Most records of Babylonian myths date from 700 B.C., when they were transcribed in cuneiform on clay tablets and stored in the library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. However, the two major Babylonian epics probably originated around 2000 B.C.. The Epic of Creation justifies Marduk's rule over gods and men; and it reflects the political supremacy of Babylon in Mesopotamia, since Marduk was the chief god of that city. The Gilgamesh Epic shows the failure of man's quest to overcome death.
Generally Babylonian mythology lacks the transcendental quality of the myth of Osiris. It is more earth-bound and more materialistic. Death puts an end to the sensual pleasures of life, and the underworld of the dead is the most dismal place imaginable. The Babylonian gods themselves indulge in eroticism, feasting, and fighting. But if the values are coarser and more masculine, the Babylonians produced a literary triumph in the Gilgamesh Epic.
