Then Marduk, as king, divided the gods: one host below and another above, three hundred above for the watchers of heaven, watchers of the law of Anu; five times sixty for earth, six hundred gods between earth and heaven.
When universal law was set up and the gods allotted their calling, then the Anunnaki, the erstwhile fallen, opened their mouths to speak to Marduk:
“Now that you have freed us and remitted our labour how shall we make a return for this? Let us build a temple and call it The-Inn-of-Rest-by-Night.
“There we will sleep at the season of the year, at the Great Festival when we form the Assembly; we will build altars for him, we will build the Parakku, the Sanctuary.”
When Marduk heard this his face shone like broad day:
“Tall Babel Tower, it shall be built as your desire; bricks shall be set in moulds and you shall name it Parakku, the Sanctuary.”
The Anunnaki gods took up the tools, one whole year long they set bricks in moulds; by the second year they had raised its head Esagila, it towered, the earthly temple, the symbol of infinite heaven.
Inside were lodgings for Marduk and Enlil and Ea. Majestically he took his seat in the presence of them all, where the head of the ziggurat looked down to the foot.
When that building was finished the Anunnaki built themselves chapels; then all came in together and Marduk set out the banquet.
“This is Babylon,
‘dear city of god’
your beloved home!
The length and breadth
are yours, possess it,
enjoy it, it is your own.”
When all the gods sat down together there was wine and feasting and laughter; and after the banquet in beautiful Esagila they performed the liturgy from which the universe receives its structure, the occult is made plain, and through the universe gods are assigned their places.
When the Fifty Great Gods had sat down with the Seven who design the immutable nature of things, they raised up three hundred into heaven. It was then too that Enlil lifted the bow of Marduk and laid it in front of them.
He also lifted the net; they praised the workmanship now that they saw the intricacy of the net and the beauty of the bow.
Anu lifted the bow and kissed it, he said before all the gods, “This is my daughter.”
And this was the naming of the bow
“One is for Long-wood,
two for the Rain-bow,
three is for Starry-bow
glittering above.”
And Starry-bow was a god among gods.
When Anu had pronounced the bow’s triple destiny he lifted up the king’s throne and set Marduk above in the gods’ Assembly.
Among themselves they uttered an execration, by oil and by water, pricking their throats, to abide its fate on pain of death.
They ratified his authority as King of Kings, Lord of the Lords of the Universe. Anshar praised him, he called him Asarluhi, the name that is first, the highest name.
“We will wait and listen, we bend and worship
his name! His word is the last appeal
his writ will run from the zenith to the pit.
All glory to the son, our avenger!
His empire has no end, shepherd of men,
he made them his creatures to the last of time,
they must remember.
He shall command hecatombs, for the gods,
they shall commend food, for the fathers,
and cherish the sanctuary
where the odour of incense and whisper of liturgy
echo on earth the customs of heaven.
Black-headed men will adore him on earth,
the subjected shall remember their god,
at his word they shall worship the goddess.
Let offerings of food not fail
for god and goddess, at his command.
Let them serve the gods, at his command,
work their lands, build their houses.
Let black-headed men serve the gods on earth
without remission; while as for us,
in the multitude of his names
he is our god.
Let us hail him in his names,
let us hail him by his fifty names,
one god.”
THE HYMN OF THE FIFTY NAMES OF MARDUK
MARDUK is One,
he is Son of the Sun,
he is the first, the sunburst.
Pasture and pool,
and the byres full,
torrents of rain that hammered the enemy.
Most shining one,
Son of the Sun,
the gods are walking always in the flame of his light,
He created man
a living thing
a labor for ever, and gods go free,
to make to break
to love and to save,
to Marduk all power and praise!
MARUKKA is Two
hammering out the whole creation
to ease the gods in tribulation.
MARUTUKKU is Three,
his praises are heard on every hand,
the armed child who shields the land.
BARASHAKUSHU is Fourth,
who stood at need to bridle earth,
his spirit stoops, his heart is love.
LUGALDIMMERANKIA is Five,
King of the Cosmos!
Over the universe he is acclaimed
by that Great Company his wrath had shamed
Almighty God!
NARI is Six, the Deliverer,
he is our conscience, for once
in our trouble he brought us peace
and a safe haven;
Anunnaki, Igigi, from the pit
and in heaven,
hearing this name secretly quake.
ASARULUDU is Seven,
the Great Magician, this title came from Anu;
in time of peril, their good leader,
by the deadly duel he fetched them rest.
NAMTILLAKU is Eight,
in the shadow of death he discovered life;
it was as though they were made
all new; conjured from death at his word until
the reckless rout submit to his will.
