Stirring up the great sea (1)

Text
Enūma Eliš 1.106-109, 1.133-152:
Anu (= the Sky) formed and produced four winds, he put them in his hand, (saying) “Whirl these, my son!” He formed dust, let it carry by the stormwind, he created the storm-wave and disturbed Tiamat, Tiamat was disturbed, stirred up in day and night. … Mother Hubur (= Tiamat) who can form everything, added countless invincible weapons, gave birth to monster snakes, pointed of fang, with merciless incisors (?), she filled their bodies with venom of blood. Fierce dragons she clad with glories, causing them to bear auras like gods, (saying:) “Whoever sees them shall collapse from weakness! Wherever their bodies make onslaught, they shall not turn back!” She deployed serpents, dragons, and hairy hero-men, lion monsters, lion men, scorpion men, mighty demons, fish men, bull men, bearing unsparing arms, fearing no battle. Her commands were absolute, no one opposed them, eleven indeed on this wise she created. From among the gods her offspring, who composed her assembly, she raised up Qingu from among them, it was he she made greatest! Leadership of the army, command of the assembly, arming, contact, advance of the melee, wardenship of the (spoils?) of battle, (all) she entrusted to him, made him sit on the dais.

Daniel 7:1-9:
I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings. Then, as I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a human being; and a human mind was given to it. Another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, had three tusks in its mouth among its teeth and was told, “Arise, devour many bodies!” After this, as I watched, another appeared, like a leopard. The beast had four wings of a bird on its back and four heads; and dominion was given to it. … (The last monster was) different from all the beasts that preceded it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, when another horn appeared, a little one coming up among them; to make room for it, three of the earlier horns were plucked up by the roots.

2 Esdras 13.2-11:
“And lo, a wind arose from the sea and stirred up all its waves. As I kept looking the wind made something like the figure of a man come up out of the heart of the sea. And I saw that this man flew with clouds of heaven; and wherever he turned his face to look, everything under his gaze trembled … And I looked and saw that he carved out for himself a great mountain, and flew up on to it … I saw only how he sent forth from his mouth something like a stream of fire and the flaming breath and the great storm, and fell on the onrushing multitude that was prepared to fight, and burned up all of them, so that suddenly nothing was seen of the innumerable multitude but only the dust of ashes and the smell of smoke. When I saw it, I was amazed.”

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Daniel 7:1-9
Enūma Eliš 1.106-109
Enūma Eliš 1.133-152
2 Esdras 13.2-11

Bibliography

Amar Annus

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001209.php