Clt3378 Essay 2
Storm God vs. Dragon-like Creature
The Babylonian, Enuma Elish, and the Canaanite group of poems, Baal Cycle, are both mythological works in which a storm god battles a dragon-like monster. This war between storm gods and dragon-like monsters show readers similarities from one culture to the next. The classification in each work illustrates a specific scene in which a dragon-like monster and a storm god have a hostile encounter with one another. In Enuma Elish, Tiamat, the dragon-like creature, better known as the sea, is up against Marduk, the king who we know as the storm god. Likewise, in the Baal Cycle, Yam, who is the sea, faces Baal, another storm god. Both works show the idea that storm gods represent order, while the sea, having dragon-like features, represents chaos. In Enuma Elish, Tiamat loses the battle against Marduk while the same thing happens in the Baal Cycle with a storm god, Baal, overpowering the sea, Yam. Though these are two mythological selections that come from different cultural backgrounds, they show major similarities of the head-to-head- battle amongst a dragon-like creature facing the deep sea.
In both Enuma Elish and the Baal Cycle, the storm gods, Marduk and Baal, exemplify great significant similarities although originating from diverse backgrounds. Marduk, the patron God of Babylon who came to power throughout the Enuma Elish, was a storm god. Though not literally being the storm himself, he controlled the thunder, the lightening, the rain etc. As the author of Enuma Elish says, Marduk created “the four winds, the seven winds, the tornado, the unfaceable facing wind. He released the winds in which he had created, seven of them.” As one can see from this scene, Marduk was no ordinary god but a god of power, and superiority. In the Baal Cycle, Baal is known as the “Rider on the Clouds” or the wind god. Again, we have another god that is not the physical storm god. Baal just controls them, just as Marduk did. Due to Baal’s title as
The Babylonian, Enuma Elish, and the Canaanite group of poems, Baal Cycle, are both mythological works in which a storm god battles a dragon-like monster. This war between storm gods and dragon-like monsters show readers similarities from one culture to the next. The classification in each work illustrates a specific scene in which a dragon-like monster and a storm god have a hostile encounter with one another. In Enuma Elish, Tiamat, the dragon-like creature, better known as the sea, is up against Marduk, the king who we know as the storm god. Likewise, in the Baal Cycle, Yam, who is the sea, faces Baal, another storm god. Both works show the idea that storm gods represent order, while the sea, having dragon-like features, represents chaos. In Enuma Elish, Tiamat loses the battle against Marduk while the same thing happens in the Baal Cycle with a storm god, Baal, overpowering the sea, Yam. Though these are two mythological selections that come from different cultural backgrounds, they show major similarities of the head-to-head- battle amongst a dragon-like creature facing the deep sea.
In both Enuma Elish and the Baal Cycle, the storm gods, Marduk and Baal, exemplify great significant similarities although originating from diverse backgrounds. Marduk, the patron God of Babylon who came to power throughout the Enuma Elish, was a storm god. Though not literally being the storm himself, he controlled the thunder, the lightening, the rain etc. As the author of Enuma Elish says, Marduk created “the four winds, the seven winds, the tornado, the unfaceable facing wind. He released the winds in which he had created, seven of them.” As one can see from this scene, Marduk was no ordinary god but a god of power, and superiority. In the Baal Cycle, Baal is known as the “Rider on the Clouds” or the wind god. Again, we have another god that is not the physical storm god. Baal just controls them, just as Marduk did. Due to Baal’s title as