portions
preserved. In the opening lines of the epic there is a reference to the
time 'when fates were not yet decided.' The decision of fates is in the
Babylonian theology one of the chief functions of the gods. It
constitutes the mainspring of their power. To decide fates is
practically to control the arrangement of the universe--to establish
order. It is this function which arouses the natural opposition of
Tiamat and her brood, for Tiamat feels that once the gods are in
control, her sway must come to an end. On the part of the gods there is
great terror. They are anxious to conciliate Tiamat and are not actuated
by any motives of rivalry. Order is not aggressive. It is chaos which
manifests opposition to 'order.' In the second tablet of the series,
Anshar sends his son Anu with a message to Tiamat:

Go and step before Tiamat.
May her liver be pacified, her heart softened.

Anu obeys, but at the sight of Tiamat's awful visage takes flight. It is
unfortunate that the second tablet is so badly preserved. We are
dependent largely upon conjecture for what follows the failure of Anu's
mission. From references in subsequent tablets, it seems certain that
Anshar sends out Ea as a second messenger and that Ea also fails. Tiamat
is determined upon destroying the gods, or at least upon keeping from
them the 'decision of fates.' Anshar, it will be seen, stands at the
head of the pantheon, and it seems natural that he, and not one of his
offspring, should be the final victor. This indeed appears to have been
the original form of the myth or at least one form of it. In a second
form it was Bel to whom the victory was ascribed, and this Bel of the
triad, we have seen, was En-lil, the chief god of Nippur; but both
Anshar and Bel must give way to the patron deity of the city of
Babylon--Marduk. Anshar-Ashur, the head of the Assyrian pantheon, could
not be tolerated by the Babylonian priests as a power superior to
Marduk. On the other hand, Anshar could not be set aside, for he
survived in popular tradition. The result is a compromise. Marduk gains
the victory over Tiamat, but is commissioned to do so by the assembly of
the gods, including Anshar. As for the older Bel, he voluntarily
transfers to Marduk his name. In this way, the god Bel of the triad
becomes one with Marduk.

Perhaps in one religious center and at a time when Ea was the chief god,
still another version existed which assigned the triumph to Ea, for as
will be