Marlee White CLT3378 February 6, 2013 Essay Assignment 1 Male vs.

Female: The Majority Vote Goes to Similarities with a Sprinkle of Differences

In the Babylonian myth the Enuma Elish and the Canaanite myth The Baal Cycle the male and female gods are similar in their roles and characteristics, yet differ when it comes to how they choose to act with those accompanying traits and roles. Both of these epic of creations have gods and goddesses that are violent and strong- especially each of the main male gods - and mother-father duos. By the end we find multiple parallels, as well as a sprinkle of differences, in the traits, roles and actions casted in and upon them all. Strong, powerful, determined, violent, destructivethis is just the beginning of a list of adjectives that could be used in association with both gods and goddesses from the Enuma Elish and The Baal Cycle. Both the males and females demonstrate these traits, especially when it comes to fighting for their beliefs or loved ones. Since these myths are about a time when the world was just coming into being and the deities went through everything just to end the chaos and start creation, you can imagine the power struggles and battles that arose. The Virgin Anat from The Baal Cycle is a prime example of these qualities. She is the daughter of El and Asherah, sister/lover of Baal and known for her blood thirst and destructiveness (to the point of not stopping) during war and fighting. Determined, Anat goes to get revenge for her dead

lover under the, incorrect, belief that Mot (the underworld god) killed him. She splits, winnows, burns, grounds and sows him as one would do when harvesting wheat. In the beginning of the myth we see, again, her viciousness when it comes to violence when she threatens to make gray hair run with bloodand turn his gray beard with gore (referring to the possibility of her father, El, refusing to building a house for Baal). Someone just as powerful, determined and violent is Ea the male trickster god from the Enuma Elish; he is not as destructive or savage as Anat. When Ea hears about Apsu (the freshwater god) preparing to kill other gods he sneaks in and lulls Apsu to sleep. Ea cannot stop there though, for making it easy or quitting are not characteristics of these gods, no, instead he continues on to slew him and build his palace on top of the corpse. These violent and strong qualities do not differ between male or female gods, but rather stay the same from all gods and goddesses that appear in both myths. Each of these epics of creation has a main character that resembles the other, but towards the end comes those few sprinkles of differences. We now encounter Marduk and Baal. They

are the two main gods from the Enuma Elish and The Baal Cycle. These gods are similarly violent, strong and powerful, but they have more imperative roles and bigger battles to fight than the others aforementioned. These two deities are portrayed in a similar light and with comparable roles, though how they got and defend their roles differs. Each myth was written with their main god being a storm god whose spheres of influence include water/rain, fertility/vegetation and the winds. Due to these traits, both gods were blessed to become patron gods of their own cities; these cities are Canaan and Babylon. Both are also called by a name throughout the epics that -when translated into English- means lord because they are or become the lord of all other gods. Baals, coincidentally (or not), was the Ugaritic word baal

and Marduks was the Akkadian word bel. Each myth contains multiple names for both gods that associates them with being the lord or in charge of something/someone. In The Baal Cycle you see Baal the Conqueror, Lord of the Earth, Our Judge and even references to him as being higher than all. Majesty of the Gods, Marduk the Hero, Sage of the Gods and many, many more that describe all of his spheres of influences are a few of Marduks titles from the Enuma Elish. As I just mentioned, both Marduk and Baal were known as the lord or king of the gods, yet their stories pertaining to this elite title do differ. During the Enuma Elish, Marduk has to defeat his enemy (Tiamat) before the other gods will let him take the title role of bel because that role was not always his to have. Once he defeats Tiamat the war ends and the creation of the world begins as though there was never an obstacle in the way, but rather pieces to be used for the creation of the high skies and heavens to the low humans on earth. In contrast to that, Baal has to continuously fight his challenger (Mot) to defend his title of baal which had always been his from the beginning. Baal did not have to work for a title role, but certainly had to defend it, while Marduk wasnt king of the gods always, but fought for it just once and had it. These are variances of actions and roles that lead to the same title; though their title is not the only one that exists in these myths. We may have had all male gods in the previous paragraph, but we are multiplying and continuing onto the fact that both myths also have a mother-and-father duo or a male god and female god pair. In both, these couples are given the role of creators or the ones that created all other gods. This title is different from king of the gods because they are not considered to be the gods of all, but rather the power behind all gods by having children who have children and so on. The Enuma Elish twosome is Apsu and Tiamat and The Baal Cycles pair is El and Asherah. Tiamat and Asherah are both goddesses associated with water and the sea. A

difference between the two goddesses is the way they portray the roles; Tiamat illustrates the more destructive and neglectful qualities of a sea goddess and mother creator, whereas Asherah is associated with the more positive behaviors such as nurturer to her sons and husband. Tiamats children/underlings even inquire about her love for them and whether or not she is a mother; they ask her relentless questions like Dont you love us? and Are you not a mother?. She returns the answer to their questions by going to war against Marduk as revenge for her dead husband, antsy children and the throne. Meanwhile, Asherah works at appeasing El and making sure her sons are taken care of (for example, giving her son Athtar a chance at the throne and helping Baal get his palace). If we look at all of these deities together then we see another difference between the two myths; the Enuma Elish is the only one which has not only a female god, but a female creator god at that, attempting to gain the role of king of the gods or queen in this case. None of the other creator gods try this, male or female. El and Apsu both seem to stay in the back-drop, for Apsu is killed in the very beginning of the Enuma Elish and El only intervenes when hes needed (such as when he had to allow a palace to be built for Baal). These creators are mainly similar in their roles and just show a few differences when it comes to their actions. You may have noticed that I have not mentioned a female god being in the throne as lord. It seems as though the goddesss roles were mostly that of back-up or side kick for the male gods; more so the roles were as a lover, wife, aid, defender or even an adversary, but never the leader of the gods. Shapash, the sun god/gods torch from The Baal Cycle, is a good example of this. She was the one who saw all since she was literally above everyone else. In the myth she aided Baal in his battle against Mot by asking him how he could even battle with Baal the Conqueror; making it seem as though do to so was impossible. Another from this same myth is

Asherah (Mother of the Gods). She comes to the aid of Baal as well when defending his reasons for wanting a palace and getting El to agree to it. She charms her husband and lover by complimenting him while asking for his permission; calling him truly wise, great and telling him how his gray beard instructs him (the gray coloring tells of his years of wisdom). On the flip side, you have Tiamat, from the Enuma Elish, who in her own way is defender of her dead husband/lover and also Marduks adversary. Contrasting between the goddesses, Tiamat may be more powerful than the others in her role of Marduks main opponent, but in comparison with the other females, never feels the power of a true lord. The Enuma Elish and The Baal Cycle resemble each other more than differ when seeking out the similarities and differences between their male and female gods traits, roles and actions. Both sexes being violent and strong, the two main gods are not only male, but also king of the gods who had to travel different routes because of that role and we see similar mother-father creator pairs throughout the myths. The difference in both myths between the male and female gods was the fact that there was never a female lord, but always a male lord. My last thought is that The Baal Cycle never tells us how our world came about, while the Enuma Elish tells us in great detail the process of creationa difference I hope to later explain!

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