The Uses of ‘Bēlu’ and ‘Marduk’ in Neo-Assyrian Royal Inscriptions and other Sources from the First Millennium BC

Abstract

My dissertation seeks to understand why Marduk, the chief god of ancient Babylon, was often also called ‘Bēl’ (which means ‘lord’). Although this matter has never been investigated, a consensus seems to have formed in the field that ‘lord’ is an appropriate by-name for a chief god, and that the two names were used interchangeably. My research however has shown that the two assumptions on which the consensus rests are incorrect, and puts forward a new framework for understanding the function of these names. By consulting numerous assemblages of primary sources of different types and from both Babylonia and Assyria, I have been able to identify a distribution in the usage of the two names which not only sheds light on this particular case, but also goes to the heart of Mesopotamian concepts of divinity.

Primarily - although there is significant variation across time and between Babylonia and Assyria - I show that, while the name ‘Marduk’ was used to refer to the god in all of his roles – as a god of magic, as a warrior, a creator, the patron deity of Babylon, and the king of gods etc. – the name ‘Bēl’ was primarily only used for the god when playing the role of patron deity of Babylon. I also show that while the name ‘Marduk’ was used for the god in any of his manifestations – as an ethereal being, a planet in the sky, a statue in a temple, or in the form of his ‘symbol,’ the spade – the name ‘Bēl’ was primarily only used for the god when manifested in his primary statue in Babylon. My dissertation further examines the implications of this distribution.