ds in slightly altered form, and by others still
to belong to a non-Semitic tongue. This last view supposes that the
ancient poetry comes, in substance at any rate, from a non-Semitic
people who spoke this tongue; while on the other hand, it is maintained
that this poetry is so interwoven into Semitic life that it is
impossible to regard it as of foreign origin. The majority of Semitic
scholars are now of the opinion that the origin of this early literature
is foreign. However this may be, it comes to us in Babylonian dress, it
has been elaborated by Babylonian hands, has thence found its way into
the literature of other Semitic peoples, and for our purposes may be
accepted as Babylonian. In any case it carries us back to very early
religious conceptions.

The cosmogonic poetry is in its outlines not unlike that of Hesiod, but
develops the ruder ideas at greater length. In the shortest (but
probably not the earliest) form of the cosmogony, the beginning of all
things is found in the watery abyss. Two abysmal powers (Tiamat and
Apsu), represented as female and male, mingle their waters, and from
them proceed the gods. The list of deities (as in the Greek cosmogony)
seems to represent several dynasties, a conception which may embody the
belief in the gradual organization of the world. After two less-known
gods, called Lahmu and Lahamu, come the more familiar figures of later
Babylonian writing, Anu and Ea. At this point the list unfortunately
breaks off, and the creative function which may have been assigned to
the gods is lost, or has not yet been discovered. The general similarity
between this account and that of Gen. i. is obvious: both begin with
the abysmal chaos. Other agreements between the two cosmogonies will be
pointed out below. The most interesting figure in this fragment is that
of Tiamat. We shall presently see her in the character of the enemy of
the gods. The two conceptions of her do not agree together perfectly,
and the priority in time must be assigned to the latter. The idea that
the world of gods and men and material things issued out of the womb of
the abyss is a philosophic generalization that is more naturally
assigned to a period of reflection.

In the second cosmogonic poem the account is more similar to that of the
second chapter of Genesis, and its present form originated in or near
Babylon. Here we have nothing of the primeval deep, but are told how the
gods made a beautiful land, with rivers