Mesopotamian · Greek · c. 290 BCE
The Babyloniaca of Berossus
Berossus, priest of Bel; surviving through Eusebius and Syncellus
A Babylonian priest explaining Babylon to Greek readers, and the reason this corpus can cite the same cosmogony twice from two directions. Nothing of it survives directly: what is left are quotations inside later authors quoting each other, which makes it a witness at three removes and still an independent one.
Read The Babyloniaca of Berossus in full at the linked edition →What this text attests · 1
| Name here | Rank given | # | Powers described |
|---|---|---|---|
 Omorka (Thalatth) = Tiamat | — | — | A Babylonian priest's account of the same cosmogony, written in Greek eight centuries after the Enuma Elish and surviving only inside later authors quoting him: the female principle of the sea is split in two by Bel to make heaven and earth. It is an independent witness to the myth rather than a copy of the tablet, which is what makes it worth having. |