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Studies in Marduk1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

W. G. Lambert
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Extract

For the hisory of religions the rise of Marduk, city god of Babylon, is one of the most striking phenomena known from ancient Mesopotamia. From being an utterly insignificant god in third-millennium Sumer, he had risen to be head of the Babylonian pantheon by the first millennium. The Münster thesis of Walter Sommerfeld, written under W. von Soden, is the first book-length treatment of this topic. As the subtitle indicates, it is largely restricted to the second millennium, the significant period because the rise took place within it. In fact third millennium evidence is dealt with briefly, but the first millennium is omitted. This is unfortunate because most of the religious literature dealing with Marduk is known from first-millennium copies only, though much of it was presumably composed during the second. In view of this uncertainty most of the religious texts about Marduk cannot be used within precise chronological frameworks.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , February 1984 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1984

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References

2 W. S. McCullough (ed.), The seed of wisdom. Essays in honour of T. J. Meek, 3–13

3 Aage Schmidt, Gedanken über die Entwicklung der Religion auf Grund der babylonischen Quellen (MVAG, XVI/3) 69–71

4 The author's material on pp. 72 f. lacks the names dšamaš-a-ša-re-i-li (CT 4, 46 b 17) ‘Šamaš is the formost of the gods’, dutu. den.líl.lá (M. Çiǧ, H. Kizilyay and F. R. Kraus, Altbabylonische Rechtsurkunden aus Nippur 35 rev. 6 and 69 obv. 6, BE VI/2, 137 b) ‘Uth is enili’, and dna-bi-um-šar-i-li (YOS, 13, 304, 14) ‘Nabû is king of the gods’ (the copy does not quite agree’ with the copyist's interpretation of this last name, but it is difficult to see what else it might be). Also a check of YOS 12 and 13 revealed that the documentation of these names, which is clearly meant to be exhaustive, is not A few of the occurrences in YOS 12 are lacking, and most in YOS 13

5 The passages for the names: Adad-šar(ri)-ilĪ, Ea-bēl/šar0ilĪ. Sîn-bēl-ilĪ, Šar-ilĪ-Sîn, Ninurtarēš-ilĪ, and Niraẖ(dmuš)-šar-ilĪ are listed in the name lists of A. T. Clay, PN; TMH, N.F., v and UET VII

6 Also the Old Babylonian occurrence of a comparative -iš in eṭlum ru-i-iš ana ilĪšu ibakki (R B 59, pl. vii l) ‘A man weeps to his god like a friend’ is ignored, though attention has been drawn to it before (Or. 40, 97)

7 J. A. Brinkman, A political history of post-Kassite Babylonia, 22

8 The separation of Pambalu from Bābili in RG 5 is unwarranted. The view that they refer to the same place is attributed to K. Balkan, but it was also that of B. Landsberger (JCS 8 p. 67. n. 172). The justification of this view is clear from the briefest survey of the passages. Pan/ mbalu is mentioned with Akkad in noe Cassite letter (PBS I/2, 16), and in a context with Upî in another Cassite letter (BE 17/1, 23). A late copy of a royal inscription of Gaddaš, possibly apocryphal, gives the king's titles as: ‘king of the four quarters, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of bà-bà-lam’ (see JCS loc. cit.). Another possibly apocryphal late copy of a Cassite text naming Agum and Damiq-ili-[šu] also has the phrase ‘king of bé-bé-lam’ (op. cit., loc. cit.). A late copy of a Kurigalzu inscription states: ‘in pa-am-ba-li, the throne dais of the Cassite king, the ancient city (a-li ṣa-a-ti)’ (RA 29, 96 4). So of Pam/n balu is distinguished from Bābili, one must maintain that in the vicinity of Babylon there was another town called Pam/n balu, Which was the capital town of some of the Cassite kings, and to which great antiquity was ascribed. Capital towns do not appear and disappear so easily