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Updated: May 2, 2025
In the first place, the close relationship between Marduk and Nabu was emphasized by placing a papakhu to Nabu in the precinct of E-Sagila, which built in imitation of E-Zida at Borsippa was called by the same name. This papakhu, it would seem, was independent of a special temple to Nabu known as E-Makh-tila, and which lay in Borsippa.
That the Babylonian Nabu is meant, is clear from such designations as 'the offspring of E-sagila, the favorite of Bel, 'he who dwells at E-zida, which appear among the epithets bestowed upon the god; and the temple in Calah, which one of the last kings of Assyria, Ashuretililani, is engaged in improving, bears the same name E-zida, as Nabu's great temple at Borsippa.
There is a fervency in the prayers of Nebuchadnezzar which marks them off from the somewhat perfunctory invocations of the Assyrian kings to Ashur and Ishtar. An appreciation of the position of E-Sagila and E-Zida in Babylonian history is an essential condition to an understanding of the Babylonian-Assyrian religion.
While the history of E-Sagila and E-Zida cannot be traced back further than the reign of Hammurabi, the temples themselves are considerably older. Previous to the rise of the city of Babylon as the political center, the Nabu cult in E-Zida must have been more prominent than the worship of Marduk in E-Sagila.
Nebopolassar and his successors are fond of giving themselves the title of 'beautifier of E-Sagila and E-zida. In these great temples sacred to Marduk and Nebo, there were shrines to Sarpanitum, Tashmitum, Nusku, Ea and others, which also engaged the energies of the rulers.
Nabu was even granted a chapel in E-Sagila at Babylon, to which likewise the name of E-Zida was given.
The Assyrian rulers regarded it as both a privilege and a solemn duty to come to Babylon and invoke the protection of Marduk and Nabu. In E-Sagila the installation of the rulers over Babylonia took place, and a visit to Marduk's temple was incomplete without a pilgrimage across the river to E-Zida.
Nebuchadnezzar, so devoted to Marduk and Nabu, appears to have regarded E-Kur as a serious rival to E-Sagila and E-Zida. Some traces of building operations at E-Kur appear to date from the Persian period, but, practically, the history of E-Kur comes to an end at the close of the seventh century.
At various times, as we have seen, Nabu formed a serious rival to Marduk, and it will be recalled that up to a late period we find Nabu given the preference to Marduk in official documents. The inseparable association of E-Sagila and E-Zida is a tribute to Nabu which, we may feel certain, the priests of Marduk did not offer willingly.
The thought of E-Sagila and E-Zida must have stored up emotions in the breast of a Babylonian and Assyrian, that can only be compared to a pious Mohammedan's enthusiasm for Mecca, or the longing of an ardent Hebrew for Jerusalem. The hymns to Marduk and Nabu voice this emotion.
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