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The World Myth

War in Heaven and the Creation

What are some other important examples of the war between the gods?

Perhaps the earliest documented war is that related in the Enuma Elish between the ancient goddess Tiamat and the Babylonian city god Marduk. The war in heaven between the Titans and the Olympians, as related by Hesiod, is a better-known example. The mythological texts of the Irish Celts describe the wars between the Tuatha de Danaan and the Fomorians and Firbolg. The Norse Eddas tell the stories of the Aesir versus the Vanir. In India it is the Devas against the Asuras. The war can be between individual deities. In China Zhuanxu fights Gonggong, much as in Japan Susanowa struggles against his sister Amaterasu, and in the Maasai tradition the black god fights the red god.