Research source

Again the main difficulty arises from the fragmentary state of the documents, it being impossible even to…

Date of account: Ancient material presented in a revised 1880 edition
Source: The Chaldean account of Genesis: Containing the description of the creation, the fall of man, the deluge, the tower of Babel, the times of the patriarchs
Reference: The Chaldean account of Genesis: Containing the description of the creation, the fall of man, the deluge, the tower of Babel, the times of the patriarchs · selected passage 13
Rights: public_domain
Language: English translation and reconstruction from cuneiform sources
Translation: George Smith with later editorial material
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Again the main difficulty arises from the fragmentary state of the documents, it being impossible even to decide the order of the fragments

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

Again the main difficulty arises from the fragmentary state of the documents, it being impossible even to decide the order of the fragments. It appears, however, that the gods have fashioned for them a scimitar and a bow to fight the dragon Tiamtu, and Anu proclaims great honour (fourth fragment, lines 7 to 11) to any of the gods who will engage in battle with her. Bel or Merodach volunteers, and goes forth armed with these weapons to fight the dragon. Tiamtu is encouraged by one of the gods who has become her husband, and meets Merodach in battle. The description of the fight and the subsequent triumph of the god are very fine, and remarkably curious in their details, but the connection between the fragments is so uncertain at present that it is better to reserve comment upon them until the text is more complete. The scimitar with which Merodach is armed is shown by the cylinders and bas-reliefs to have been of the shape of a sickle, and is therefore the same as the _harpê_ or _khereb_ with which the Greek hero Perseus was armed when he went forth to fight against the dragon of the sea at Joppa.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice can compare the passage's descriptive features with later reports, but resemblance does not turn a vision, angel, mythic creature or sacred narrative into a modern incident report.

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