The Babylonian Legends of Creation by E. A. Wallis Budge

Description

The Babylonian Legends of Creation is a book first published in 1921 by English Egyptologist, E. A. Wallis Budge. Budge wrote numerous works on ancient civilisations during his life, as well as helping build the British Museum's collection of cuneiform tablets. This book discusses the discovery of the tablets regarding the creation story (known as the Enuma Elish) of ancient Babylonia, including the variant forms. It has a description of their contents as well as a translation. The tablets were found in the mid-nineteenth century at Kuyunjik in Iraq and were written in Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform script. The actual creation story is only mentioned in the sixth tablet, the rest of them telling the story of Marduk, the son of Enki, and his exploits which included defeating Tiamat the dragon. The myth within the tablets is dated to the first Babylonian Dynasty (1894-1595 BCE) and contains several parallels with the stories contained in the Old Testament of the Bible.

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