Statue of the patron deity of the ancient city of Babylon
The Statue of Marduk depicted as being mounted on Marduk's dragon Mušḫuššu and standing victorious in the primordial water of Tiamat. From a cylinder seal of the 9th century BC Babylonian king Marduk-zakir-shumi I.[1]
The Statue of Marduk, also known as the Statue of Bêl (Bêl, meaning "lord", being a common designation for Marduk),[2] was the physical representation of the god Marduk, the patron deity of the ancient city of Babylon, traditionally housed in the city's main temple, the Esagila. There were seven statues of Marduk in Babylon, but 'the' Statue of Marduk generally refers to the god's main statue, placed prominently in the Esagila and used in the city's rituals. This statue was nicknamed the Asullḫi and was made of a type of wood called mēsu and covered with gold and silver.
Similar to statues of deities in other cities in Mesopotamia, the Babylonians conflated this statue with their actual god, believing that Marduk himself resided in their city through the statue. As such, the statue held enormous religious significance. It was used during the Babylonian New Year's festival and the kings of Babylon incorporated it into their coronation rituals, receiving the crown "from the hands" of Marduk.
Because of the enormous significance of the statue, it was sometimes used as a means of psychological warfare by Babylon's enemies. Enemy powers such as the Hittites, the Assyrians and the Elamites stole the statue during sacks of the city, which caused religious and political turmoil, as Babylon's traditional rituals could then not be completed. Coincidentally, all the foreign kings known to have stolen the statue ended up later being killed by their own family members, something the Babylonians hailed as divine punishment. Returns of the statue, either through the enemies giving it back or through a Babylonian king campaigning and successfully retrieving it, were occasions for great celebrations.
The ultimate fate of the statue is uncertain. A common assumption is that it was destroyed by the Achaemenid Persian king Xerxes I after a Babylonian uprising against his rule in 484 BC, but historical sources used for this assumption could be referring to a completely different statue. The statue's crown was restored by Alexander the Great in 325 BC, meaning it was still in the Esagila at that time. There are a handful of references to later rulers giving gifts "to Marduk" in the Esagila, some from as late as during the time of Parthian rule in Mesopotamia in the 2nd century BC.
The StatueofMarduk, also known as the Statueof Bêl (Bêl, meaning "lord", being a common designation for Marduk), was the physical representation of the...
Marduk (Cuneiform: 𒀭𒀫𒌓 dAMAR.UTU; Sumerian: amar utu.k "calf of the sun; solar calf"; Hebrew: מְרֹדַךְ, Modern: Merōdaḵ, Tiberian: Mərōḏaḵ) is a god...
1166 BC—The start of the Discordian calendar and within Discordianism the date of the Curse of Greyface. 1162 BC—The statueofMarduk is taken from Babylon...
Marduk, the protector god of Babylon. It lay south of the ziggurat Etemenanki. In this temple was the statueofMarduk, surrounded by cult images of the...
"Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur and Marduk" a poetic document dealing with the legendary story of his recovery of the statueofMarduk; and is one of two hymns glorify...
recovering the sacred statueofMarduk that had been carried off from Babylon during the fall of the Kassites. Shortly afterwards, the king of Elam was assassinated...
did remove a statue from the city, but that this was the golden statueof a man rather than the statueof the god Marduk. Though mentions of it are lacking...
like the statuesofMarduk and Manishtushu, the Manishtushu Obelisk, the Stele of Hammurabi and the stele of Naram-Sin. In 1158 BC, after much of Babylonia...
Azriel's stunning resemblance to the statueofMarduk causes him to be chosen for the ceremony to create a new statue every one hundred years, thus inadvertently...
kudurrus of Nebuchadnezzar I (1121–1100 BC) records his victory over the Elamites and his recovery of the cult statueofMarduk, the city god of Babylon...
Babylon, and even took away the statueof the supreme god of Babylonia, Marduk, from its temple, the Esagila. With the fall of the Assyrian empire (612 BCE)...
alongside Marduk, the national god of ancient Babylon. In the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 1200 BC) Utnapishtim, the immortal survivor of the Great...
deity Marduk and through consecration by the city's priests. Marduk's main cult image (often conflated with the god himself), the statueofMarduk, was...
until 1155 BC. A later tradition, the Marduk Prophecy, gives 24 years after a statue was taken, before it returned of its own accord to Babylon, suggesting...
after the fall of the First Babylonian dynasty. The Elamites of the Shutrukid dynasty conquered Babylonia, carrying away the StatueofMarduk, in the 12th...
crowned king of Babylon in the spring of the next year. His coronation was marked by Ashurbanipal's gift of the sacred StatueofMarduk, stolen from Babylon...
priests and the people would pray before sunset. The king took a statueof Nabu son ofMarduk into the temple to be worshipped. The fourth day involved memorials...
king. Furthermore, he did not "take the hand" of the StatueofMarduk, the physical representation of the deity, and thus did not honor the god by undergoing...
of Mesopotamia with the statuesof Babylon's gods to save them from the armies of Sennacherib of Assyria. Babylonia mainly focused on the god Marduk,...
to Susa trophies like the statuesofMarduk and Manishtushu, the Manishtushu Obelisk, the Stele of Hammurabi and the stele of Naram-Sin. With these trophies...
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