a Sumerian original, and explain
it word for word by the phrases of the Semitic Version;(3) so that for
one out of the Seven Tablets a Semitic origin is at once disproved.
Moreover, the majority of the fifty titles, even in the forms in which
they have reached us in the Semitic text, are demonstrably Sumerian, and
since many of them celebrate details of their owner's creative work, a
Sumerian original for other parts of the version is implied. Enlil and
Ea are both represented as bestowing their own names upon Marduk,(4)
and we may assume that many of the fifty titles were originally borne by
Enlil as a Sumerian Creator.(5) Thus some portions of the actual account
of Creation were probably derived from a Sumerian original in which
"Father Enlil" figured as the hero.

(1) Cf., e.g., Jastrow, _Journ. of the Amer. Or. Soc._, Vol.
XXXVI (1916), p. 279.

(2) See _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, Vol. I, pp. lxvi
ff.; and cf. Skinner, _Genesis_, pp. 43 ff.

(3) Cf. _Sev. Tabl._, Vol. I, pp. 157 ff.

(4) Cf. Tabl. VII, ll. 116 ff.

(5) The number fifty was suggested by an ideogram employed
for Enlil's name.

For what then were the Semitic Babylonians themselves responsible?
It seems to me that, in the "Seven Tablets", we may credit them with
considerable ingenuity in the combination of existing myths, but
not with their invention. The whole poem in its present form is
a glorification of Marduk, the god of Babylon, who is to be given
pre-eminent rank among the gods to correspond with the political
position recently attained by his city. It would have been quite out of
keeping with the national thought to make a break in the tradition,
and such a course would not have served the purpose of the Babylonian
priesthood, which was to obtain recognition of their claims by the older
cult-centres in the country. Hence they chose and combined the more
important existing myths, only making such alterations as would fit
them to their new hero. Babylon herself had won her position by her own
exertions; and it would be a natural idea to give Marduk his opportunity
of becoming Creator of the world as the result of successful conflict.
A combination of the Dragon myth with the myth of Creation would have
admirably served their purpose; and this is what we find in the Semitic
poem. But even that combination may not have been their own invention;
for, though, as we shall see, the idea of conflict had