Enuma Elish From Cosmos to Chaos.

Belkis Rodriguez

Literature 230

Enuma Elish: From Chaos to Cosmos

Enuma Elish portrays one of the most perennial themes of mythology. The pivotal fight between two antagonist forces, one force being the governing force which creates order and the other force which chaotically intends to disintegrate order. This is the essence of all creation, in which order is wrenched by some unknown force or chaos. All creation is linked to a breakdown in forms or catastrophe, in an endless cascade of events in which the order, organization, are linked to the disorder, imbalance and instability. So dies the ancient idea of order, that explained everything. Therefore, there is not only progress but also regressions and catastrophes. The cosmos is organized to disintegrate over and over and thus allow the creation of better things.

From the beginning, the idea of order was understood thru myths, from the origin of the world to the origin of new beginnings. According to the logic of the myth men produce different ritual acts to bring or maintain order. For example, the Aztecs knew that nothing was assured permanence and thus closely linking human affairs to the idea of the cosmos they made human sacrifices to balance the negative energy and to avoid the destruction of the world, they considered fragile. It was a balance, to bring order despite the power of disorder -or- (For example, the text of Enuma Elish had ritual use, although indeterminable this text was recited entirely in Babylon during ceremonies for the renewal of the world at the beginning of each new year.). With this, what mythology intends to show is that, if it wasn’t possible to eliminate disorder, traditional societies would divert to the imaginary (The myths, rites, etc.). Mythology has always been seen as tradition generating continuity, but more than that is a source of information about the past, that gives meaning to the present and allows maintain order only because it is able to reduce clutter and make order. That is, because it can delete, or conceal or acts with a dynamism that allows it to adapt to the present.

In this sense, tradition is not a passive thing that just keep a somewhat active social structure, but allows this social structure to be what has already existed that is, thanks to mythology and ritualism. This belief was and still is a weapon to preserve the traditional order. Mythology has uses various of characters that exceed the limits of the order and are used to invigorate such order these characters being: the hero (which has an excess of knowledge and power with which, unwittingly causes destruction) in the text Enuma Elish this character can be portrayed by Mummu. A second character can be a witch, god or the villain destructor of order (figure par excellence associated evil) portrayed in Enuma Elish by the father who wants to destroy his children and later on by the mother who wants to avenge the death of her husband. In any case, mythology has configured certain characters as beings who are always on the sidelines, aggressors that promote disorder which convey different social values. They are a counter-thought, a thought forbidden by not being bound by the categories, rules or space. They all have some common characteristics, they are "different" with respect to "normal individuals”, an identity that creates uncertainty or are borderline semi-crazy. This a true statement that can only be understood within the belief system of mythology, which goes along the lines that if you correlate disorder with the ridiculous, bad or violent only then you can create a desire for order.

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