著者

荒川 紘

出版者

静岡大学

雑誌

人文論集 (ISSN:02872013)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.53, no.1, pp.1-28, 2002-07-31

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A Babylonian epic, Enuma elish, whose chief purpose is to recount how the god Marduk became the head of the Babylonian pantheon, also describes how Marduk created the cosmos. Spriting the salt water goddess Tiamat into two, he used one half to form the heaven and the other to fashion the earth. This text then forcuses on how he created the heavenly bodies, the mountains and the springs, and the mankind. In this paper, we argue mainly how the cosmology of Enuma elish brought forth. First, we pay attention to the mother goddess Ninhursag and the water god Enki. As city-states appeared, Enki became the leading god of the Babylonian pantheon, who had the role of organizing the various features of the civilized world. Second, we discuss the atomospher god Enlil in Sumer who also created Heaven and Eath by devidindg "the mountain of cosmos". Its "mountain" correspods to Tiamat in Enuma elish. Additionlly, one of the interesting points is that the character of Tiamat stems from the fertility of the Tigris and the Euphrates and the chloridation of the land. Thi^ the relation between the Babylonian dynasty and Enuma elish is argued. We discuss there that the centralization of the political powers produced the systematic cosomology. It is noteworthy that Marduk and his cosmology were related to the origin and the order of the Babylonian dynasty, and the ziggurat, Mesopotamian temple tower, was a symbol of the Babylonian dynasty and its cosmography. Finally, we refer to Enuma elish's influence on the Jews and the Greeks. As to Old Testament, the creation of Heaven and Earth in Gensisl is thought to originate from the cosmology of Enuma elish. This cosmology was likely to be related to Greek science, also. The water goddess Tiamat may, for example, be connected with the water that Thales chose as his primordial stuff. And, the significance of studying Enuma elish in the present day is stated.