeared. One day Ymir saw Audhumla breathe upon a cliff of ice and lick with her tongue the place she breathed on. As her tongue went over and over the place the Giant saw that a figure was being formed. It was not like a Giant's form; it was more shapely. A head appeared in the cliff and golden hair fell over the ice. As Ymir looked upon the being that was being formed he hated him for his beauty.
Audhumla, the giant cow, went on licking the place where she had breathed. At last a man completely formed stepped from the cliff. Ymir, the ancient Giant, hated him so much that he would have slain him then and there. But he knew that if he did this Audhumla would feed him no more on her milk.
Buri was the name of the one who was formed in the ice-cliff. Buri, married to one of the Giantesses, had a son. His son, Bur married to Bestla, daughter of the Giant Bolthorn, had three sons: they were the first of the Aesir, the first of the Gods.
Their names were Oithin, Honir, and Lothur. For a time they lived in peace with Ymir and his children. Then as the children of Bur multiplied and the children of Ymir multiplied there was war between them. The ancient Giant was slain and his blood poured out in such mighty flood that his sons were all drowned in it, all except the Giant Bergelmir. He was in a boat with his wife when the flood came; they floated away on the flood to the place that came to be called Jotunheim, from them the race of Giants came, and in that place the race of Giants lived.
Now Oithin and his brothers and his sons took the body of Ymir -- the vastest body that ever was -- and they flung it into Yawning Gap, filling up the great chasm with it. They dug the bones out of the body and they piled them up into mountains; they took the teeth out and they made them into rocks; they took the hair of Ymir and they made it into grasses and forests of trees; out of his hollow skull they made the sky.
Oithin with his brothers and sons did more than this. They took the sparks and the clouds of flame that blew from Muspellsheim and they made them into the sun and moon and all the stars that are in the sky. The sun and the moon were drawn by horses: the sun by Arvak and Alsvith, the Early-waking One and the Fleet One. When Oithin lighted up the world with the sun and the moon, the Giants who were very wroth: they found two of the fleetest and fiercest of the mighty wolves of Jotunheim, and they set them to follow Sol and Mani, the sun and the moon. And ever afterwards Sol and Mani were pursued by the wolves out of Jothunheim, the place of the Giants.
Utahan, Honir, and Lothur then made the race of men: Ask and Embla were the names of the first pair made, the Gods made them out of the ash and the elm-tree. Utahan gave them soul and motion, Honir gave them sense and feeling, Lothur gave them warmth and colour. The Gods made a world for themselves and a world for men. Asgarth was the name of the world they made for men. And, lest the Giants should come out of Jotunheim and destroy Mithgarth, the Gods set as a fence around it an eyebrow of Ymir' s. Out of the flesh of Ymir Dwarfs had come. The Gods made a world for them also: Svartalfaheim, a world that is under Mithgarth.
There was a tree that spread its branches through all the worlds and that had its roots in three of the worlds. That tree was named Yggdrasil. One of its roots was in Asgarth, one was in Jotunheim, and one was in Niflheim that was the World of the Dead. The root that was in Niflheim was beside a well. Therein was the dreadful serpent, Nithogg: Nithogg gnawed for ever at the root of the World Tree, wanting to destroy it. And Ratatosk, the squirrel, ran up and down Yggdrasil making trouble between the eagle that was at the top of the tree and the serpent that was below. He went to tell the serpent how the eagle was bent upon tearing him to pieces, and he went back to tell the eagle how the serpent planned to devour him. Beside the root of the tree in Jotunheim was a well guarded by old Mimir the Wise. Whoever drank out of this well would know all of the things that are to come to pass. And beside the root that was in Asgarth was another well: the three sisters who are the Norns guarded it, and their names were Urth, Verthandi, and Skuld -- Past, Present, and Future; they took the water of the well and watered Yggdrasil with it that the Tree of the World might be kept green and strong. This well was called Urda's well. Two swans were on the water of it; they made music that the dwellers in Asgarth often heard. On the branches of the tree four stags grazed; they shook from their horns the water that fell as rain in Mithgarth. And on the topmost branch of Yggdrasil, the branch that was so high that the Gods themselves could hardly see it, was perched the eagle that the serpent was made to fear. Upon the beak of the eagle a hawk perched, a hawk that saw what the eyes of the eagle could not see.
