CHAPTER XXXVII
THE FIGHT BETWEEN MARDUK AND TIĀMAT

Following my usual course of ending the chapter on each nation with a legend or story, in which fish or ichthyic monsters figure as direct or indirect agents of some important event, I subjoin the only myth in Assyrian literature which comes within this category, viz. the famous fight between Marduk and Tiāmat, the monstrous creature of the deep.

Tiāmat, with her consort Apsū, had revolted against the gods and brought into being a brood of monsters to destroy them. So formidable seemed her forces that all appeals by Anshar, the leader of the gods, to Anu, and then to Ea, were made in vain. No god would “face the music,” till Marduk was prevailed upon to become their champion. Nor does this grand refusal seem unnatural, when we read of Tiāmat’s dimensions.

“Fifty Kasbu, or more correctly Biru (i.e. 300 miles), was her length, one Kasbu (six miles) was her breadth, half a rod was her mouth;” and the rest of her body of proportionate bulk![992] Nor again is it unnatural that at—

“The lashing of the water with her tail, All the Gods in heaven were afraid.”

How pigmy in comparison with Tiāmat appears the decadent sea-dragon mentioned by Ignatius, on whose gut, 120 feet long, in the library of Constantinople were written in letters of gold the Iliad and the Odyssey!

Allied with Tiāmat in her fight were—

“Spawned sea-serpents, Sharp of teeth and cruel of fang.”
“With poison instead of blood she has filled their bodies, And mighty tempests, and the fishman,[993] and the ram,[994] They bear merciless weapons without fear of the fight.”

Beowulf in his famous battle with the Dragon stands out as nobler and braver than Marduk, inasmuch as he, a man, to free his country from the Dragon’s toll of death and ravage, of his own volition seeks out the monster. He “attacks alone, for being altogether fearless he scorned to take an army against the foe,” whereas Marduk—the god—was compelled to the duel, since he was unable to enlist a single god. Beowulf “counted not the worm’s warring for aught,” whereas Marduk among his preparations,

“Made a net to enclose the inward parts of Tiāmat And the four winds he set so that nothing of her might escape.”

The protagonists (literally protagonists, for behind Marduk cowered the shrinking gods, and behind Tiāmat her spouse and her spawned monsters) on meeting consume time, quite in the grand Homeric manner, by launching taunts and reproaches at each other.

Eventually Marduk, after spreading out his net to catch her, seems to have anticipated the gassing tactics of the Huns by many millenniums, and owing to the absence of a mask with even greater success, for—

“The evil wind, that was behind, he let loose in her face,[995] As Tiāmat opened her mouth to its full extent. He drove in the evil wind, while she had not yet shut her lips. The terrible winds filled her belly, And her courage was taken from her and her mouth she opened wide. His spear he seized, and broke through her belly, He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart.”

THE FIGHT BETWEEN MARDUK AND TIĀMAT.

Then for a while Marduk rested but, arising,
“He split her body up like a flat fish into two halves. One half of her he set in place as a covering for the heavens. He fixed a bolt, he stationed watchmen, And bade them not to let her waters come forth.”
Finally to their hero and saviour the gods accord a triumphant welcome, and
“Presents and gifts they brought unto him.”[996]