Enuma Elish

Seven Tablets of Creation — tablet 5

FIFTH TABLET. 1. He appointed the Stations for the great gods, 2. He set in heaven the Stars of the Zodiac which are their likenesses. 3. He fixed the year, he appointed the limits thereof. 4. He set up for the twelve months three stars apiece. 5. According to the day of the year he ... figures. 6. He founded the Station of Nibir (Jupiter) to settle their boundaries, 7. That none might exceed or fall short. 8. He set the Station of Bel and Ea thereby. 9. He opened great gates under shelter on both sides. 10. He made a strong corridor on the left and on the right. 11. He fixed the zenith in the heavenly vault (?) 12. He gave the god Nannar (i.e., the Moon-god) his brightness and committed the night to his care. [Illustration: Portion of a tablet inscribed in Assyrian with a text of the Fifth Tablet of the Creation Series. [K. 3567.]] 13. He set him for the government of the night, to determine the day 14. Monthly, without fail, he set him in a crown (i.e., disk) [saying]: 15. "At the beginning of the month when thou risest over the land, 16. "Make [thy] horns to project to limit six days [of the month] 17. "On the seventh day make thyself like a crown. 18. "On the fourteenth day ... [Lines 19-26 dealt further with Marduk's instructions to the Moon-god, but are too fragmentary to translate. After line 26 comes a break in the text of 40 lines; lines 66-74 are too fragmentary to translate, but they seem to have described further acts of Creation.] 75. The gods, his (Marduk's) fathers, looked on the net which he had made, 76. They observed how craftily the bow had been constructed, 77. They extolled the work which he had done. 78. [Then] the god Anu lifted up [the bow] in the company of the gods, 79. He kissed the bow [saying]: "That ..." 80. He proclaimed [the names] of the bow to be as follows:-- 81. "Verily, the first is 'Long Wood,' the second is ... 82. "Its third name is 'Bow Star in heaven' ..." 83. He fixed a station for it ... [Of the remaining 57 lines of this tablet only fragments of 17 lines are preserved, and these yield no connected sense.]