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Among other names assigned to him are 'the one who knows the heart of the gods, 'who gathers the gods together, 'who rules in truth and justice. In allusion again to his contest with Tiâmat, he is called 'the destroyer of the enemy and of all wicked ones, 'who frustrates their plans. With the help of a pun upon his having 'pierced' Tiâmat; he is called Nibir, i.e., the planet Jupiter.
The stars are represented as clinging to their course through maintaining their relationship to Nibir, while at the side of Nibir and as additional guides, Bel is identified with the north pole of the equator and Ea with a star in the extreme southern heavens, to be sought for, perhaps, in the constellation Argo.
Nibir be his name, who took hold of the life of Tiâmat. The course of the stars of heaven may he direct. May he pasture all of the gods like sheep. But the climax is reached when, upon hearing what the Igigi have done, the great gods, father Bel and father Ea cheerfully bestow their own names upon Marduk.
Even though the Babylonians may not have had any knowledge of the relative mass of the planets, in some way Jupiter must have appeared to them as the largest of the planets, and for this reason was identified with the head of the Babylonian pantheon, Marduk. In the creation epic, as we have seen, Jupiter-Marduk, under the name of Nibir, is represented as exercising a control over all the stars.
That the Babylonians had such a system as is here outlined is confirmed by Diodorus Seculus. The position of Nibir, or Jupiter, whose course keeps closer to the ecliptic than that of any other planet, served as an important guide in calendrical calculations.
Jensen seems to have solved the chief difficulties. Jensen and Zimmern interpret "he drew the pictures," referring the phrase to the contours of the stars; but the parallelism speaks in favor of connecting the words with the "year." The divisions of the year or seasons seem to be meant. I.e., the planet Marduk, or Jupiter. I.e., with Nibir. See Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 354.
The gods being identified with stars and each of the latter having its place in the heavens 'to establish the stations for the great gods' is equivalent to putting the stars in position. The regulation of the year forms part of the astronomical science. The three stars that constitute 'divisions' to aid in marking off the months are Nibir, Bel, and Ea.
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