The Dragon Stone

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If you are reading this page it is assumed you have read the story of Tiamat on the African Dragons page. You need to have read it as this page leaves gaps in the story. The translator of this is currently unknown.

On the fourth day of the Babylonian new year festival the enuma elish was recited from severn large tablets. The first three tablets decribed the creation of the gods:

When on high the heaven had not been named,
Firm ground below had not been called by name,
There was nought but primordial Apsu, their begetter,
And Mother Tiamat, who bore them all,
Their waters commingling in a single body;
No reed hut had been matted, no marsh land had appeared,
When no gods whatever had been brought into being,
Uncalled by name, their destinies undetermined,
Then it was that the gods were formed within them,

...

A whole ancestory list of which god was born when, and who he was related to follows.

Below is part of the conflict between Marduk and Tiamat:

The Evil Wind, which followed behind, he let loose in her face.
When Tiamat opened her mouth to consume him,
He drove in the Evil Wind that she closed not her lips.
As the fierce winds charged her belly,
Her body was distended and her mouth was wide open.
He released the arrow, it tore her belly,
It cut through her insides, splitting the heart.
Having thus subdued her, he extinguished her life.
He cast down her carcass to stand upon it.

Later, after Marduk has killed the rest of Tiamat's army, he makes the universe with her body:

The lord trod on the legs of Tiamat,
With his unsparing mace he crushed her skull.
When the arteries of her blood he had severed,
He split her like a shell-fish into two parts;
Half of her he set up and ceiled it as sky,
Pulled down the bar and posted guards.
He bade them to allow not her waters to escape.

Marduk finishes creating the rest of the universe, adds the constalations, the moon etc. Then he creates man. A temple is built in honour of Marduk. He has a house-warming party for his new temple. The enuma elish ends with a hymn of praise to Marduk, in with he is given 50 names. Each one represents an attibute or activity of Marduk.

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