NAMRU is Nine, the gods go a-walking
in the furnace of his beauty.
Voices of older days have spoken: Lahmu, Lahamu, Anshar have spoken, each of them uttered three names; they said to the children,
“Three names he has from each of us, three names he needs from you.”
As once before in Synod in Ubshukinna, at the place of decision, the young gods eagerly talked together.
“He is the hero, our son, our avenger, we will praise the name of our defender.”
They sat down together to shape his destiny, and all of them chanted his names in the Sanctuary’.
ASARU: cultivates the sown,
conducts water by small channels
for seed-time, for shooting green
and harvest grain.
ASARUALIM, the gods in fear and hope
at Council turn to him.
He is the fight, ASARUALIM NUNNA,
light of the glory of his father;
he is the law of Anu and Enlil and Ea,
he is fullness and plenty,
the gods grow fat on his bounty.
TUTU is life renewed
that sweetens the sanctuary; should wrath
once more rouse up their company
he teaches them to repeat the charm
that lulls to sleep,
he has no peer in that Assembly.
ZIUKKINNA lives in every god,
he made the skies their happiness,
he holds them to their bliss;
below the clouds dull men
remember him,
for this is ZIKU the kernel of life,
sweet breath of grace, abundance,
benevolence, unbelievable wealth
changing famine to plenty;
we breathed his sweetness
in our extremity.
We will speak of the mighty,
we will sing the song of his glory.
AGAKU, the love and the wrath,
with living words he quickens the dead,
he pitied fallen gods,
remitted the labor laid on the adversary.
For your relief he made mankind, his words
endure, he is kind, he has power
of life, it is in the mouth
of black-headed men who remember him.
But also this is TUKU,
they mutter his anathemas
who overwhelmed evil
with mysterious words.
As SHAZU he made the heart,
he sees the marrow,
no sinner escapes his scrutiny.
He has formed the Assembly and spread his protection,
he oversees justice and subdues rebellion,
he has rooted out malice;
wherever he goes the wrong and the right
stand separate.
As one who reads the heart this too
is ZISI, a name that hushed the rebel horde,
out of the body of older gods
drove freezing fear, freeing his fathers, for
SUHRIM is the missile
that extinguished them,
the abject band that cringe from him,
their schemes forestalled, and flying
in the wind.
Be glad you gods, be glad!
He is SUHGURIM who can destroy,
but is an open court to hear all causes;
old gods created new, the enemy erased
and to the children’s children
nothing is left of them
or what they did; his name alone
answers the summons of the world.
ZAHRIM, the destroyer, lives!
Iniquity is dead, he has found out
the enemy; when the gods fled
he brought them home, each
to his own, and by this name is known.
ZAHGURIM, savior destroyer,
terrible title, his enemy is fallen
as it were on the field of battle.
ENBILULU, health to the gods and wealth!
He called their names, he called
for hecatombs roast in flames,
he planned the pastures,
sank wells and freed the waters.
He is EPADUN gathering moisture
from sky and earth to wash down the furrows,
watering ploughland with sluices
with dams and dykes in irrigation.
Enbilulu is hymned as GCGAL,
in the orchards of the gods
he watches the canals, he fills
the store-room with sesame, emmer,
abundant grain.
And he is HEGAL,
heaping up wealth for all people,
into the world he sends sweet rain
and greenness…
As SIRSIR he seized the carcass,
he carried off Chaos meshed in his snare,
and heaped on her mountains.
Overseer of the world and faithful shepherd,
where his brow is furrowed,
like a shock of hair the corn
waves up; where the vast ocean
rises in anger, he vaults her as a bridge
thrown over the place where duel was fought.
He is also called MALAH, and many another;
the sour sea is his skiff who captains the hulk.
A heap of grain is GIL, barley and sesame
doled out for the land’s good.
This is GILMA, the unquenchable fire
that tempers the eternity of their dwelling,
and for their safety is braced as the hoop holding the barrel.
This is AGILMA,
who from the tearing surf creates
over the waters clouds
to guard the unchanging sky.
ZULUM cuts into clay,
allots the acres, grants the tithes.
This Mummu is the creative word,
the life of the universe.
GISHNUMUNAB, the seed, created
races of men from the world’s quarters.
From the wreck of Tiamat’s rout,
from the stuff of fallen gods he made mankind.
He is LUGALABDUBUR
who came as king to confront Chaos,
her forces wither before him for he is steadfast,
the foundations are firm in every direction.
