RELS 346 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Enûma Eliš, Mummu, Abzu

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELS 346
• Professor: Tinu Ruparell

Document Summary

Common motif: creation out of chaos: cosmogony: world beginnings, ex: the world rising as a small hill out of nun (boundless watery abyss) egyptian story. 2nd law of thermodynamics: as energy is transferred, more and more is wasted, natural tendency is towards disorder, new and complex structures emerge out of chaos, so entropy is both the beginning and the end of life. Babylon: navel of the cosmic body, centre of the universe (axis mundi, home of the great gods. Microcosmos: political & social order: tiamat is a threat to microcosmos, survival of the state depends on marduk defeating her and preventing her from returning, difficult to keep a good monster down b/c they tend to reawaken. Ironic for those living on tiamat"s body to want her down = paradox of the. Monstrous: what threatens order is also the source of order. Akitu: babylonian new year festival: reaffirm order and babylon as centre, enuma elish was used in rituals.