The Statue of Marduk, also known as the Statue of Bêl (Bêl, meaning "lord", being a common designation for Marduk), 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. 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.
Background
Marduk was the patron deity of the city of Babylon, having held this position since the reign of Hammurabi (18th century BC) in Babylon's first dynasty. Although Babylonian worship of Marduk never meant the denial of the existence of the other gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon, it has sometimes been compared to monotheism. The history of worship of Marduk is intimately tied to the history of Babylon itself and as Babylon's power increased, so did the position of Marduk relative to that of other Mesopotamian gods. By the end of the second millennium BC, Marduk was sometimes just referred to as Bêl, meaning "lord".
In Mesopotamian mythology, Marduk was a creator god. Going by the Enûma Eliš, the Babylonian creation myth, Marduk was the son of Enki, the Mesopotamian god of wisdom, and rose to prominence during a great battle between the gods. The myth tells how the universe originated as a chaotic realm of water in which there originally were two primordial deities, Tiamat (salt water, female) and Abzu (sweet water, male). These two gods gave birth to other deities. These deities (including gods such as Enki) had little to do in these early stages of existence and as such occupied themselves with various activities.
Eventually, their children began to annoy the elder gods and Abzu decided to rid himself of them by killing them. Alarmed by this, Tiamat revealed Abzu's plan to Enki, who killed his father before the plot could be enacted. Although Tiamat had revealed the plot to Enki to warn him, the death of Abzu horrified her and she too attempted to kill her children, raising an army together with her new consort Kingu. Every battle in the war was a victory for Tiamat, until Marduk convinced the other gods to proclaim him as their leader and king. The gods agreed, and Marduk was victorious, capturing and executing Kingu and firing a great arrow at Tiamat, killing her and splitting her in two.
With these chaotic primordial forces defeated, Marduk created the world and ordered the heavens. Marduk is also described as the creator of human beings, which were meant to help the gods in defeating and holding off the forces of chaos and thus maintain order on Earth.
Appearance and other statues
The Statue of Marduk was the physical representation of Marduk housed in Babylon's main temple, the Esagila. Although there were actually seven separate statues of Marduk in Babylon: four in the Esagila and the surrounding temple complex; one in the Etemenanki (the ziggurat dedicated to Marduk); and two in temples dedicated to other deities. 'The' statue of Marduk usually refers to Marduk's primary statue, placed prominently in the Esagila and used in the city's rituals.
This principal statue of Marduk was nicknamed the Asullḫi and made of a type of wood called mēsu. The carved wooden statue would also have been covered in precious metals, such as gold and silver. In addition to this, the statue would have been provided with ritual clothing, at least partly made of gold. This statue would have occupied the cult room of Marduk in the Esagila, called the E-umuša. Among the various statues of Marduk, the one called the Asullḫi is the only one explicitly mentioned in connection with the city's major rituals (though the statue is rarely named, often being referred to just as "Marduk" or "Bêl"). The name Asullḫi had centuries prior been associated with a separate deity of incantations later conflated with Marduk.
Another statue of Marduk, called the Asarre, was made from a stone the Babylonians called marḫušu, possibly chlorite or steatite. The Asarre was located in a chapel dedicated to the god Ninurta off the north side of the Esagila's central courtyard. Though this chapel would have been dedicated to Ninurta, the Marduk statue would have occupied the central point of attention and thus have been the main figure. This might be explained through the god Ninurta becoming seen as simply an aspect of Marduk—an ancient visitor to the temple may not have been surprised to find Marduk in the stead of Ninurta. Other statues included one made of a type of wood called taskarinnu and placed in a chamber dedicated to the Enki (Marduk's father) in the E-kar-zaginna temple, part of the Esagila temple complex but not of the temple itself; an alabaster statue in the "temple of E-namtila"; a statue of hematite in the "chapel of Ninurta in the temple E-ḫursag-tilla"; and a statue of unknown material in "E-gišḫur-ankia, the temple of Bēlet-Ninua".
