by Brian Godawa
An inner double wall surrounded by a moat and a military road provided the next layer of fortification with multiple fortress towers and eight separate gates named after deities including, Marduk, Ishtar, Shamash, Enlil and others. The city would ultimately be capable of housing about two hundred and fifty thousand citizens and slaves in mud houses and reed huts.
Ishtar had demanded a particularly ornamental gate for her northwestern sector of the city. It would have several towers through its long covered passageway and the walls would be covered in bright blue enamel brick and adorned with reliefs of red and white dragons and bulls and hundreds of other strange animals. She knew how to decorate with an eye toward the ostentatious.
Looking at the gate of Ishtar, Enlil mumbled with disdain, “pretentious, pompous, and self-aggrandizing as usual.”
“You should talk,” countered Ninhursag. “You walk around the assembly like a peacock with the Tablet of Destinies.”
The Tablet of Destinies was a talisman of authority to whomever guarded it, and Enlil was the most recent to do so. It contained the pantheon’s universal decrees of heaven and earth that involved godship, kingship, as well as magic, sorceries and occult mysteries.
Enki chimed in, “Do we really have to accept her flagrant showboating? It is distasteful and unbecoming the godhead.”
Anu weighed in, “It is the price we pay for negotiated peace. We all know her volatility and what she is capable of. If excessive display and a patron city of Nineveh keeps her at bay from intruding on the plans of the pantheon, then I say it is worth it.”
They knew he was right. Ishtar had vexed them all in one way or another in the past. She had previously seduced Enki and stole the Tablet of Destinies to give to Enlil, whose authority she later undermined in a political coup. It was an eternal sore spot with Enlil. She had been an escort deity in his city of Nippur, and she outperformed his glory and commandeered the devotion of the city’s inhabitants to the point that she was acting like the patroness deity of the city herself. It had taken her failed debacle of the Titanomachy to strip her of her political victories and reduce her to an escort of Anu in the city of Uruk. But that was a long story and all so very long ago. Even the discussion of Ishtar provoked angry contentions in the assembly. She was like a magnet of animosity. She was the goddess of war.
They all gave their attention back to the clay model city. The royal palace would be housed in the north of the city, but in the city’s center, right on the riverbanks, was the temple precinct. The processional road crossed the river as a bridge and bifurcated the walled temple area that would contain in the southern partition, a series of temples including one for Marduk, Babylon’s patron deity. In the northern section Nimrod had planned a mighty ziggurat entitled Etemenanki, which meant “Temple of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth.” And this was what was most important to the four high gods in attendance.
The temple tower would be three hundred feet square, and three hundred feet high with seven progressively smaller tiers and a blue enameled shrine for the gods at the top. It would contain a golden table and a large altar for mating in the Sacred Marriage rite. A vast courtyard would surround the temple for an assembly of citizens at special events such as the yearly Akitu Festival.
This huge tower would become the new cosmic mountain of the gods. They would engage in an occultic ceremony that would transform the ziggurat into a portal, a literal stairway to heaven that would enable the pantheon to recruit new Watchers from the myriads of Elohim’s heavenly host to join their revolution. The original two hundred had accomplished much since the days of Noah. They only imagined what they could do with thousands or even millions.
With its head in the heavens, and its foundation in the Abyss, this tower would be the center of power for the pantheon of gods uniting with the earthly potentate of Nimrod. It would make them an unstoppable united force of heaven and earth.
The land was surveyed and the city was all laid out and ready to build. But there was one thing that hampered the start of this splendorous majestic urban creation: Its foundation in the Abyss.
The Abyss was the subterranean waters below the earth that was the dwelling place of the monstrous sea dragon Rahab and its seven-headed offspring, Leviathan. It was a mystical portal that connected the waters above the heavens with the waters below the earth, but it was also a passage way to Sheol the underworld.
