Short Time in Mesopotamia

Chapter 3 Short Time in Mesopotamia

John Steele

At the beginning of the fifth tablet of the Babylonian creation epic Enūma Eliš, a widely copied literary work probably composed in Babylonia in the latter part of the second millennium BCE,1 the god Marduk, having defeated Tiamat and formed the heavens and the earth from her corpse, creates the Sun, the Moon, and the stars and sets out temporal order in the universe:

ú-ba-áš-šim man-za-za an DINGIR.DINGIR GAL.MEŠ MUL.MEŠ tam-šil-šu-nu lu-ma-ši uš-zi-iz ú-ad-di MU-AN-NA mi-iṣ-ra-ta ú-aṣ-ṣir 12 ITU.MEŠ MUL.MEŠ ⸢šu-lu⸣-[šá-a] uš-zi-iz iš-tu u4-mi ša MU-AN-NA uṣ-ṣ[i-r]u ú-ṣu-ra-ti ú-šar-šíd man-za-az dné-bé-ri ana ud-du-u rik-si-šú-un a-na la e-peš an-ni la e-gu-ú ma-na-ma man-za-az den-líl u dé-a ú-kin it-ti-šú ip-te-ma KÁ.GAL.MEŠ ina ṣi-li ki-lal-la-an ši-ga-ru ú-dan-ni-na šu-me-la u im-na in aka-bat-ti-šá-ma iš-ta-kan e-la-a-ti dnanna-ru uš-te-pa-a mu-šá iq-ti-pa ú-ad-di-šum-ma šu-uk-nat mu-ši a-na ud-du-ú u4-mu ar-ḫi-šam la na-par-ka-a ina a-ge ú-ṣir i-na reš ITU-ma na-pa-ḫi e-[l]i ma-a-ti qar-ni na-ba-a-ta a-na ud-du-ú za-ka-ri u4-mu i-na UD-7-KÁM a-ga-a [maš]-la [š]á-pat-tu lu-ú šú-tam-ḫu-rat mi-ši[l ar-ḫi]-šam i-[n]u-ma dšamaš i-na i-šid AN-e ina-[aṭ-ṭa-l]u-ka ina [s]i-[i]m-ti šu-tak-ṣi-ba-am-ma bi-ni ar-ka-niš [bu-ub-bu-l]um a-na ḫar-ra-an dšamaš šu-taq-rib-ma šá [x (x) UD-3]0-KÁM lu šu-tam-ḫu-rat dšamaš lu šá-na-at Enūma Eliš 5 1–22

He fashioned heavenly stations for the great gods, and set up constella- tions, the patterns of the stars. He appointed the year, marked off the di- visions, and set up three stars each for the twelve months. After he had organized the year, he established the heavenly station of Nēberu to fix the stars’ intervals. That none should transgress or be slothful he fixed the heavenly stations of Enlil and Ea with it. Gates he opened on both sides, and put strong bolts at the left and the right. He placed the heights (of heaven) in her (Tiāmat’s) belly, he created Nannar, entrusting to him the

1 Lambert 2013.

night. He appointed him as the jewel of the night to fix the days, and month by month without ceasing he elevated him with a crown, (saying,) “Shine over the land at the beginning of the month, resplendent with horns to fix the calling of days. On the seventh day the crown will be half size, on the fifteenth day, halfway through each month, stand in opposi- tion. When Šamaš [sees] you on the horizon, diminish in all the proper stages and shine backwards. On the 29th day, draw near to the path of Šamaš, […] the 30th day, stand in conjunction and rival Šamaš.”2 Lambert 2013, 99

In this passage, which at its most basic level is about creating an ordered universe, Marduk sets up cycles of the appearance of the Sun and the Moon so that time can be fitted into a regular pattern governed by the calendar. The month is divided into thirty days, beginning with the appearance of the new Moon crescent on the first day of the month and progressing through the phases of the Moon, with full Moon set as the fifteenth day in the middle of the month and the Moon and Sun being in conjunction on the thirtieth day. Of course, in reality, the cycle of the Moon does not always take thirty days, but rather varies in an irregular sequence between twenty-nine and thirty days. The calendar described in this passage, therefore, is an idealized version of the calendar in which months always last thirty days and there are always twelve months in the year, making a year last for a total of 360 days. The actual Babylonian calendar, however, operated with lunar months of either twenty-nine or thirty days, and years of either twelve or thirteen months.3 Unfortunately, the preserved sources for the fifth tablet of Enūma Eliš are all badly damaged after this point, leaving large lacunae in the text. Nevertheless, from what little remains, it seems that Marduk’s ordering of time goes no fur- ther than the creation of the year, the month, and the day. Line 46 contains a damaged reference to the ma-aṣ-ra mu-ši u i[m-mi] (“watches of the night and the d[ay]”), which I suspect refers simply to the division between day and night, but the context is lost. The story of Marduk’s creation of temporal order presented in Enūma Eliš echoes earlier ideas. For example, an early second millennium BCE Sumerian dedication inscription of Kudur-Mabug, ruler of Larsa, describes the Moon god Nanna as:

2 Unless otherwise noted, translations are the author’s own. 3 Steele 2011.