Marduk facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Marduk (Bêl)
God of Babylon God of creation, water, vegetation, judgment, and magic
9th century BC depiction of the Statue of Marduk, with his servant dragon Mušḫuššu. This was Marduk's main cult image in Babylon.
Abode	Babylon
Planet	Jupiter
Personal information
Consort	Sarpanit
Children	Nabu
Parents	Enki and Damgalnuna
Siblings	Ninsar, Ninkurra, Uttu, Ninti
Greek equivalent	Zeus, Apollo
Roman equivalent	Jupiter

Marduk was a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon. When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century BC), Marduk slowly started to rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BC.

In the city of Babylon, Marduk was worshipped in the temple Esagila.

Marduk is associated with the divine weapon Imhullu. His symbolic animal and servant, whom Marduk once vanquished, is the dragon Mušḫuššu. "Marduk" is the Babylonian form of his name.

The name Marduk was probably pronounced Marutuk. The etymology of the name Marduk is conjectured as derived from amar-Utu ("immortal son of Utu" or "bull calf of the sun god Utu"). The origin of Marduk's name may reflect an earlier genealogy, or have had cultural ties to the ancient city of Sippar (whose god was Utu), dating to the third millennium BC.

By the Hammurabi period, Marduk had become astrologically associated with the planet Jupiter.

Related pages

• Babylon
• Babylonia
• Babylonian Gods
• Babylonian religion
• List of Mesopotamian deities

Images for kids

• 

  The Babylonian king Hammurabi (standing), depicted as receiving his royal insignia from either Marduk or Shamash. Relief on the upper part of the stele of Hammurabi's code of laws.

• 

  Late Assyrian seal. Worshipper between Nabu and Marduk, standing on his servant dragon Mušḫuššu. 8th century BCE.

• 

  Nineteenth-century engraving by Gustave Doré, showing the scene from "Bel and the Dragon" in which Daniel reveals the deception of the Babylonian priests of Bel, a syncretized form of Marduk

See also

In Spanish: Marduk para niños