The Sovereignty of Marduk Theme Analysis

Marduk, or “Lord” in much of the text of the Enuma Elish, is the patron god of Babylon. The central argument of the Enuma Elish as a whole is thus to elevate Marduk as the sovereign deity—to demonstrate that out of the Babylonian pantheon, he is the supremely powerful god; and not only that, he displaces older gods, like the Sumerian Ea, in importance. By portraying Marduk as a figure whose will is as formidable as fate, a god whom other gods honor, and a warrior who easily vanquishes his foes, the author commends Marduk to his Babylonian audience as worthy of their highest allegiance—at the same time reaffirming their civic pride and identity as Babylonians, whose empire overpowered the territories and gods of its Mesopotamian predecessors, like Sumeria.

When even the gods Anshar and Ea are too scared to face Tiamat and her terrible army, Marduk initiates a confrontation with her. Marduk approaches his father, Anshar, saying, “Convene the council, name a special fate: My own utterance shall fix fate instead of you!” Unlike Ea, whose antiquity is greater but whose strength is less formidable, Marduk doesn’t need to be “fated” into confrontation with the fearsome goddess or ordered by the council of the gods; his own will and declaration brings about his fate. The gods, then, are being gathered to approve of a foregone conclusion. Accordingly, Anshar has all the gods summoned to a banquet in order to “decree a destiny for Marduk the champion.” When Lahmu, Lahamu, and the rest of the gods hear about Marduk’s readiness “of his own free will” to confront Tiamat, they rejoice and assemble for conversation, enjoying grain, choice wine, and plentiful beer. They become “carefree and merry” as they “decreed destiny for Marduk their champion.” The council of the gods, in other words, doesn’t really need to decree a course of events, as they might do regarding other events in the universe; their gathering instead serves the purpose of celebrating the inevitable course of events set in motion through Marduk’s own will—to the point that, even though Tiamat still rages, the gods can “make merry,” knowing that she will be vanquished soon enough. This suggests that Babylonian hegemony, too, is a reliable “fate.”

In fact, as if to confirm the certainty of what’s to come, the council of the gods takes the time to proclaim Marduk’s sovereignty before the battle takes place, then crowns him with suitable weapons. Even before he’s confronted Tiamat, the rest of the gods erect a shrine for Marduk, praising him as unequaled among the gods, because his command is unalterable, and the gods must obey him. At this point, they even grant him “sovereignty over all of the whole universe.” In doing so, they recognize him as not just one of their own, but one to whom they owe their allegiance. This assembly of gods, joyfully recognizing the Babylonian upstart as their sovereign, thus idealizes the relationships between Babylon and the territories, kingdoms, and cultures its growing empire had subdued.

The gods ask Marduk to cause a constellation to appear, vanish, and reappear through the power of his speech. When they see that his very utterance is effective in doing this, the gods all rejoice and grant him “an unfaceable weapon to crush the foe.” They also give him a bow and quiver, a mace, lightning, and a net (not to mention that “his body was filled with an ever-blazing flame”). Marduk’s ability to control the heavens—to cause things to come into being and cease to be—suggests that he will much more easily subdue an unruly goddess. 

Marduk quickly triumphs over Tiamat in single combat. In fact, his showdown with her is almost an anticlimax, and his surplus of weapons seem to be more for show than for necessity. Though Tiamat casts her spell of confusion, Marduk seems to shake it off matter-of-factly, accusing the goddess of deception and wickedness. The spells that cause other gods to stumble are mere trifles to Marduk. When Tiamat loses her temper at his resistance, Marduk casts his net around her and blows his evil wind at her, causing her to become distended. Then he easily shoots the arrow that kills her. At this Tiamat’s regiments panic and scatter, and Marduk imprisons them all. He tramples on Tiamat and makes the wind “carry [her blood] off as good news.” Ultimately, Marduk doesn’t just win the showdown; he triumphs where other gods fail, and he dispatches Tiamat with a good deal of showmanship, suggesting that he has power to spare.

After Tiamat is vanquished and Marduk orders the building of Babylon, the gods confirm his mastery over all other gods. Tablet VII of the Enuma Elish consists entirely of the many names of Marduk, proclaimed by the other gods in order to “elevate” him at this celebratory banquet—“They sat in their assembly and began to call out the destinies, pronounced his name in all their rites.” The “elevation” of Marduk by the other gods implicitly summons the original readers/listeners of this drama to perform the same in their own rites. This ceremonial foundation of Babylon and its rites also has more than political ramifications; Marduk’s mastery would have been understood as inseparably tied up with both Babylonian religious dominance and the mechanisms of the newly emerged empire.