PAPALGUENNA, Lord of Lords,
most sublime god, he rules his brothers.
LUGALDURMAH, at the navel of the world
where heaven and earth are held
by the cord; where the high gods gather,
his greatness ranks higher than all.
ARANUNNA, Counselor, with his father Ea
peerless in his sovereign manner,
he created gods.
DUMUDUKU is the bright mountain,
Dumuduku, the presence in the temple,
at the place of decision where nothing is decided
except with him.
LUGALLANNA, he is strong
with the charge of heaven,
conspicuous among gods
even more than Anshar who called him out,
called one from all.
He took them at the crisis, in the maelstrom;
the encompassing intellect, the mind full-stretched.
IRKINGU, in the battle-fury he bore away the bungler;
he created law and law now rules creation.
KINMA, adviser and leader,
his name strikes terror in gods,
the roar of the tornado.
ESIZKUR, up there he sits
in the chapel of prayer, at the Great Festival,
when the gods all come, presents are given, duties imposed.
Unless he is by nothing is created
subtle or beautiful, but when he would man was made in the quarters of the world,
without him the gods
would not know their hour.
He is GIBIL, the furnace in which the point
is tempered; lightnings forged the weapons of war against Tiamat;
the gods will never sound
the reaches of his mind.
His name is also ADDU,
wet weather and the welcome storm,
the kindly roar of thunder
hovering over earth.
After the storm the clouds break up
at his word, and under heaven
all people daily have their bread from him.
ASIIARU guides the gods of Fate;
all other gods he guards.
As NEBIRU he projected the stars
in their orbit, the wandering gods obey
the laws of passage.
Nebiru, at the still centre,
is the god they adore;
of this starry one they say
“He who once crossed the firmament tirelessly
now is the nub of the universe,
and all the other gods hold course
on him; he shall fold
the gods like a flock
and conquer Tiamat.
Let her life be narrow and short,
let her recede into the future
far-off from man-kind, till time is old, keep her
for ever absent.”
Because he had moulded matter and created the ether, Enlil his father, named him BFI MATATI, Lord of this World. With his own name he signed him when the gods of heaven had ended the hymn.
Now too Ea having heard rejoiced,
“The Great Gods have glorified my son, he is Ea, named by my name, he will execute my will and direct my rites.” HANSHA!
With fifty names the gods proclaimed him. HANSHA!
With fifty they named him, the one who is first and fares farthest!
EPILOGUE
Remember the Titles of Marduk!
Rulers will recite them, wise men and sages debate them, father to son repeat them, even shepherds and herdsmen shall hear them.
Let men rejoice in Marduk! The prince of the gods. Man and earth will prosper, for his rule is strong, his command is firm, none of the gods can alter his will; where his eyes have fixed they do not falter.
There is no god can bear his anger, his intellect is vast and his benevolence; sinners and such trash he will blast in his presence; not so the wise teacher to whose words we listen; he wrote it down, he saved it for time to come.
Let the Igigi who built his dwelling, let the gods speak: this was the song of Marduk who defeated Tiamat and attained sovereignty.
—N. K. Sandars. Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia. Baltimore, Md: Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 73–111.
Creation of Man by the Mother Goddess
In these Old Babylonian (1750–1550 B.C.) and Assyrian (c. 100 B.C.) myths, Ninhursag (or Nintu, goddess of the earth) creates mankind (Lullu, the savage, the first man) out of clay and animates it with the blood of a slain god. The metaphors of plastic and generative creation are mixed here: Ninhursag both fashions man and gives birth to him.
Ritual instructions form a substantial part of this text and show that the myth was originally part of a birth incantation. This ritual use underscores the point that the holy birth of all mankind is repeated in time through the birth of each individual. “As the Bearing One gives birth,/ May the mother of the child bring forth by [her]self.”
OLD BABYLONIAN TEXT [obverse; preceding column and top of the present column destroyed]
“That which is slight shall grow to abundance;
The burden of creation man shall bear!”
The goddess they called, […], [the mot]her,
The most helpful of the gods, the wise Mami:
“Thou art the mother-womb,
The one who creates mankind.
Create, then Lullu and let him bear the yoke!
The yoke he shall bear,…[…];
The burden of creation man shall bear!”
. [ . ] . opened her mouth,
Saying to the great gods:
“With me is the doing of all that is suitable;
With his…let Lullu appear!
He who shall be […] of all […],
Let him be formed out of clay, be animated with blood!”
Enki opened his mouth,
Saying to the great gods:
“On the…and […] of the month
The purification of the land…!
Let them slay one god,
And let the gods be purified in the judgment.