MARDUK. - The national god of Babylonia bore the name of M., of Sumerian origin, since in the earliest period of the country he had been the local god of the city of Babylon, even before it was raised to the rank of capital of the kingdom under the first dynasty, that of Hammurabi.
M. was regarded as the son of Ea, god of wisdom, water, and the arts, and he too, like his father, was a god of exorcisms and incantations, capable of restraining the demons that continually seek to ensnare men. When he became the national god, all those qualities of power, excellence, and primacy which the Babylonians believed to belong to the most powerful divinities of their pantheon were bestowed upon his person. How M. became the supreme god is poetically narrated in the Babylonian-language epic bearing the name Enāma elīf, which is the poem celebrating the exaltation of this god. M. was especially invoked by the sick, the bewitched, and the oppressed as a god who healed and saved from the assaults of demons.