There was a small lake that was right where the Temple area was to be built and stretched out into the eastern portion of the city. It had to be drained before they could begin their construction. So the first task had been organized and implemented by the city engineers for draining the lake into the Euphrates River.
This annoying situation for Nimrod’s impatient ambition was fortuitous for Marduk and his secret plan.
The engineers had been at work for some time already. Canal diggers had dug deep canals that would connect the lake to the river. They broke through on both ends and the waters of the lake flowed out and down into the Euphrates. But they discovered that the lake had a spring source from the Abyss that would continue to supply the lake with an unending source of water. So they would have to plug that source opening in order to complete their drainage of the lake. They would send divers and find the source, and then create a landslide to cover the opening, like plugging a drain or more precisely, like plugging a spout of water.
The night before they were going to send divers, Marduk secretly arrived at the shoreline of the lake around midnight. It was quiet and no one was around. The workers and slaves were back in the camp outside the city area. He stripped naked and took a large knife with him into the water.
As a Watcher god, Marduk’s strength was greatly weakened in water. But because he was immortal, he could swim for as long as he needed without breathing. This was particularly helpful because Marduk had taken with him the enchantment spells that Ishtar had given him in their deal. He swam around the entire lake and inscribed them on the bedrock below the waterline. It took him some time, but the sun was not yet up, so he had enough time to exit the lake and engage in an occultic ceremony to complete his plan. The ceremony required virgin blood. He captured six virgins from the slave ranks and poured their blood as a libation into the lake. The bodies, he discarded in the feeding pen of the hogs.
The ceremony was for calling up a creature from the depths.
That creature was Rahab the sea dragon.
Chapter 7
The next day, a team of fifty divers rose with the sun and found their way out to the lake. They practiced their breathing exercises for their deep dive to find the spring source of the water. They spread out all over the lake for reconnaissance and dove in.
Only one of them resurfaced. He screamed out, “Tiamat! Tiamat!” which was the Babylonian name for Rahab the sea dragon.
The diver was swallowed up in the mouth of the great fish as it leapt out of the water and landed with a huge tidal wave splashing the entire shoreline.
Tiamat was huge and fearsome. It was the size of a ziggurat and covered with armored scales on its back and its belly. Pointed spikes protruded from its spine, and its teeth could crush battle ships under the pressure of its mighty jaws. Quite frankly, nothing human could stop it, let alone dream of vanquishing it.
Clan members refused to send more divers into the water. The fearful slaves summoned Nimrod to the lake, who arrived with a large contingent of soldiers because of the potential dangers of a mob uprising. He knew that once the superstitions of the commoners were excited, not even his own fearful and terrible punishments could procure obedience. In fact, they might procure rebellion. Tiamat was the deified dragon of the primeval waters. No earthly ruler, no matter how mighty, could compete with that primal terror in the soul of the mob.
Nimrod wished that he had Terah with him. As prince of the heavenly host, Terah might know what to do to subdue such a monster of maelstrom. But he was busy with his task of creating the golem army down south. So Nimrod had only hi
s small coterie of sorcerers to do his bidding.
They performed spells of enchantment and sacrifices of atonement to the god of chaos. Nimrod then forced another ten reluctant divers into the water to see if their incantations had worked to appease the dragon.
They had not.
None of the divers resurfaced. And none of the workers or slaves would continue their work of draining the lake. Nimrod knew that he could not arrest them all and if he began to punish, he would have an insurrection on his hands, an unruly mob driven by religious devotion. He could not win this battle.
Nimrod convened an assembly of his advisors and requested the presence of the gods.
The assembly of counselors met in Nimrod’s administrative tent. The high gods all came; Enlil, Anu, Enki, and Ninhursag. Marduk stood by Nimrod as they sought a solution to their problem.
“Can we not move the city upriver?” asked Ninhursag.
“No,” replied Enlil, “Redrawing plans would take too much time. But even then, the connection to the Abyss is crucial for the cosmic mountain. This location is a spiritually aligned center point of the land. We must retain it.”
