Assyrian Legends of the Creation: The sagas of the Mesopotamian Record Keepers

A perusal of the texts of the Seven Tablets of Creation, which King was enabled, through the information contained in them, to arrange for the first time in their proper sequence, shows that the main object of the Legend was the glorification of the god Marduk, the son of Ea (Enki), as the conqueror of the dragon Tiâmat, and not the narration of the story of the Creation of the heavens, and earth and man. The Creation, properly speaking, is only mentioned as an exploit of Marduk in the Sixth Tablet, and the Seventh Tablet is devoted wholly to the enumeration of the honorific titles of Marduk. It is probable that every great city in Babylonia, while accepting the Creation Legend's general form, made the greatest of its local gods the hero. It has long been surmised that the prominence of Marduk in the Legend was due to the political importance of the city of Babylon.