Mythology

in stirring her up to take measures for the annihilation of Anu and his associates. She makes Kingu, her firstborn, the leader of the attack, arms him, and invests him with the tablets of destiny. She then begets a horde of monstrous beings, such as the scorpion-man and the centaur whom we find depicted on Babylonian seals and boundary-stones. She places Kingu at the head of this host, and prepares to avenge Apsu. The second tablet describes how the news of the coming attack is received by the assembly of the gods. Anshar is troubled and smites his thigh in dismay. He first reminds Ea of his previous victory over Apsu and suggests that he should deal with Tiamat in the same way; but Ea either refuses to go or is unsuccessful; the text is broken at this point, and what happens to Ea is not clear. Then Anu is sent armed with the authority of the assembly of the gods to turn Tiamat from her purpose, but he also returns unsuccessful. Then Anshar rises in the assembly of the gods and proposes that Marduk, the strong hero, should be entrusted with the task. Marduk’s father Ea advises him to accept the task, and Marduk agrees to undertake it on condition that he is given full and equal authority in the assembly of the gods, and that his word is to determine destiny unalterably. Here the second tablet ends. The third tablet, after recapitulating the decision of the gods, ends with a feast at which Marduk is to be officially invested with the authority which he had demanded. The fourth tablet begins with the enthronement of Marduk as king and his investment with the royal insignia. The gods require from him a proof that he possesses the power to carry out what he has undertaken. He thereupon causes his robe to disappear and then to reappear. The gods are satisfied and proclaim, ‘Marduk is king.’ Then Marduk arms himself for the combat; his weapons are bow and arrows, mace, lightning, and a net held at the corners by the four winds; he fills his body with flame, and creates the seven raging hurricanes; he mounts his storm-chariot, and advances against Tiamat and her host. He challenges Tiamat to single combat; he casts his net to enclose her, and when she opens her mouth to swallow him he drives in the evil wind to distend her and transfixes her with his arrow, splitting her heart. Her demon helpers flee, but are caught in the net and bound. Their leader, Kingu, also is caught and bound. Then Marduk takes from Kingu the tablets of destiny and fastens them upon his own breast, thus assuming supreme authority among the gods. His next act is to split the body of Tiamat in two; he places half of her above the earth as the sky, fixes it with bars, sets guards, and charges them not to let her waters escape. He then builds Esharra, the abode of the great gods, after the pattern of Ea’s abode Apsu, and causes Anu, Enlil, and Ea to occupy their places therein. Here ends the fourth tablet. The fifth tablet is too fragmentary to enable us to obtain from it a complete account of Marduk’s first steps in organizing the universe, but its opening lines show that his first care was the calendar, one of the most important responsibilities of a Babylonian king. Marduk is represented as establishing the course of the year and the order of the months by the moon’s changes. He also establishes the three celestial ‘ways’, the way of Enlil in the northern heavens, the way of Anu in the zenith, and the way of Ea in the south. The planet Jupiter is placed in charge of the heavenly order. In the sixth tablet we have the description of the creation of man. Marduk declares his intention of creating man for the service of the gods. By the advice of Ea it is decided that the leader of the rebellion, Kingu, shall die that mankind may be fashioned. Accordingly Kingu is slain, and from his blood mankind is created for the service of the gods, ‘to free them’, that is, to perform the menial tasks belonging to the temple ritual and to provide food for the gods.

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