In Asgarth there were many halls: there was the one that was called Glathsheim, built by the golden-leaved wood, Glasir: her Oithin and the twelve who were his peers had their high seats, and here the banquets of the Gods were held. Here Oithin, the Father of Gods and men, would seat himself, a blue mantle upon him, and a shining helmet shaped like an eagle upon his head. He would sit there, not eating at all, but drinking the wine of the Gods, and taking food from the table which he gave to Geri and Freki, the two wolves that crouched beside his seat. Then there was Vingolf, which had high seats for Frigg, the wife of Oithin, and the Goddesses. There was the hall Heithskjolf, that was roofed all over with silver: from it Oithin could look out upon all the worlds. There was Fensalir, where Frigg sat spinning with golden threads; there was Breithablik, where Baldr the Well-beloved lived with his fair wife, the young Nanna; there was Bilskirnir, where Thor and his wife, Sif, lived. And there was the hall in which those who were heroes amongst men lived and feasted when they had come to Oithin after their deaths in battle: that hall was named Valhall.
Between Asgarth and Mithgarth there was a bridge that was called Bifrost, or Rainbow. It was the strongest and the most lovely of Bridges. Upon it was a ruddy gleam that came from the light of a fire that burned always to prevent the Giants from crossing it. Bifrost was to break when the Giants made their way across it and the battle ensued that was to end all things.
Odin's relentless quest for wisdom leads him to many teachers - including seeresses and hanged men; for those familiar with the Tarot this sheds some light on the card known as the "Hanged Man." The following narrative is from the "Words of the High One" or Havamal. Odin's sacrifice (hanging on Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life) brings him secret or occult knowledge whereby he is able to discern the meaning of Runes - letters of power.
From the Havamal: "Lord of the Gallows"
"Odin said:
'I hung from that windswept tree, hung there for 9 long nights; I was pierced with a spear; I was an offering to Odin, myself to myself.
No one came to comfort me with bread, no one revived me with a drink from a horn. I peered at the worlds below; I seized the runes, shrieking I seized them; then I fell back.
I learned 9 powerful songs .... one word gave me many words'..."
There follows of description of 18 Charms which include help, healing, hold back my enemy, unlock bindings.
The Havamal tells us more about the Runes. We know, for example that a horse (eoh) cult developed in connection with the God Frey, Freya. One night ritual associated with the cult was the wearing of horsemasks ( night mares). A horse's head (or replica thereof) was placed at the top of the "nithing" pole and was known as the pole of insult:
(65)"Now," said Cormac, "I bid Thorvard anew to the holmgang, if he can be called in his right mind. Let him be every man's nithing if he come not!" and then he made this song: -- (66) "The nithing shall silence me never, Though now for their shame they attack me, But the wit of the Skald is my weapon, And the wine of the gods will uphold me. Life and Death of Cormac the Skald.
Odin's gifts (gefu) are placed at the end of our correspondence as a sign of love and affection (xxx - kisses). Odin's gifts are three in number, they consist of consciousness, form and lifebreath.
The goddess Nerthus was worshipped on an island in the middle of a lake (laguz). Once a year a ship would be buried on the island in her honor. She is the lady of the lake.
Englan(d) is the Land of Eng.
The magic wand (wunjo) or glory twigs are used by the shaman or magician in his/her work.
Social and Behavioral Sciences E-Campus Comments to: joanaa@umd5.umd.edu Content copyright © 1986-1999 Joan A. Andersen; Revised: 9 April 1999 URL: http://www.erols.com/bcccsbs/c5water.htm