Role and importance
The citizens of the city of Babylon conflated the Asullḫi with the actual god Marduk—the god was understood as living in the temple, among the people of his city, and not in the heavens. As such, Marduk was not seen as some distant entity, but a friend and protector who lived nearby. This was no different from other Mesopotamian cities, who similarly conflated their gods with the representations used for them in their temples. During the religiously important 13-day long New Year's festival held annually in the spring at Babylon, the statue was removed from the temple and paraded through the city before being placed in a smaller building outside the city walls, where the statue received fresh air and could enjoy a different view from the one it had from inside the temple. The statue was traditionally incorporated into the coronation rituals for the Babylonian kings, who received their crowns "out of the hands" of Marduk during the New Year's festival, symbolizing them being bestowed with kingship by the patron deity of the city.
Both his rule and role as Marduk's vassal on Earth were reaffirmed annually at this time of year, when the king entered the Esagila alone on the fifth day of the festivities and met with the chief priest. The chief priest removed the regalia from the king, slapped him across the face and made him kneel before Marduk's statue. The king would then tell the statue that he had not oppressed his people and that he had maintained order throughout the year, whereafter the chief priest would reply (on behalf of Marduk) that the king could continue to enjoy divine support for his rule and the regalia were returned. The standard full Negative Confession of the king was the following:
Because of its significance to the city, Babylon's enemies often used the statue as a means of psychological warfare. When foreign powers conquered or plundered Babylon, the statue was often stolen from the city (a common way of weakening the power of defeated cities in ancient Mesopotamia). Such events caused great distress for the Babylonians, as the removal of the statue signified the actual departure of the real deity, their friend and protector. Without it, the New Year's festival could not be celebrated and religious activities were difficult to perform. The Babylonians believed that the statue's departures from the city were somewhat self-imposed, with the statue itself deciding to make the journey and foreign theft of it simply being a means to achieve that. The statue's absence meant confusion and hardship for the Babylonians, who believed that foreign lands benefited from having the statue as it brought prosperity wherever it went. The practice of taking the cult statues from enemies was viewed as capturing the enemy's source of divine power and suppressing that power.
Statues of deities were sometimes destroyed by enemy powers, as was once the case for the statue of the sun god Shamash in that deity's patron city, Sippar. It was destroyed by the Suteans during the reign of Babylonian king Simbar-shipak ( 1026–1009 BC). As these statues held enormous religious significance, the statue of Shamash could not be replaced until almost two centuries later, under King Nabu-apla-iddina ( 887–855 BC) when a replica of the original was "divinely revealed" and the king ordered the new statue to be ritually dedicated. In the meantime, Sippar had prayed to its god using a sun-disc as a substitute for the statue. Though they were conflated into one, gods in Mesopotamia were believed to be able to "abandon" their statues. In an 8th-century BC religious text, the poor state of Marduk's statue inspired the god Erra to suggest that Marduk depart from the statue and that Erra could rule in his stead until the Babylonians had finished restoring it.
Gods could exist in heaven and on Earth simultaneously, and their presence on Earth could be in multiple places at the same time: for instance, Shamash and the goddess Ishtar (a goddess of sex, war, justice and political power associated with the planet Venus) were manifested in cult images in many different cities and were also still seen as being present in their respective heavenly bodies. Though statues and other cult images could be harmed, this did not mean that actual damage was being done to the gods themselves.
History
Journeys of Marduk
The statue was first stolen from the city when King Mursili I of the Hittites sacked Babylon 1595 BC. Mursili's war against Babylon ended the city's first dynasty and left its empire in ruins. Although Babylon rebuilt its kingdom under the Kassite dynasty, the statue spent centuries in the kingdom of the Hittites, possibly being returned 1344 BC by King Šuppiluliuma I as a gesture of goodwill.