During the course of the akitu ceremony [the Babylonian New Year festivity] the so-called epic of the Creation, Enuma Elis, was solemnly recited several times in the temple of Marduk. [...] the akitu festival comprises a series of dramatic elements the intention of which is the abolition of past time, the restoration of primordial chaos, and the repetition of the cosmogonic act.
(Mircea Eliade: Cosmos and Chaos)
It is also within the frame of the same akitu ceremonial that the festival called the "festival of the fates", Zakmuk, was celebrated, in which the omens for each of the twelve months of the year were determined, which was equivalent to creating the twelve months to come.
(ibid.)
See also the page for akitu on Wikipedia, and James Frazer's The Golden Bough.
No comments:
Post a Comment