Anu asked, “Enki, did you not develop enchantment spells to subdue the sea dragon for the War of Gods and Men?”
“No,” lied Enki. “That was for Leviathan, a very different beast. And they were destroyed for protection from the hostile forces of Elohim.”
Enki gave an ever so slight glance at Marduk who was watching him with falcon eyes. Enki had made a deal with Marduk to keep the spells somehow from the council in exchange for a united plan of overthrowing Enlil’s leadership. Enki had in fact shared them with Ishtar for her use against the Bull of Heaven, and she had in turn given them to Marduk.
“We have no power to defeat that monstrosity of chaos,” said Ninhursag. “Water weakens us and the dragon is more than a creature. What can we do?”
The question rang with desperation. It hung in silence for a few moments before Marduk finally broke his silence and stepped forward.
“I will kill Tiamat,” said Marduk.
Everyone looked at him with surprise. Even Nimrod was not privy to Marduk’s secret plan.
“You are the mightiest of us all,” said Anu. “But even you weaken under the power of water.”
“One god does not a dragon slayer make against the mighty Tiamat,” said Enki.
“I will kill Tiamat,” repeated Marduk. “Under the condition that I become the king of the gods, head of the pantheon.”
Enlil’s eyes went wide with shock. Then anger.
“How dare you,” Enlil spit out. “So this is what you have been doing in your dark shadows of silence, conspiring to overthrow my authority!”
Marduk bowed submissively to Enlil and spoke with a tinge of irony in his words, “Lord of the Air, I have no mutinous intentions. I fully recognize your authority. And I will gladly step aside to allow you as king of the gods, to slay the sea dragon.”
Enlil glared at him with fury. Marduk knew full well Enlil would have no more chance than any of them at vanquishing such a foe. And that chance was about zero.
Enki smirked. He enjoyed seeing his rival humiliated with such subtlety and finesse.
And then it occurred to Enlil. Marduk would have no more chance against Tiamat than any of them as well. So why not swallow his pride and let Marduk choke on it in the bottom of the Abyss?
“Well, if you are that confident of your skill,” said Enlil, “then who am I to get in the way of the will of the gods?”
Marduk then offered, “I will require the Tablet of Destinies as my guarantee of covenant.”
“I will do no such thing,” complained Enlil. “Prove yourself first.”
Marduk countered, “If I fail in my task, you will have access to them again anyway.”
Enlil steamed. He did not like the idea of letting the Tablet out of his hands for anything. But he had no choice. Everyone was looking to him to respond justly.
“Fair enough,” said Enlil. “I will give them to Anu for safekeeping.” There was no way Enlil would allow the Tablet to be in Enki’s treacherous hands or Ninhursag’s incompetent ones. Anu had become a virtually ineffective figurehead of the gods, but as such was a rather impartial and trustworthy third party for such problems.
Enki piped up, “Are you sure you want to agree so quickly to a covenant so potentially devastating to your own reign?”
Enlil had no choice. He had been backed into a corner, and could now only hope for the odds that were overwhelming against Marduk. And when Marduk was taken by Tiamat and dragged to the bottom of the Abyss, Enlil’s own status would be reaffirmed with the bravado he needed for his weakening reputation.
Enlil responded to Enki with his own jab, “One thing you may not understand about being king of the gods, Enki, is the leadership required in times of crisis.”
Enki boiled. But he held back his own secret, knowing that he would have plenty of time to rub it in the face of Enlil later.
Marduk interrupted their sparring, “I agree to Anu as executor of the covenant. Now, if you will all excuse me, I need to take leave to prepare for my duty.”
Marduk stopped before he left the tent and turned back to the assembly. “Just one more thing, I want my own temple dominant in the southern partition of the temple complex across from the ziggurat Etemenanki. I want it called, Esagila.”
