The Giants of Babylon

“They are banded together and at the side of Tiamat they advance;
They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day.
They prepare for battle, fuming and raging;
They have joined their forces and are making war.
Ummu-Hubur, who formed all things,
Hath made in addition weapons invincible; she hath spawned monster-serpents,
Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang.
With poison, instead of blood, she hath filled their bodies.
Fierce monster-vipers she hath clothed with terror,
With splendor she hath decked them; she hath made them of lofty stature.
Whoever beholdeth them is overcome by terror,
Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack.
She hath set up vipers, and dragons, and the monster Lahamu,
And hurricanes and raging hounds, and scorpion-men,
And mighty tempests, and fish-men and rams;
They bear cruel weapons, without fear of the fight.
Her commands are mighty; none can resist them;
After this fashion, huge of stature, hath she made eleven monsters.
Among the gods who are her sons, inasmuch as he hath given her support,
She hath exalted Kingu; in their midst she hath raised him to power.”

- Excerpt from ENUMA ELISH
THE EPIC OF CREATION (Tablet One)
L.W. King, Translator
(from The Seven Tablets of Creation, London 1902).

The failure of modern scholars to recognise the many cycles of the Primeval History in both Biblical and Babylonian sacred texts has led them to believe that the creatures described above cannot be identified with the Biblical Nephilim.
Things are never that simple.
When we recognise that creation stories in the ancient near eastern world are usually national foundation stories and not concerned with the universal origins of material existence, we see that it makes sense to find that the giants of the ancient world were a part of every ancient culture, not just an imaginative storytelling device employed in Hebrew literature. The giants belong in our history because they were part of our past. And even the Akkadians, who preceded the Babylonians, believed they had a role to play in our future...

- T.J. Steadman