Esagila- Mesopotamian LocationLocation · Landmark"House Whose Top Is High"
Also known as: É-sag-ila
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
After Marduk defeated Tiamat and fashioned the cosmos, the gods labored for two years to build him a temple. Esagila rose in the heart of Babylon, and each year its priests recited the Enuma Elish before Marduk's statue to renew the world he had made.
Mythology & Lore
The Gods' Labor
The Enuma Elish tells how Esagila came to be. After Marduk killed Tiamat and split her body to make the sky and earth, after he shaped humanity from the blood of the rebel god Kingu, the Anunnaki owed him a throne. Marduk commanded them to build it. The gods molded bricks and raised walls for two full years. When they finished, they held a banquet in the new halls and proclaimed Marduk's fifty names, each one a title of sovereignty over some part of creation.
Within the precinct, a sacred pool called the Abzu held the primordial freshwater that Enki, Marduk's father, had drawn the world from. Beside the temple rose the Etemenanki, a stepped ziggurat whose summit shrine stood where heaven and earth met.
The Akitu
Marduk's cult statue stood in the innermost chamber, dressed in gold and lapis lazuli. Each day, priests fed it and changed its garments. Once a year, during the Akitu festival, the whole city came.
A high priest recited the Enuma Elish before the statue from beginning to end. Creation enacted again. Marduk defeating Tiamat again. The world ordered again. The king stood before the god and was stripped of his insignia. A priest struck him across the cheek. He declared his conduct before Marduk, and only when the god accepted was his crown returned.
Statues of gods from cities across Babylonia were carried to Esagila in procession. The divine council assembled in Marduk's house. Then the procession moved through the Ishtar Gate to the Festival House beyond the walls.
The Babylonians called Esagila the navel of the world.