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Updated: June 22, 2025
As often as the Assyrian monarchs may have had occasion to proceed to Babylonia and the occasions were frequent, owing to the constant disposition of the south to throw off the hated yoke they emphasized their devotion to Marduk, Nabu, En-lil, Shamash, and the other gods who had their seats in the south.
The theological purport of the myth thus becomes clear. It is to account for the fact that Marduk holds the tablets which were originally in the hands of En-lil. Marduk supplants the old Bel. In the Tiâmat episode his name is substituted for that of En-lil, and the latter is represented as giving his consent to the transfer of his name to the god of Babylon.
A certain measure of independence was reserved for the great mother goddess Ishtar, who, worshipped under various names as the symbol of fertility, plenty, and strength, is not so decidedly affected by the change as deities like En-lil, Shamash, Sin, and Ea, who could at any time become rivals of Marduk.
In the Zu myth, En-lil's claim to the supreme control of the laws and fate of the universe is freely acknowledged, but, En-lil being unable to resist the attack of Zu, it was left for Marduk to capture the bird and thus acquire by his own efforts what the old Bel had lost through lack of strength.
The former, the local deity of Girsu, would naturally be called by the kings 'the lord of the true sceptre, while the subordination of Girsu as a quarter of Lagash finds its reflection in the relationship of master and servant pictured as existing between En-lil and Nin-girsu.
On the older and later names of the Babylonians, see Meissner, Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, v. 180, 181, and on the general subject of the Babylonian months, Muss-Arnolt's valuable articles in the Journal of Biblical Literature, xi. 72-94 and 160-176. IVR. pl. 33. En-lil. See above, p. 99. Lit., 'Arakh-shamnu, i.e., month eight. Rassam, Cylinder, col. lii. l. 32.
Such a conception would help to account for the title 'lord' being applied to him above all others, and also aids us in understanding the lasting impression he made upon the people of Babylonia, an impression so profound that when the time came for En-lil to yield his supremacy to Marduk, no better means could be found of emphasizing the latter's authority, than by transferring to him the names and titles of the older Bel.
What makes it all the more likely that Ur-Gur found sun-worship at Larsa in existence is, that in the various places over which this ruler spread his building activity, he is careful in each case to preserve the status of the presiding deity. So at Nippur, he engages in work at the temples of En-lil and of Nin-lil; while at Uruk he devotes himself to the temple of Nanâ.
The second column opens as follows: And the oracles of all the gods he determined. From the context it is clear that Bel of Nippur is meant. Up to this point, the myth reflects the old view according to which it was En-lil who succeeded in overcoming Tiâmat or at any rate, in snatching the tablets of fate from the breast of Kingu.
Such inconsistencies as the assumption, in the Zu version of the nature myth, that En-lil is the original establisher of order in the world, as against the Tiâmat version where Marduk snatches the tablets of fate directly from Kingu, are inevitable when stories that arose among the people are taken in hand by theologians and modified and adapted to serve doctrines developed under scholastic influences.
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