Hymn of the Forgotten Throne: Summoning Marduk, the Sun That Never Sets

"Let the words rise like incense from the temple steps, carried upon the breath of the ancestors. I speak from the shadow of the ziggurat, where the bricks still whisper his name—Marduk, the Storm-Wielder, the King of the Igigi, the One Who Stands at the Crossing of Heaven and Earth.

I. The Birth of the Avenger

Before the first dynasty, before the first brick of Babylon was laid, there was only the void—the roiling, serpent-lashed abyss of Tiamat, the Mother of Monsters. The elder gods trembled before her, for she had birthed dragons with venom for blood and given them armies of demons. Then came Marduk, born of Ea, the Wise, and Damkina, the Keeper of Secrets. Even as an infant, stars clustered in his eyes, and the winds obeyed his cries. The gods saw in him their deliverance and swore an oath: "If you slay the Queen of Chaos, we will kneel."

II. The War of the Cosmos

Clad in seven storms, gripping the mušḫuššu—the serpent-dragon who became his sigil—Marduk rode the hurricane into battle. Tiamat opened her maw to swallow him, but he hurled the winds of Anu down her throat, bloating her with divine tempest until she could not move. Then, with the mace of eternity, he shattered her skull. From her corpse, he carved the world: her spine became the arch of the sky, her weeping eyes the Tigris and Euphrates, her tail the Milky Way strewn across the night.

When the eleven terrors she had spawned tried to flee, he bound them in the nets of Marduk and branded them into statues—demons made stone, placed at the gates of temples to warn all who would defy order.

III. The Throne of the Fifty Names

The gods, awed and trembling, proclaimed him "King of All That Is and Shall Be." They gave him fifty names, each a key to a different power:

• Bel ("Lord")—the name by which kings swear oaths.
• Asalluhi—the sorcerer’s tongue, who whispers spells into the ears of exorcists.
• Nari-Lugaldimmerankia ("The Illuminator of the Path of the Gods")—the lantern in the underworld’s dark.

His crown was the shining tiara of the sun, his scepter the rod of destinies, and his throne was set atop Esagila, the "House Whose Top Reaches Heaven." There, he decreed the fates of men and gods alike.

IV. The Covenant of Blood and Brick

To the first king, he handed the Tablet of Destinies and said: "Build my city where the two rivers embrace. Let its walls be high, its priests wise, and its justice unbreaking. So long as my name is sung at dusk, Babylon shall never fall."

And so it was—for a thousand years, the Akitu festival shook the earth with processions. The god-king walked among men, his golden statue borne aloft, while the enuma elish (the epic of his victory) was chanted. The rivers rose and fell by his will, the harvests swelled under his gaze, and the sick were healed when his priests whispered "Marduk-šāpik-zēri" ("Marduk, the Sprinkler of Life").

V. The Forgotten and the Remembered

Now, though the sands have buried his altars and foreign tongues mispronounce his glory, know this: Marduk is not dead. He sleeps in the deep places, in the foundation stones of fallen temples, in the blood of those who still dream of Babylon. When the last star falls, he will wake—and chaos will again meet his sword.

So swear by his name. Keep the old fires burning. And when the storm comes, stand unafraid—for the Slayer of Tiamat walks beside you."