ider her mouth,[731]
He seized the spear and plunged it into her stomach,
He pierced her entrails, he tore through her heart,
He seized hold of her and put an end to her life,
He threw down her carcass and stepped upon her.

The method employed by Marduk is so graphically described that no
comment is necessary. After having vanquished Tiamat, the valiant Marduk
attacks her associates. They try to flee, but he captures them
all--including Kingu--without much difficulty and puts them into his
great net. Most important of all, he tears the tablets of fate from
Kingu and places them on his breast. This act marks the final victory.
Henceforth, the gods with Marduk--and no longer Tiamat and her
brood--decree the fate of the universe. There is great rejoicing among
the gods, who heap presents and offerings upon Marduk. As the vanquisher
of chaos, Marduk is naturally singled out to be the establisher of the
fixed form and order of the universe. The close of the fourth tablet
describes this work of the god, and the subject is continued in the
following ones. Unfortunately, these tablets are badly preserved, so
that we are far from having a complete view of the various acts of
Marduk. He begins by taking the carcass of Tiamat and cutting it in
half.

He cuts her like one does a flattened fish into two halves.

Previous to this he had trampled upon her and smashed her skull, as we
are expressly told, so that the comparison of the monster, thus pressed
out, to a flattened fish is appropriate.

He splits her lengthwise.

The one half he fashioned as a covering for the heavens,
Attaching a bolt and placing there a guardian,
With orders not to permit the waters to come out.

It is evident that the canopy of heaven is meant. Such is the enormous
size of Tiamat that one-half of her body flattened out so as to serve as
a curtain, is stretched across the heavens to keep the 'upper
waters'--'the waters above the firmament' as the Book of Genesis puts
it--from coming down. To ensure the execution of this design, a bolt is
drawn in front of the canopy and a guardian placed there, like at a city
wall, to prevent any one or anything from coming out.

This act corresponds closely to the creation of a "firmament" in the
first chapter of Genesis. The interpretation is borne out by the
statement of Alexander Polyhistor who, quoting from Berosus, states that
out of one-half of Tiamat the heavens were made.[732] The further