She kept reciting an incantation,
For Enki, staying in her presence, made her recite it.
When she had finished her incantation,
She pinched off fourteen pieces (of clay),
(And set) seven pieces on the right,
Seven on the left.
Between them she put down a mud brick.
She made use of (?) a reed, opened it (?) to cut the umbilical cord,
Called up the wise and knowledgeable
Womb-goddesses, seven and seven.
Seven created males,
Seven created females.267
In other words, the resulting race of “primeval man”, of “worker man” was a hybrid of the gods and whatever “man” had already existed as the “clay” from which the new man was created. This roughly parallels the account of the Nephilim in Genesis 6.
But there is another extremely important connection between the two traditions that should not be overlooked, and like all such things, it is easy to do because it is so obvious. Both the Atrahasis account of the creation of this hybrid “worker” man and the Genesis account of the Nephilim and their hybrid offspring form the immediate context for their respective versions of the Deluge.
The Atrahasis legend, however, puts the motivations for the Deluge in starkly different terms, for it is not this new hybrid race’s utter lack of morality that is the reason for the Deluge, as it is in the biblical account, it is rather this new race’s longevity and the resulting overpopulation of the earth by a hybrid “mankind”:
And the country became too wide, the people too numerous.
The country was as noisy as a bellowing bull.
The God grew restless at their racket,
Ellil had to listen to their noise.
He addressed the great gods,
“The noise of mankind has become too much,
I am losing sleep over their racket.”
Ellil orders that the population be reduced by introducing a deadly disease among hybrid population:
“Give the order that suruppu-disease shall break out...”268
Dalley’s comment is worth citing:
In Atrahasis the Flood was sent by the gods in order to reduce overpopulation, a situation which has been compared with an early Greek poem, the Cypria (loosely attributed to Homer in antiquity and known mainly from allusions and quotations), in which Zeus planned to reduce overpopulation by war.269
In any case, one individual of the new hybrid race, for whom the epic is named, Atrahasis, beseeches his “god” Enki to do something about “humanity’s” plight:
Now there was one Atrahasis
Whose ear was open (to) his god Enki.
...
Atrahasis made his voice heard
And spoke to his lord,
“How long (?) [will the gods make us suffer]?
Will they make us suffer illness forever?”
Enki’s response to Atrahasis is that he should foment a rebellion against all the gods, and strike, refusing to work, returning the pantheonic council to the same situation that led to the creation of the hybrids in the first place:
Enki made his voice heard
And spoke to his servant:
“Call the elders, the senior men!
Start [an uprising] in your own house,
Let the heralds proclaim...
Let them make a loud noise in the land:
Do not revere your gods,
Do not pray to your goddesses...270
The result, however, is a replay of what brought about the disease in the first place, as Enlil decrees that the hybrid man should be starved to death to reduce the overpopulation:
The God grew restless at their clamour,
Ellil had to listen to their nise.
He addressed the great gods,
“The noise of mankind has become too much.
I am losing sleep over their racket.
Cut off food supplies to the people!
....
Command that Anu and Adad keep the (air) above (earth) locked,
Sin and Nergal keep the middle earth locked.“271
Interestingly, the “god” of wars, rebellions, of Mars and of the Underworld, Nergal, is involved in this nefarious activity.
As a result of this new assault, which according to the legend lasted for six years, the hybrid “man” was reduced to cannibalism:
A daughter would eye her mother coming in;
A mother would not even open her door to her daughter.
A daughter would watch the scales (at the sale of her) mother,
A mother would watch the scales (at the sale of her) daughter.
When the sixth year arrived
They served up a daughter for a meal,
Served up a son for food.272
But even this brutality did not work.
Finally a council is held, and Enlil/Ellil complains that the plan to create the hybrid worker race did not work, and he quickly proceeds to blame the god who has “befriended” mankind, Enki:
He (Ellil) was furious [with the Igigi]273
“We, the great Anunna, all of us,
Agreed together on [a plan].
Anu and [Adad] were to guard [above],
I was to guard the earth [below].
Where Enki [went],
He274 was to undo the [chain275 and set (us) free],
He was to release [produce for the people].276
An argument quickly develops between Ellil/Enlil and Enki:
“[You] imposed your loads on man,
You bestowed noise on mankind,
You slaughtered a god together with his intelligence.
(Ellil to Enki): You must... and [create a flood].
It is indeed your power that shall be used against [your people!]277
You agreed to [the wrong (?)] plan!
Have it reversed! (?)
Let us make far-sighted Enki swear... an oath.”
Enki made his voice heard
And spoke to his brother gods,
“Why should you make me swear an oath?
Why should I use my power against my people?
The flood that you mention to me -
What is it? I don’t even know!
Could I give birth to a flood?
