heir arms.
They were caught in the net, sat in the toils,
All the earth they filled with their cry.
Their doom they bore, held fast in prison,
And the eleven creatures, clothed with dread,
A herd of demons who with her went,
These he subdued, destroyed their power,
Crushed their valor, trod them under foot;
And Kingu, who had grown great over them all,
Him he overcame with the god Kugga,
Took from him the tablets of fate which were not rightfully his,
Stamped thereon his seal, and hung them on his breast.
When thus the doughty Marduk had conquered his foes,
His proud adversary to shame had brought,
Had completed Anshar's triumph over the enemy,
Had fulfilled Nudimmud's will,
Then the conquered gods he put in prison,
And to Tiamat, whom he had conquered, returned.
Under his foot the lord Tiamat's body trod,
With his irresistible club he shattered her skull,
Through the veins of her blood he cut;
Commanded the north wind to bear it to a secret place.
His fathers saw it, rejoiced and shouted.
Gifts and offerings to him they brought.
The lord was appeased seeing her corpse.
Dividing her body, wise plans he laid.
Into two halves like a fish he divided her,
Out of one half he made the vault of heaven,
A bar he set and guards he posted,
Gave them command that the waters pass not through.
Through the heaven he strode, viewed its spaces,
Near the deep placed Nudimmud's dwelling.
And the lord measured the domain of the deep,
A palace like it, Eshara, he built,
The palace Eshara which he fashioned as heaven.
Therein made he Anu, Bel, and Ea to dwell.
He established the station of the great gods,
Stars which were like them, constellations he set,
The year he established, marked off its parts,
Divided twelve months by three stars,
From the day that begins the year to the day that ends it
He established the station Nibir to mark its limits.
That no harm come, no one go astray,
The stations of Bel and Ea be set by its side.
Great doors he made on this side and that,
Closed them fast on left and right.

* * * * *

The moon-god he summoned, to him committed the night.

[Here the account breaks off; there probably followed the history of the
creation of the earth and