Marduk

Marduk grew exasperated with the existing divine government and resolved to overthrow it. At that point, his plan and its immediate result were lost. In one telling, the gods later gathered under Enlil’s leadership, at Anu’s command, and came before the lord of the land. They raised a lament for Babylon, and the Babylonians’ grief disturbed Marduk’s sleep.

The gods wept for Babylon. After much weeping, they reached a decision, but the story gave no account of what they decided. Its direct consequence was therefore uncertain. Babylon may have been freed from hard labour and given a privileged place in the universe, but no scene showed how this happened. No event showed Marduk seized, confined, killed, restored, or sought by other gods.

Another tale placed Marduk before Enmešarra and his sons after Nergal brought the prisoners from the jail. Marduk denounced Enmešarra for his offence, then beheaded the seven sons and portrayed them on a wall. He next turned to Enmešarra. Enmešarra’s rays were taken from him and given to Šamaš, and Marduk placed Enmešarra’s depiction on his own dwelling. The account gave no clear statement of Enmešarra’s execution, and it did not describe a seizure, confinement, death, recovery, or return of Marduk. The wider creation cycle also included conflicts, the organisation of the universe, the splitting of heaven and earth, the ordering of the heavens and earth, and Babylon as the first city, but none of those events completed Marduk’s ordeal.