One Alone in the Water Part II

by

Dr. Wayne Glowka

Professor of English

Other Creation Myths

Other creation myths from around the world also tell of a creator god who rises from the water and becomes the source of all.

A clear example of this process can be found in the ancient Hebrew account in Genesis 1, which was compiled "probably as late as the fifth century B.C.E." (Leeming 24). In this account, God the creator, who seems to have no origin, gives form to a universe in chaos. "In the beginning," reads the text, "God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1.1). It is not clear if this claim is a summary of the story that follows or is the first step in the process. Whatever the case, "the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep" (Gen. 1.2). The verse describes the dark primeval waters and the disordered stuff of the physical world.

The next two sentences remind us in general ways of the Egyptian account of the sun god rising from the waters:

And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (Gen. 1.2-3)

The Hebrew God is not the sun, and the light created in this pronouncement does not come from the sun—but the Egyptian god is not truly the sun either. In both cases, the creator god brings light to a watery, chaotic world.

The Hebrew God then brings order into the world by separating light from darkness, waters from waters, and waters from the earth (Gen. 1.4-10). Then He calls upon the earth and seas to bring forth creatures of various kinds (Gen. 1.11-13, 20-25) and speaks the sun, moon, and stars into existence as principles of order in the firmament (Gen. 1.14-19). With the world prepared, God speaks human beings into existence as the rulers of the physical world, for whose benefit all other things are made. In this version of creation, humans come from the words of God, and male and female are created together (Gen. 1.26-30; see note below on Gen. 2).

Michelangelo's "Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" in the Sistine Chapel

The Mesopotamian Enuma elish, which is at least as old as "the reign of Nebuchadrezzar in the twelfth century B.C.E." (Leeming 18), tells a story that is more dynamic than the Egyptian and Hebrew accounts of how the god of light rose above the waters.

In the polytheistic Mesopotamian account, the stuff of the universe is not inert matter. Each component of the universe is a god, and creation is a series of battles between the divine components. The original gods are the primeval waters: the male Apsu, who is the sweet water ocean; and the female Tiamat, who is the salt water ocean. These two watery gods beget generations of gods whose surging back and forth disturbs the original two gods ("Mesopotamian" 19). Apsu decides to destroy his children, but Ea, the wise god of earth—who is earth—rises up and defeats Apsu. Ea builds his palace on Apsu, and thus sweet water is placed under the earth ("Mesopotamian" 20-21). Ea then fathers Marduk, who is the sun who sees and hears all. When Tiamat, the salt ocean, arises in storm, Marduk defeats her in battle and cuts her in two: half of her remains on the earth as ocean while the other half is placed into the firmament as the blue sky ("Mesopotamian" 22). Marduk later creates mankind from the blood of a god who sided with Tiamat in the battle, and we see that mankind once again has a divine origin ("Mesopotamian" 23).

The Mesopotamian Deity Marduk

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