That is Ellil’s kind of work!
....
[Let Erakal278 pull out] the mooring poles
Let [Ninurta] march, let him make [the weirs] overflow.279
Enki, in other words, will have no part in wiping out the new race.
Indeed, Enki actually warns Atrahasis of the impending genocide:
Enki made his voice heard
And spoke to his servant,
....
“Dismantle the house, build a boat,
Reject possessions, and save living things...”280
Then, the Deluge breaks over mankind.
Anzu was tearing at the sky with his talons,
....
...the Flood [came out (?)].
The kasusu-weapon went against the people like an army.
No one could see anyone else,
They could not be recognized in the catastrophe.
...
The darkness was total, there was no sun.281
Notably it is Anzu that is credited with bringing the Flood. As will be seen in the next chapter, this is the same Anzu that wages war with the rest of the Pantheon by stealing the Tablets of Destinies, making it likely that the Flood, the decision to wipe out mankind, and the war in the Pantheon, are all somehow components of the same scenario.
It is clear from the Atrahasis however, that at least one motivation for the Deluge, as far as the Mesopotamian tradition is concerned, is the overpopulation of the earth by the new hybrid race. Reading between the lines a bit, it is possible that the pantheon perceived the growing population as a threat to its own power, a reading borne out by the argument between Enlil and Enki, for perhaps inflicting the catastrophe on the hyb
rid race was the pantheon’s “loyalty test” on Enki. This would imply that perhaps Enki’s seeming beneficence to Atrahasis and the human race was just that: seeming beneficence. Perhaps he had plans to use the revolt among the human workers to further his own power.
In any case, it seems that the Atrahasis is more than a mere epic, for it hints at dark designs and agendas at work in the pantheon, and moreover clearly suggests that mankind, whether in his hybrid form or not, is perhaps both battlefield and prize in a much larger cosmic conflict.
2. The Legend of Erra/Nergal and Ishum
The second major Mesopotamian text that bleakly hints at this central role of mankind in the conflict is the Legend of Erra and Ishum. Before proceeding to the text itself, it should be noted that “Erra” is but another name for Nergal, and thus the legend not only gives significant insights into the “mankind motivation” for the war, but also into the dubious character of Nergal himself, in all his miserific glory.
The Legend of Erra and Ishum begins with the creation of the seven “sebitti”, the seven sages-and-warrior gods given to Nergal as his “fierce weapons.” These “seven sages” are critical players in the conflict. Their importance, in fact, is underscored by the Erra and Ishum itself, for they council Nergal into total and open revolt, and to seek absolute power:
‘Go out to the battlefield, warrior Erra, make your weapons resound!
Make your noise so loud that those above and below quake,
So that the Igigi hear and glorify your name,
So that the Anunnaki hear and fear your word,
So that the gods hear and submit to your yoke,
So that kings hear and kneel beneath you,
So that countries hear and bring you their tribute,
So that demons hear and avoid (?) you,
So that the powerful hear and bite their lips.’
...
Warrior Erra listened to them.
The speech which the Sebitti made was as pleasing to him as the
best oil.282
One god, Ishum, steps forward to council Nergal against open revolt and war:
When Ishum heard this,
He made his voice heard and spoke to the warrior Erra,
“Lord, Erra, why have you planned evil for the gods?
You have plotted to overthrow countries and to destroy their people, but will you not turn back?”283
Undeterred, Nergal resolves to assault the king of the gods, Marduk himself, and actually confronts Marduk personally.
Marduk’s response is to remind Nergal of his power, by reminding him how he destroyed Tiamat and rearranged the very mechanics of heaven itself:
The king of the gods made his voice heard and spoke,
Addressed his words to Erra, warrior of gods,
‘Warrior Erra, concerning that deed which you have said you will do:
A long time ago, when I was angry and rose up from my dwelling and arranged for the flood,
I rose up from my dwelling, and the control of heaven and earth was undone.
The very heavens I made to tremble, the positions of the stars of heaven changed, and I did not return them to their places.
Even Erkalla quaked....
Even the control of heaven and earth was undone...“284
At this juncture, it is worth citing at length what I wrote concerning the Babylonian creation epic, the Enuma Elish in my book The Giza Death Star Destroyed.
a. Revisiting the Enuma Elish
“...The Babylonian creation epic, the Enuma Elish, presents a concise though quite suggestive account of this interplanetary rebellion and war. The principal characters... are the “gods” Tiamat and Marduk.