That drew raised eyebrows and smirks of scorn. Esagila meant “House of the Raised Head.” Marduk was raising himself above the heads of all the gods. He wanted to rule in the heavens as Nimrod wanted to rule on earth. But there was no one else with the intestines to step forward and battle the sea dragon of chaos. So what else could they do but acquiesce to the demands? Realistically, Marduk would be chomped and buried in the bottom of the Abyss by the jaws of the very sea monster that did so with Ishtar during the flood. If the invincible goddess of war could not triumph over so deadly a foe, what chance could this ambitious stair-climbing upstart possibly have?
Nimrod had been conspicuously silent during this entire exchange. As a mighty earthly ruler, he was nothing but a slug easily squashed in the presence of the four high gods. He knew better than to join in as one of them. But one of them is what he wanted to be. They had promised him a living apotheosis, or deification. Apotheosis was usually performed on dead kings as a means of raising them to godlike status in the stars. But such a ceremonial distinction was worthless to Nimrod. He did not want to be considered a god when he was dead. He wanted to be a living god here and now.
Marduk’s victory and enthronement would be the path to Nimrod’s own success.
Chapter 8
Marduk arose the next morning and arrived at the lake clad only in an animal skin loin cloth, and armed with a dagger strapped to his leg, a mighty compound bow, a battle mace, and a large axe of three talents weight, or two hundred and twenty five pounds strapped to his back. Of what use arrows were against the colossal armored dragon was anyone’s guess. But everything had a purpose in Marduk’s plan.
Two of the items were gifts from Nimrod. The loincloth was more than merely a minimal covering to allow Marduk free movement in the water. It was Nimrod’s own magical garments he had inherited from his mother. They were the skins worn by the first Man and Woman in the Garden of Eden that conferred a magical enchantment that took away the fear of humans in animals. It was a hunter’s advantage for animals to not fear them. And Tiamat certainly had no fear of any creature. But should Marduk begin to do some real damage to the dragon, its instincts would kick in and a healthy fear would empower it to surge in its fight. The lack of such surge caused by the garments would surely make it vulnerable to strategic attack. Marduk was not sure the skins would have any real effect on the preternatural sea monster, but anything was worth the chance in this impossible task. He also received the battle-axe from Nimrod, who had himself used the mighty weapon in his campaign against the Rephaim giant, Humbaba the Terrible, in his Cedar Forest.
An
additional weapon, that Marduk had commanded be created, was carried in by the hands of hundreds of slaves. It was a battle net large enough to entangle the serpent of the Abyss. It was rigged on a huge catapult for just the right moment, and the slaves instructed as to its use.
In addition to these hundreds of slaves, thousands of citizens came to watch the event as one would a sporting contest. They brought blankets and food and drink for the day so as not to miss any of the battle if it went on for long. Most expected it to be over quickly with the bullying deity clamped in the jaws of chaos.
Nimrod and his royal entourage set up at a safe distance. The four high gods from the assembly were also there: Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag. They were required as eyewitnesses on behalf of the assembly of the gods. They were the chief executors whose decisions were final. Should they declare Marduk as king, he would immediately ascend his throne with the authority of the pantheon behind him.
For the first time in his life that he could remember, Nimrod was truly afraid. If Marduk was not successful and was buried in the deep, Nimrod would lose his patron protector as well as his co-conspirator in the plans they drew up. Plans that the assembly would not be happy with should they discover them. Nimrod wanted to pray to the gods for help, but he could not because the gods he would pray to were right before him, and they were the ones from whom he was keeping his secret. So he kept his straight face on as a mask for the fears that boiled beneath.
Marduk kneeled before the shore and engaged in a ritual incantation to call up the monster from below. When its armored scales crested the waters, Marduk raised his mighty bow and let loose an arrow made from meteorite iron. It was tied to a slender, yet strong cable of intertwined hemp and copper strands. It found its mark underneath one of the monster’s broken scales, digging deeply into its flesh.