Editing Marduk (section)

=== 1st millennium BC ===
The earliest copy of the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, was found in the city of [[Assur]] and dated to the 9th century,{{sfn|Frahm|2010|p=5}} although the text could go back to the Isin II period.{{sfn|Beaulieu|2018|p=162}} Dalley believes that the Enuma Elish may have been composed during the Old Babylonian Period,{{sfn|Dalley|2008|p=229}} although other scholars consider it unlikely.{{sfn|Frahm|2010|p=5-6}} The Enuma Elish describes Marduk's ascendance to kingship by defeating Tiamat. In the end, Marduk is proclaimed the ruler, declares Babylon as the city of kingship, received his fifty names (fifty being the number of Enlil), while Enlil is ignored.{{sfn|Seri|2006|p=517}}

In Assyrian sources, most of the mentions of Marduk's power and authority came from the reigns of the [[Sargonid dynasty|Sargonids]].{{sfn|Lambert|2013|p=275}} Generally, the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Neo-Assyrian]] kings cared for Babylon and the cult of Marduk. [[Shalmaneser III]] visited multiple Babylonian sanctuaries, including that of Marduk.{{sfn|Frahm|2017b|p=291}} [[Tiglath-pileser III]], after conquering Babylonia, participated in the Akitu festival in Babylon,{{sfn|Frahm|2017b|p=292}} and [[Sargon II]] made Babylon his temporary residence while [[Dur-Sharrukin]] was under construction and took part in the Akitu.{{sfn|Frahm|2017a|p=183}}{{sfn|Sommerfield|1987|p=366}} Marduk frequently appears in Assyrian royal inscriptions, before the Assyrian kings even gained control over Babylonia.{{sfn|Frame|1999|p=14}} In continuation from the Middle Assyrian times, an actual cult of Marduk seemed to have also existed in the Neo-Assyrian period. The Assyrian Divine Directory mentioned that a shrine to Marduk existed in the temple of [[Gula (goddess)|Gula]] in Ashur in the Neo-Assyrian period.{{sfn|Frame|1999|p=13}} Marduk and his son Nabu also shared a sanctuary in [[Nineveh]], although it seemed that Nabu was the main deity in contrast to Marduk.{{sfn|Frame|1999|p=13}}

One exception was [[Sennacherib]], who after a series of revolts and the extradition of the crown prince [[Assur-nadin-shumi]] to the Elamites (who then probably killed him), decided to destroy Babylon.{{sfn|Frahm|2017b|p=293}} The Destruction of Babylon in 689 BCE was, judging from Sennacherib's own accounts, bad by Neo-Assyrian standards.{{sfn|Nielsen|2018|p=95}} Outside of claiming to have destroyed the temples and the cult statues, there was no explicit mention of the fate of Marduk's statue, although Esarhaddon would later claim that the cult statue was taken from Babylon.{{sfn|Nielsen|2018|p=97}} Sennacherib followed with what has been called a religious reform, the infrastructure of Assur being refashioned in the model of Babylon's, and the Assyrian edition of the Enuma Elish replaced Marduk with the god Ashur (spelled as [[Anshar]]) and Babylon with Assur (spelled as Baltil).{{sfn|Frahm|2010|p=8}} Other texts referencing Marduk were also adapted and changed to fit Ashur instead, and a bed and throne dedicated to Marduk were rededicated to Ashur after the furniture was brought from Babylon to Assur.{{sfn|Frahm|2010|p=10}} The Marduk Ordeal contained cultic commentaries on the Akitu festival reinterpreted to refer to instead Marduk’s punishment.{{sfn|Frahm|2017b|p=292}}{{sfn|Nielsen|2018|p=98}} However, the more radical reforms were reversed under the reign of his successor [[Esarhaddon]], who also oversaw the reconstruction of Babylon and the eventual return of the statue of Marduk under [[Šamaš-šuma-ukin]]. Esarhaddon also crafted a narrative justifying both Sennacherib's destruction and his rebuilding by citing Marduk's divine anger as the cause for Babylon's destruction, who originally decreed for the city to be abandoned for seventy years, but Marduk relented and allowed Esarhaddon to rebuild it.{{sfn|Nielsen|2018|p=102-103}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|In line with the Mesopotamian idea that the gods can abandon their cities, this is referring to the narrative that Marduk can and will abandon Babylon and may even direct a foreign power to rule over it until he decides to return.{{sfn|Johnson|2013|p=116}} Similarly, [[Marduk-apla-iddina II]] also claimed that the Assyrian rule over Babylonia was due to Marduk’s anger over the people, until he was satisfied and appointed him to throw off the Assyrians and rule Babylonia{{sfn|Cogan|2009|p=166-167}}}}

[[Nabonassar]] claimed that Marduk proclaimed him lordship and had ordered him to "plunder his enemy's land" (referring to Assyria), who only ruled Babylonia due to divine anger. He claimed that he killed the Assyrian and laid waste to his lands by the command of Marduk and Nabu and with the weapons of Erra,{{sfn|Bedford|2016|p=57-58}} which was the main trio of the First Millennium Babylonian ideology.{{sfn|Tenney|2016|p=160}} In literary texts from the Achaemenid and Seleucid eras, Marduk is said to have commissioned Nabonassar to take revenge on the land of Akkad (Babylonia).{{sfn|Bedford|2016|p=59}}

In royal inscriptions of the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Neo-Babylonian]] kings, Marduk is exalted as the [[king of the gods]] and as the source of their authority, while Enlil is hardly ever mentioned except when in relation to the city of Nippur.{{sfn|Lambert|2013|p=263}} In a Late Babylonian god list, all the gods on the list were identified with Marduk. For example, Ninurta was Marduk of the pickaxe, Nabu was Marduk of accounting, Shamash was Marduk of justice and [[Tishpak]] was Marduk of the troops.{{sfn|Lambert|2013|p=264}} This "syncretistic tendency" is observed in other late texts, where the other gods appear as aspects of Marduk.{{sfn|Lambert|2013|p=265}}

[[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]], justifying his conquest of Babylonia, claimed that Marduk had abandoned [[Nabonidus]] who offended Marduk by turning his back on the Esagila in the [[Cyrus Cylinder]].{{sfn|van der Spek|2014|p=28}} Another anti-Nabonidus text, the Verse Account, explains that Nabonidus favoured Sin over Marduk.{{sfn|van der Spek|2014|p=29}} Nabonidus’ reverence for the moon god may have been because of familial roots to the city of Harran, and later he even revived the religious institutions of Ur, the main sanctuary of Sin.{{sfn|Beaulieu|2018|p=239}}