* Sayce was the first, I believe, to cite, in connection with this mysterious order, the passage in which Berossus tells how the gods created men from a little clay, moistened with the blood of the god Belos.  Here there seems to be a fear lest the blood of Tiamat, mingling with the mud, should produce a crop of monsters similar to those which the goddess had already created; the blood, if carried to the north, into the domain of the night, would there lose its creative power, or the monsters who might spring from it would at any rate remain strangers to the world of gods and men.

     ** “Literally, he made his weapon known; “perhaps it would
     be better to interpret it, “and he made it known that the
     bow would henceforth be his distinctive weapon.”

[Illustration:  008.jpg Bel-Merodach, armed with the thunderbolt, does battle with the tumultuous Tiamat.]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from the bas-relief from Nimrud
     preserved in the British Museum.

He passed through the serried ranks of the monsters and penetrated as far as Tiamat, and provoked her with his cries. “’Thou hast rebelled against the sovereignty of the gods, thou hast plotted evil against them, and hast desired that my fathers should taste of thy malevolence; therefore thy host shall be reduced to slavery, thy weapons shall be torn from thee.  Come, then, thou and I must give battle to one another!’ Tiamat, when she heard him, flew into a fury, she became mad with rage; then Tiamat howled, she raised herself savagely to her full height, and planted her feet firmly on the earth.  She pronounced an incantation, recited her formula, and called to her aid the gods of the combat, both them and their weapons.  They drew near one to another, Tiamat and Marduk, wisest of the gods:  They flung themselves into the combat, they met one another in the struggle.  Then the master unfolded his net and seized her; he caused the hurricane which waited behind him to pass in front of him, and, when Tiamat opened her mouth to swallow him, he thrust the hurricane into it so that the monster could not close her jaws again.  The mighty wind filled her paunch, her breast swelled, her maw was split.  Marduk gave a straight thrust with his lance, burst open the paunch, pierced the interior, tore the breast, then bound the monster and deprived her of life.  When he had vanquished Tiamat, who had been their leader, her army was disbanded, her host was scattered, and the gods, her allies, who had marched beside her, trembled, were scared, and fled.”  He seized hold of them, and of Kingu their chief, and brought them bound in chains before the throne of his father.