The Babylonian World - Historia Antigua

— Takayoshi Oshima —
Some statues of Marduk were made of this type of wood, but other materials were
also used. 42
The Akitu-festivals, particularly that of the month of Nisannu (the first month in
the Babylonian calendar, corresponding to March/April in our calender), which was
also known as the New Year Festival, occupied the most important position in the
official cult activities in Babylon. The statues of other deities including Nabu, the
god of Borsippa and the son of Marduk, Anu, Enlil, and Ea also participated in the
Akitu-festival of the first month of Babylon. Most of the rituals of this festival were
conducted by the priests in Esagila where very few people had access, but the citizens
of Babylon also had the chance to see Marduk. On the eighth day of Nisannu, his
statue left Esagila escorted by the king of Babylon and was carried in the Great
Procession through the Procession Road of Marduk and the Ishtar-gate to the Akitutemple
located outside of the city. 43 This procession was the climax of the Akitufestival
of Nisannu 44 and was also the moment when Marduk revealed the omen of
the year to the people of Babylon. 45 This procession was important for the rulers of
Babylon too. Escorting Marduk by holding his hand demonstrated to its citizens the
monarch’s ‘good’ relation with the patron deity of Babylon. 46 On the tenth day, the
people brought offerings, tributes, and booty of war to the presence of Marduk in
the Akitu-temple. 47 These offerings brought to Marduk during the festival were the
source of wealth of Esagila and sustained its activity even after the loss of Babylonian
independence in 539 BC. 48
It seems that the cult centre of Marduk in Babylon survived about 800 years after
the fall of the Neo-Babylonian empire. Although the surrounding city was no longer
inhabited already in the mid-first century AD, 49 a Jewish rabbi Rav from the early
third century AD refers to the temple of Bel in Babylon and the temple of Nabo in
Borsippa as the ‘permanent temples of idolatry’, explaining that these temples were
‘still standing, and people pray there all year around’. 50 Although Esagila was not
taken seriously by foreign kings probably since the mid-first century AD, 51 the passages
from the Babylonian Talmud denote that the worship of Marduk was still conducted
in the early third century AD.
NOTES
1 Non-cuneiform texts, such as the Bible, the Babylonian Talmud, Herodotus, Pliny, etc. also
refer to Marduk by this name.
2 A votive inscription of unknown provenance, YOS 9, no. 2, refers to a builder of the temple
of d AMAR.UTU, the most common writing of the divine name Marduk. For a recent edition
of the text, see Gelb and Kienast 1990: 34–35. Further, a fragment of a god list from Abu
Salabikh mentions d UD-AMAR which could be an early writing for the later d AMAR.UTU.
Biggs 1974: pl. 48, no. 89, col. i′, 2′. For the further discussion, see Sommerfeld 1982: 19–21
and Alberti 1985: 13, 276.
3 Kuhrt 1995: 109.
4 For a general discussion of Enki/Ea, see E. Weidner, ‘Enki (Ea)’, Reallexikon der Assyriologie 2:
374–381; Black and Green 1992: 75–76.
5 There are two lists of the Fifty Names of Marduk attested: (1) Enuma Elish, VI 121–VII 144
(see Foster 2005: 473–484); and (2) An=Anum II, 185–235 (see Litke 1998: 89–95). Although
the names listed are similar there are some minor differences between the two.
6 Sommerfeld 1979–1981: 97–100.
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