Topic > Comparison of the Babylonian Epic and Hesiod's Theogony

In placing humanity in this world, it is God's intent that humans enjoy this world and flourish in it through an ongoing relationship with Him. And God He said, “Let us make a man in our image, after our likeness, so that he may have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over the wild beasts, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ” (Genesis 158-159). Therefore, He creates a human being in His image, the image of God. God did not want man to be alone and decides to make a companion from man's rib. “And the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man, and he slept, and took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh where it had been, and the Lord God turned the rib which he had taken from the man into a woman (Genesis 160 ). Having learned of this, the human said: «This at last, bone of my bones / and flesh of my flesh, / this will be called Woman, / because this was taken from man» (Genesis 160). Humans occupy center stage in this account of the origin of the world, but are given little esteem in Mesopotamian and Greek creation stories. In Enuma Elish, Marduk spoke to Ea of his idea for the creation of humanity, but Ea was the true creator who devised how it should be accomplished. In the Sixth Tablet, Marduk says: “I will take my blood and form the bones / I will make man, that man may… / I will create man who shall