ABSTRACT
Many elements of a Mesopotamian cosmology are preserved in a variety of sources, mostly literary but also iconographic, and from a wide chronological span. That Babylonian scientific astronomy, a product of the second half of the first millennium B.C., had no impact on the broader scope of understanding the universe, is the best proof of the continuing validity of the early non-scientific and non-astronomical ways of characterizing and imaging the cosmos. In general, then, the cosmos was a subject for inquiry in the context of theology much more than it was in the development of Babylonian science. The cosmography of Enuma Elish set the earth in relation to two heavens above it and one cosmic region, the Apsu. The physical aspect is depicted in the cables or bonds tying the universe together, and metaphoric aspect is depicted in the view that the cult-place of the deity considered to hold ultimate authority as ruler of the cosmic polity serves as nexus.
