Research source

Ea went forth to fight the powers of darkness and he conquered Apsu and Mummu

Date of account: Ancient material presented in a work published 1921
Source: The Babylonian Legends of the Creation
Reference: The Babylonian Legends of the Creation · selected passage 4
Rights: public_domain
Language: English translation and study of Akkadian and Sumerian source material
Translation: E. A. Wallis Budge
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

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

Ea went forth to fight the powers of darkness and he conquered Apsu and Mummu. The victory over Apsu, i.e., the confused and boundless mass of primeval water, represents the setting of impassable boundaries to the waters that are on and under the earth, i.e., the formation of the Ocean. The exact details of the conquest cannot be given, but we know that Ea was the possessor of the "pure (or white, or holy) incantation" and that he overcame Apsu and his envoy by the utterance of a powerful spell. In the Egyptian Legend of Ra and Aapep, the monster is rendered spell-bound by the god Her-Tuati, who plays in it exactly the same part as Ea in the Babylonian Legend.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a passage from a historical religious or interpretive text. Its genre, manuscript history, translation and place within its own tradition are part of the evidence and must remain visible.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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