(1) The War as a Rebellion
“The account begins as a creation account in rather typical fashion for an ancient text, recounting a state of initial chaos from which, through conflict of opposites, the order of creation gradually emerges:
1. When in the height heaven was not named,
2. and the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
3. and the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
4. and chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both -
5. their waters were mingled together,
6. and no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
7. when of the gods none had been called into being;
8. and none bore a name, and no destinies [were ordained]...285
Note that the first state or condition of creation is an undifferentiated state, or “chaos,” a condition recalling physicist LaViolette’s hermeneutic examined in my first book, The Giza Death Star.286 This undifferentiated state would best be described by our modern physics terms of “vacuum”, “zero point energy”, “quantum flux” or even “medium” or “aether.” The occurrence of the concept here, prior to the appearance of any distinctive objects of creation, is a strong indicator that the document preserves a residue of an earlier more sophisticated “paleophysical” cosmology. This is corroborated by the absence of names - “and none bore a name, and no destinies [were ordained]” - indicating in another fashion the absence of physically distinct and observable characteristics, corroborating the idea that we are dealing with a document of cosmological physics guised in a religious text.
“This might suggest that the proper names for the “gods” would argue against the “titular” pars pro toto rhetorical usage advocated by Laurence Gardner. As will be seen, however, the association of “Tiamat” with chaos and destruction subsequently in the Enuma Elish may be an artifact of the role of actual persons in the war described subsequently in the epic. In fact, the indicator of this war occurs almost immediately after the opening verses cited above, strongly suggesting that the conflict was a very ancient one:
22. But T[iamat and Apsu] were (still) in confusion [...],
23. They were troubled and [.......]
24. In disorder(?)..[.......]
25. Apsu was not diminished in might[....]
26. and Tiamat roared[.........]
27. She smote, and their deeds [......]
28. Their way was evil..[.] .... 287
“Notwithstanding the deteriorated condition of the tablets from which the text is translated, there are clear indications that Tiamat and Apsu were real persons, since they are engaged in activities perceived as evil. Soon after this, the epic gives the reason for this moral assessment:
49. Come, their way is strong, but thou shalt destroy [it];...
...
51. Apsu [hearkened unto] him and his countenance grew bright,
52. [Since] he (i.e., Mummu) planned evil against the gods his sons.288
“Note again the personalism of the document, as well as the fact that the war appears to be a “family quarrel” that has erupted into a civil war, a reading well in line with Zecharia Sitchin’s reconstructions. Many of the “gods” quickly flock to Tiamat’s side.
“At this juncture, the epic becomes very specific - unusually specific in fact, for a mere “creation epic” - in cataloguing the weapons used by the “Tiamat alliance”:
109. [They banded themselves together and] at the side of Tiamat [they] advanced;
110. [They were furious, they devised mischief without resting] night and [day].
111. [They prepared for battle], fuming and raging;
112. [They joined their forces] and made war,
113. [Ummu-Hubu}, who formed all things,
114. [made in addition] weapons invincible, she spawned monster serpents,
115. [sharp of] tooth, and merciless of fang;
116. [with poison instead of] blood she filled [their] bodies.
117. Fierce [monster-vipers] she clothed with terror....
...
120. Their bodies reared up and none could withstand [their] attack.289
121 [She set] up vipers, and dragons, and the (monster) [Lamamu],
122. [and hurricanes], and raging hounds, and scorpion-men,
123. and mighty [tempests], a
nd fish-men, and [rams];
124. [They bore] cruel weapons, without fear of [the fight].290
“Now let us pause, and see what has been presented, and speculate on its possible meaning for the scenario of a“paleoancient” interplanetary war.
(2) The War as Interplanetery
“(a) The war is between the various “gods” as some go into rebellion, for reasons that the passages cited do not make immediately clear;
“(b) Tiamat appears to fashion two types of dreadful weaponry against her opponents:
”(1) biological weapons: there are certain features to be noted about these weapons if one follows the interpretive paradigm of the existence of sophisticated technology in extremely ancient times:
“(i) some are of apparently much-larger-than normal size and are reptilian in nature, strongly suggesting dinosaurs or similar creatures;
”(ii) some are apparently hybrids between species, suggesting the existence of a sophisticated genetics technology, e.g., “fish-men” and “scorpion-men”;
“(iii) This fact in turn suggests that the hybrid human-animal forms often used in Egyptian hieroglyphics to denote the gods might indicate that a reality once may have been the foundation of the association of such glyphs with the gods in ancient Egypt and other ancient cultures.291
“(b) Weather weapons: hurricanes and immense storms. This implies the existence of a physics to engineer phenomena on a planetary scale by controlling or manipulating the electrodynamic properties of planetary atmospheres.
“But what were the motivations for this titanic struggle and the development and actual use of such horrendous weapons? These are alluded to at the very end of the first tablet and again in the second tablet of the Enuma Elish:
137. She gave to (Kingu) the Tablets of Destiny, on [his] breast she laid them, (saying):
The Cosmic War: Interplanetary Warfare, Modern Physics and Ancient Texts Page 16