triumphed over Bel and Ea. The god of Babylon
reigns supreme, his sway acknowledged by those whom he supplants.
Marduk's declaration that in the event of his vanquishing Tiamat he will
assume authority over all the gods is thus formally confirmed. The epic
closes grandiloquently:

With fifty names, the great gods
According to their fifty names, proclaimed the supremacy of his
course.

The compiler has added to the epic what Delitzsch appropriately
designates an 'epilogue,'--a declaration of affection for Marduk. The
epilogue consists of three stanzas. All mankind--royalty and
subjects--are called upon to bear in mind Marduk's glorious deeds,
achieved for the benefit of the world.

Let the wise and intelligent together ponder over it.
Let the father relate it and teach it to his son.[772]
To leader and shepherd[773] be it told.
Let all rejoice in the lord of gods, Marduk
That he may cause his land to prosper and grant it peace.
His word is firm, his order irrevocable.
What issues from his mouth, no god can alter.

Marduk's anger, the poet says in closing, terrifies even the gods, but
he is a god upon whose mercy one may rely, though he punishes the
evil-doer.

Bearing in mind the general nature of the creation epic we have
discussed, we must of course in our conclusions distinguish between
those elements in it which reflect the intent of the compiler or
compilers to glorify Marduk at the expense of other gods and such parts
as bear the stamp of being generally accepted beliefs. Setting aside,
therefore, the special role assigned to Marduk, we find that the
Babylonians never developed a theory of real beginnings. The _creatio ex
nihilo_ was a thought beyond the grasp even of the schools. There was
always _something_, and indeed there was always a _great deal_--as much
perhaps at the beginning of things as at any other time. But there was
no cosmic order. Instead of a doctrine of creation, we have a doctrine
of evolution from chaos to the imposition of eternal laws. The
manifestation of these laws was seen first of all in the movements of
the heavenly bodies. There was a great expanse, presenting the
appearance of a stretched-out curtain or a covering to which the stars
and moon were attached. Along this expanse the wandering stars moved
with a certain regularity. The moon, too, had its course mapped out and
the sun appeared in this expanse daily, as an overseer, passing along
the whole of it