Logic and Rationalization in Babylonian Myth

By Reason Kristhoffer

Neo-Assyrian Protective Spirit, c. 9th century BCE. Licensed through Cleveland Museum of Art's Open Access Initiative

Logic, as we'll discuss it here, is the study and practice of correct reasoning. Logic supports using reasoning to grasp information, draw conclusions, understand thought processes, and prove or disprove truths—all activities that can be hard to engage in mythology due to its beyond-human nature. To be sure, mythology often requires the suspension of disbelief or the application of “dream logic"; however, a story will always contain a thread of traceable reasoning in order to be comprehensible. Great logical and philosophical movements have unfolded throughout ancient history, but one of the most recognized results was Aristotle’s proposed syllogistic logic, “known as term-logic, since it is concerned with the logical relations between terms” (Bobzien ¶1).

This can be described as a form of deductive inference, which we will utilize here to examine myth. Babylonian mythology understandably predates Aristotle, but the same Aristotelian techniques and understanding can be applied to that older tradition, with the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish (The Seven Tablets of Creation) as a prime example.

Enuma Elish describes the beginning and creation of the known universe. There was really nothing in the universe then except for a handful of gods, including water that was made of the sweet sea, Apsu, and the salty sea, Tiamat, who formed a union due to their rather fluid nature—and from this union were born young gods who were loud and irritating and trampled all over them. Because the old gods could get no rest, Apsu began devising ways to punish them (Mark ¶4). Although the thought of a sea distilling itself into two wholes that then copulate requires some suspension of disbelief and acknowledgement of mysticism, nearly universal empirical knowledge of the nature of children can humanize this event and allow an instinctive, reflexive line of logic to kick in. Such reasoning can be restated as follows:

Most children are disruptive and incessant (in their antics).

The younger gods are the children of Apsu and Tiamat.

Therefore, the younger gods are disruptive and incessant.

Apsu, having become irritated with the ruckus of the younger gods disturbing him night and day, decides to kill the young gods (Mark ¶5). This can be interpreted as a clear logical fallacy due to the albeit predictable overreaction and subsequent lack of consideration of reasonable avenues of action. Here is how Apsu's reasoning fails:

The young gods' ruckus prevents Apsu from resting.

If the young gods were dead, they would cease their ruckus.

Therefore, Apsu must kill them to end the ruckus.

This specifically is what is called a "modal scope fallacy," as it does not allow for the possibility of a world in which Apsu did not necessarily need to kill them. 

The young gods discover Apsu’s plan—in that Tiamat gets concerned and warns them—and kill Apsu before he can act. The death of Apsu enrages Tiamat: any support she had for the younger gods is lost with this event. She consults with a fellow god, Qingu, and grants him “Tablets of Destiny, which legitimize the rule of a god and control the fates” (Mark ¶6). The younger gods fight against Tiamat with little success until the champion Marduk emerges on the side of the young gods. He fells Tiamat and Qingu in but a few blows, takes the Tablets of Destiny from Qingu’s corpse (which legitimize his rule), and takes charge of the universe in which he places the sky and land (created from one half each of Tiamat’s remains), the planets and moon, and general creation of all things (Mark ¶7).

In this new scenario, the logic is understood within the myth rather than being thrust upon the receiver of the tale. The Tablets of Destiny control the fates and legitimize the rule of a god. Marduk is now in possession of the Tablets of Destiny. Therefore, Marduk has legitimized his reign. The other gods respect this outcome because it is simply the logical thing to do. It can be a little jarring that directly after this rational chain of events, Marduk took the corpse of a sea goddess and made one half the land and one half the sky. There is no presupposition or empirical knowledge that lends itself to this; rather, one must engage in the suspension of disbelief, or poetic faith—the willing avoidance of critical thinking so as to engage with a narrative.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who coined this term despite the concept's existence for innumerable years, believed that to allow the space for poetic faith to be held, the story must include some element of truth or humanity (Coleridge 137). Pantheonic mythologies often circumvent this by making their gods possess many humanlike qualities while still retaining an air of divinity and inhumanity. The gods in this myth existed before the universe was created, and they possess mystical divinity—they are not so constrained by reality as the common mortal. Knowing this truth, the listener is able to rationalize away these otherwise unexpected or jarring events. 

Ultimately after securing his rule, Marduk and Ea, another god, take the remains of Qingu and use his blood to craft humanity (the first human being Lullu) as a help to the gods in their “eternal task of maintaining order and keeping chaos at bay” (Mark, ¶8), and there our myth ends: the universe has been completed. Although term logic and even logical fallacies seem relatively simple when laid out, they are ironically so common as to go unnoticed unless one is looking. Every assimilation of knowledge, learning, or argument is a series of deductions and conclusions made by our brain to make sense of statements and truths in the world around us. When one makes a choice, they are using learned reasoning to pass what is hopefully a sound judgment, every day, all the time, forever. 

Works Cited

Bobzien, Susanne. “Ancient Logic.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta, Summer 2020, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2006, plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-ancient/.

Leeming, David. Oxford Companion to World Mythology, The. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Mark, Joshua. “Enuma Elish - the Babylonian Epic of Creation.” World History Encyclopedia, 4 May 2018, www.worldhistory.org/article/225/enuma-elish---the-babylonian-epic-of-creation---fu/.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Biographia Literaria, Or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions. Princeton University Press, 1984.

Reason Kristhoffer is a sophomore at CT State Northwestern.