Babylon's Epic of Creation

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The biblical story of creation is famous - but did you know an even older myth may have influenced it? Enter the Enuma Elish, Babylon’s own Epic of Creation.

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes and Dr. Sophus Helle, a leading expert on ancient Mesopotamian literature, explore this ancient text - an epic tale that glorifies Marduk, Babylon’s supreme god, and tells of how he shaped the cosmos from chaos. It is a myth that placed Babylon at the centre of the universe and shines a light on Babylonian attitudes to power and belief. Indeed, it may well have shaped the Book of Genesis itself...

To take a further look at Sophus's translation of Enuma Elish click here

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight.

The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:08.1	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabatians, and enjoy a new release every week.
0:19.3	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. In the beginning, the famous three words that begin the book of Genesis, the first book in the
0:39.7	Bible. What follows is the story of how God created the heavens and the earth in six days,
0:45.7	resting on the seventh. It's one of the most popular stories of the Old Testament, but what you
0:51.4	might not know is that this creation story has clear influences from
0:55.7	another ancient tale, the Babylonian Genesis, Babylon's Epic of Creation. It's the ancients on
1:06.2	history hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. Today we're exploring an extraordinary piece of literature
1:12.5	from ancient Babylon, an epic narrative designed to glorify Babylon's chief god Marduk and explain
1:18.9	how he created the heavens and the earth with Babylon at the center of the universe. They called it
1:25.2	the Enuma Elish, Babylon's Epic of Creation.
1:29.4	Now to talk through this epic tale, I was delighted to welcome back Dr. Sophos Hell.
1:34.5	Sophos is an expert on ancient Mesopotamian literature.
1:37.9	He's also bringing these ancient poems back into the public eye,
1:41.3	having translated great work such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. We interviewed
1:45.6	Sophos all about the Epic of Gilgamesh last year, so do go and check out that episode after listening
1:51.2	to this one. Most recently, however, Sophos and a whole host of other leading Babylonian academics
1:57.5	have published a new translation of the Epic of Creation, free for you to read,
2:02.8	alongside articles examining its various details. So without further ado, here's my chat with Sophos
2:09.3	exploring Babylon's Epic of Creation.
2:15.7	Sofus, welcome back to the podcast. It's great to have you back on.
2:19.3	So great to be here again. I really enjoyed the first podcast we did on Gilgamesh. It was such a pleasure.
	...

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