MARDUK, a late name for the god of the city of Babylon, who appears regularly in the classical Sumerian liturgies under the titles Asar-lu-dug and Enbilulu. The original title is Asaru, which occurs in the old pantheon at Fara, c. 3200 B.C., and so far as known, long before the city of Babylon was founded. Asaru, Asar-ri, is a title of this, originally inferior, deity of the cult of Enki at Eridu, as son of the water god, a deity of lustration. His connection with Babylon, which is first mentioned as a small city by Sargon in the 28th century B.C., may be original and very old. The title Marduk lays special emphasis upon his solar aspect. It is certain that all the older titles of this god, Asaru, Asar-alim, Asar-alim-nun-na, Asarludug, describe him as an inferior deity of the water cult of Eridu, and how he came to be transferred to Babylon is at present inexplicable. Alim means the mythical fish ram, symbol of his father, the water god of Eridu, and Asaru was the god of lustration at Habur in Eridu. Asarludug means "Asaru who restores man to happiness," and describes his original activity as agent of Enki in all magical rituals of the water cult against demons. Marduk is pre-eminently the god of the magi cians in Babylonian and Assyrian religion, and this was his sole sphere in the original Sumerian pantheon.
With the rapid rise of Babylon under the 1 r kings of the ist dynasty (2169-1870), the priests of the local cult looked for some means of increasing the respect due to the god of the great capital and a theological reason for it. Inasmuch as the Sumerian pantheon had been universally accepted by the Accadians, and had now a firm hold upon the religious beliefs of the Semites in Assyria, Cappadocia and the Amoritic western country, it was impossible to make Asaru one of the three heads of the trinity; these were securely held by Anu, Enlil and Enki. But the old war and sun god Ninurta, Zamama, son of Enlil, was largely drawn upon to make Asaru also a sun god, and more especially the god of the spring sun. This addition to his original character as a god of lustration and magic was brought about by rewriting the Sumerian legend of Creation in which Ninurta championed the gods against the dragon of Chaos, the storm demon and then created the world. The new Semitic version in six books attri buted this victory of the gods to Marduk. The name itself was introduced at this time, amar-udu, amar-utu, and means "young bull, the sun," becoming, after the regular rule of Sumerian loan words, Marutukku, Marudukku, Md-rii-tu-[uk-ku], Maruduk, Marduku, Marduk. (See S. Langdon, Oxford Editions of Cunei form Texts, vol. vi. 99, 113, and Cuneiform Texts . . in the British Museum, vol. xxv. 34, ii. 17.) The Hebrew transcription is Merodak, and the Greek, Maradouchos, Mardakos, Mardokos, Maradach.
In the Semitic version of the Epic, Marduk's birth and education are described. The old theological view, that he was the son of Enid or Ea of u, is preserved, except in the Assyrian edi tions, where he displaced by Ashur, son of Lahmu. The legend of how he was unanimously raised to the rank of a great god (in the convocation of the gods), because of his magical power to cause objects to vanish and reappear, and for his promise to go forth to battle with Tiamat, Kingu and the dragons of darkness, is one of the principal episodes of the epic. After
Tiamat was slain and the dragons bound, Marduk created heaven and earth, the constellations and planets, and fixed their move ments. Finally, he ordered man to be created on the advice of his father, Ea. Kingu was then slain and from his blood "man kind" was created. This was the Eridu legend of the creation of man, but in the rival Nippurian school his creation is said to have been by the mother goddess, Aruru, from clay. Un doubtedly the Hebrew legend of the creation of Adam from clay combines the legend of Marduk and Aruru.
Upon the epic of Creation and the myth of the conquest of light over darkness is based the Babylonian new year festival, described in the article BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN RELIGION. For the later identification of Marduk with Tammuz and the Resurrection of Bel, see TAMMUZ. So completely did Marduk finally dominate the religion of Babylonia that he is chiefly known to Greek and Roman writers as "lord," Belos, see Bb.. A text proves that in the late period theological speculation went so far as to assimilate all the important deities to Marduk, but this advance toward real monotheism was obviously confined to priests at Babylon. (See Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi. pt. 2, p. 118.) Unlike other great and older deities, Marduk had no temples and shrines outside his own city. The Sumerian cities of the south never admitted his new role in the pantheon, but only his original names and character as an inferior water deity of Eridu. At Babylon his temple, Esagila, and his stage tower, Etemenanki, were the largest of the kind in Babylonia and Assyria. To Esagila, at least in the late period, all the statues of the great gods of Babylonia were brought in ships and wagons to assemble in the hall of convocation (Dukug) and fix the fates of men for the coming year at the Nisan festival.
Marduk's principal role in astronomy was as the planet Jupiter; as such he was known as Shulpae, a title of a deity which originally had no connection with Asaru or Marduk. The title belongs originally to Enlil, the ancient Bel of Nippur, and is found in the oldest inscriptions. The planet must have been known as mul Shulpae, and identified with Enlil before the 22nd century, otherwise the name would not have been chosen for Marduk when the theologians assigned to him the largest of the planets.