C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

I. Theogony

By Accadian-Babylonian and Assyrian Literature

IN the time when above the heaven was not named,

The earth beneath bore no name,

When the ocean, the primeval parent of both,

The abyss Tiamat the mother of both….

The waters of both mingled in one,

No fields as yet were tilled, no moors to be seen,

When as yet of the gods not one had been produced,

No names they bore, no titles they had,

Then were born of the gods …

Lachmu Lachamu came into existence.

Many ages past …

Anshar, Kishar were born.

Many days went by. Anu …

[Here there is a long lacuna. The lost lines completed the history of the creation of the gods, and gave the reason for the uprising of Tiamat with her hosts. What it was that divided the divine society into two hostile camps can only be conjectured; probably Tiamat, who represents the unfriendly or chaotic forces of nature, saw that her domain was being encroached on by the light-gods, who stand for cosmic order.]

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