The Seven Tablets of Creation: The Enuma Elish

The clearest message to be drawn from the Enuma Elish is that, while chaos was the original state of creation, eventually order and stability prevailed. The gods of disorder, Tiamat and Apsu, fail decisively in the Creation Series, quickly defeated by those who favor organizing creation. In the view of the Babylonian poet who compiled and recorded the Creation Series, order begins with the heavens and progresses as the restrictions are placed upon the sky and the ocean, upon the moon and sun—who are ordered to cooperate with one another, upon the gods who reside in the stars as part of the zodiac, and eventually upon humanity, vegetation, and animal life.

Given that this creation story develops from emergent agrarian civilizations making the transition from mendicant hunter-gathers to a stationary agricultural life, it’s not hard to envision the importance of keeping things orderly. Cities came into being for the first time in the Fertile Crescent, with those who lived in them depending on stability. A strong city-state, like Babylon, could provide security and open markets for crops and other goods. Other matters, like the weather and the fertility of the soil, were out of the control of the city.