MARDUK

MARDUK (also known as Bel, "lord") was a god of the city of Babylon who rose from being an obscure god of the Sumerian pantheon to become head of the Babylonian pantheon by the first millennium bce. The name was probably pronounced Marutuk, which possibly had the short form Marduk. Etymologically it is probably derived from amar-Utu ("bull calf of the sun god Utu"). This name may not be genealogically accurate, since Marduk was normally considered to be the son of Enki, the god of underground fresh waters. It may reflect an earlier genealogy, or may have had a political origin, in which case it would indicate that the city of Babylon was in the cultural orbit of the more important city of Sippar (whose god was Utu, the sun god) in the Early Dynastic times (early third millennium bce). Marduk was probably already the god of Babylon in this early period, but he first became a great god with the rise of Babylon as capital of the Old Babylonian kingdom under Hammurabi in the eighteenth century bce. The kings of the Old Babylonian dynasty owed special allegiance to Marduk as god of Babylon, and he became in effect the royal god.

Marduk continued to rise in popularity after the decline of the Old Babylonian period. When his (captured) cult statue was returned to Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadrezzar I in the twelfth century bce, Marduk was officially recognized as head of the Babylonian pantheon. His rise was effected in theological terms through his identification with Asarluhi, the god of the minor southern city of Kuaru, who was closely associated with Enki and was considered his firstborn son. The process of identifying Marduk and Asarluhi began before the establishment of the Old Babylonian kingdom, for it is attested in a letter-prayer of King Siniddinam of Larsa in which Asarluhi is called "god of Babylon." Marduk became known as the firstborn of Enki, and he took Asarluhi's place as Enki's assistant/partner in the magical literature. The identification of Marduk with Asarluhi was eventually so thorough that Asarluhi ceased to be remembered as an originally distinct god, and the name "Asarluhi" was simply used as the name for Marduk, both in Akkadian literature and in the Sumerian portion of bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian literature (where Marduk appears in the parallel Akkadian line).

The ultimate rise of Marduk to become king of the Babylonian pantheon is described in Enuma elish, the most important mythological work in which Marduk appears. This lengthy myth was written in the second half of the second millennium, probably circa 1200 bce. It declares its main purpose to be the exaltation of the god Marduk. Enuma elish was a state myth, and it was read aloud to the assembled populace as part of the Akitu festival, the spring New Year celebration, in the first millennium bce.

Marduk's political fortunes are also mythologized in an esoteric text called the Tribulations of Marduk or the Ordeal of Marduk. Although it was originally understood to be a tale of a dying and resurrected god, there is no basis for this interpretation and no evidence at all that Marduk was a vegetation-type dying god. The text is cast in the form of an esoteric cultic commentary, possibly of events of the New Year ritual. Unlike other extant esoteric commentaries, this one was written for wide distribution. It relates cultic elements of the ritual to the misfortunes of Marduk, who has been captured, sentenced, and imprisoned by other gods; at the time of the text someone is interceding on behalf of Marduk, and there is a hint in the text that Marduk is or is about to be freed. The text is manifestly political, with the enmity between Ashur and Marduk alluding to that between Assyria and Babylonia. There may also be an allusion to the return of the statue of Marduk in 669 bce from the "Assyrian captivity" it had remained in since Sennacherib's destruction of the temple of Marduk twenty years earlier. The celebration of the statue's return as a vindication of Marduk may be analogous to the composition of Enuma elish on the occasion of an earlier return of the god's statue.

Marduk is prominent in the magical literature, particularly in the Marduk-Ea (originally, Asarluhi-Enki) type of incantation. In these texts, a problem situation (such as illness) is described. Asarluhi (Marduk) relates the problem to Enki (Ea), who responds with a formulaic "My son, what do I know that you do not know, to your knowledge what can I add?" Enki then spells out a ritual to be followed to alleviate the problem. Here Asarluhi-Marduk is seen as almost the overseer of humanity. This involvement with humanity is also underscored in Shurpu, a ritual text used to relieve the distress of someone suffering for a sin of which he has no knowledge; in it Marduk is addressed as the god who is able to preserve and restore his worshipers. Marduk was considered a powerful and fierce god who punished sinners but who at the same time could be merciful and pardon his followers. In this judgmental role he is the subject of several literary prayers and of Ludlul bel ne-meqi ("I will praise the wise lord"), sometimes called "the Babylonian Job," a wisdom work about a righteous sufferer whose fortunes declined abysmally but who was ultimately restored by Marduk.

See Also

Akitu; Dying and Rising Gods; Enuma Elish; Mesopotamian Religions, overview article.

Bibliography

Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. "The Tribulations of Marduk: The So-Called 'Marduk Ordeal Text.'" Journal of the American Oriental Society 103 (January–March 1983): 131–141.

Lambert, W. G. "Three Literary Prayers of the Babylonians." Archiv für Orientforschung 19 (1959–1960): 47–66.

Lambert, W. G. Babylonian Wisdom Literature. Oxford, 1960. See pages 21–62.

Lambert, W. G. "The Reign of Nebuchadnezzar I." In The Seed of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Theophile James Meek, edited by W. S. McCullough, pp. 3–13. Toronto, 1964.

Lambert, W. G. "Studies in Marduk." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 47 (1984): 1–9.

Soden, Wolfram von. "Gibt es ein Zeugnis defür, dass die Babylonier an die Wiederauferstehung Marduks geglaubt haben?" Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 51 (May 1955): 130–166.

Sommerfeld, Walter. Der Aufstieg Marduks: Die Stellung Marduks in der babylonischen Religion des zweiten Jahrtausends v. Chr. "Alter Orient und Altes Testament," vol. 213. Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1982.

New Sources

Black, Jeremy A. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. Austin, 1992.

Bottéro, Jean. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. Chicago, 1995.

Bottéro, Jean. Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. Chicago, 2001.

Greenspahn, Frederick E. Essential Papers on Israel and the Ancient Near East. New York, 1991.

Janzen, J. Gerald. "On the Moral Nature of God's Power: Yahweh and the Sea in Job and Deutero-Isaiah." Catholic Bible Quarterly 56 (July 1994): 458–479.

Tikva Frymer-Kensky (1987)

Revised Bibliography