We are told in the Urantia Papers (92:5.3) that Marduk was a Babylonian perpetuation of the Adamic legends. The following quote is from the "Epic of Erra," one of the most ancient Akkadian epics in existence. It was found last century, written on clay tablets:

'I shall cut off the life of the righteous man who acts as intercessor. The evil man, who cut throats, him I shall put in the highest place. I shall so change men's hearts that father will not listen to son and daughter will talk to mother with hatred. I shall cause them to speak ill and they will forget their god and speak blasphemy to their goddess. I shall quench the glory of the beams of Samas. To the king of the gods I shall say 'Dwell in Esagila' [the underworld]. I shall destroy the cities and turn them into barren landÉI shall get into the house of the gods, there where the evil man has no access. At the abode of princes I shall let the rogue dwell."

Erra was another name for "Nergal," and Nergal is described by Sumerian texts to be (from: ):

Nergal: Also pronounced Erakal, "Lord of Erkalla (the great city)" Chief god of the Underworld, consort of Ereshkigal (and of Mammetum; see Ninhursag). Assimilated with Erra and called Hercules in Greek. Patron god of Kutha and Tarbisu. Temple Emeslam. Partly assimilated with Gilgamesh as judge of the Underworld and with Ninurta.

So Nergal was pronounced Erakal. The rest should be clear to the FER student, and I'll leave it as such. The following is from
:

"The Poem of Erra, one of the most remarkable documents which has come down to us from ancient times, was discovered in the nineteenth century and to judge by its diffusion throughout the ancient Near East one of the most popular poems of antiquity.2

The subject of the poem is Erra's attack upon Marduk, king of the gods, and his oppression of Suanna, the celestial city of Marduk.3
Erra's dire intentions are made known early on in the poem: "I will make prince Marduk wrathful: I will cause him to rise from his seat and I will fell the men."4

Later on in the poem Erra makes good on his threat. Erra's revolt not only causes Marduk to rise from his seat, but to abdicate his throne for a brief period. As a direct result of Erra's oppression of the Oriental Olympus, Marduk is enfeebled and the world temporarily thrown out of kilter and plunged into darkness.5

We are not the first to raise the possibility that the Poem of Erra was concerned with celestial events. De Santillana and von Dechend drew a similar conclusion in Hamlet's Mill: "It is evident that the events of the Flood in the Era Epic, however vivid their language, apply unmistakably to events in the astral heavens and to nothing else."2

A few excerpts from the poem confirm this opinion. Thus Marduk is made to announce, with apparent reference to an earlier cataclysm, that should he rise from his seat flood and dissolution of the government of heaven would result:

"I rose from my seat, and the government of heaven and earth dissolved. And the sky, lo!, it shook: the stations of the stars in the sky were altered, and I did not bring (them) back to their (former) positions."3

Here Gossman's translation may be more accurate: "When I stood up from my seat and let the flood break in, then the judgement of Earth and Heaven went out of joint. The gods, which trembled, the stars of heaven their position changed, and I did not bring them back."4

A straight-forward reading of this passage finds that as a result of Erra's assault Marduk rose from his seat, thereby changing the order of the solar system. Here de Santillana and von Dechend remark that this passage forms "the clearest statement ever uttered by men or gods concerning the Precession
[i.e. the precession of the equinoxes]."5

This interpretation, however, while
on the right track, is precluded by other events attending Erra's revolt. As noted earlier, for example, the world was plunged into darkness during Erra's assault, and Marduk was forced to descend to the Netherworld, the darkness and Marduk's displacement apparently being related.6

Thus Erra is made to announce: "I want to annihilate the brilliance of Sulpae [an epithet of Marduk]. I want to attain the seat of the king of the gods so that his counsel be not forthcoming."7 In an analogous passage Erra is made to state:

"I shall quench the glory of the beams of SamasÉTo the king of the gods I shall say 'Dwell in Esagila' [the underworld] "8
Here it is scarcely necessary to observe that the precession of the equinoxes does not involve a darkening of the heavens. Raids by nomadic renegades like the Sutians are not likely to precipitate such events either. To interpret the Poem of Erra in this fashion is to misinterpret it and renders meaningless the carefully chosen imagery. Difficult as it is to accept, the clear meaning of the poem is that the heavens were disturbed and the planet-gods rearranged during Erra's assault.

The cataclysmic nature of Erra's assault finds ample proof in the imagery of the poem. To make our case it is necessary to review a few of the basic elements of Babylonian cosmology. To the ancient Mesopotamians, for example, heaven was compared to a bull led by a nose-rope.1 In accordance with this conception, the rulership of heaven could be symbolized by the king of the gods holding the nose-rope of heaven.

In the Poem of Erra, it is related that Erra held the nose-rope of heaven, an implication, presumably, that he had wrested this distinction from the deposed Marduk.2 There Erra's reign of power is presented as being both far-reaching and oppressive: "Hero Erra, you are holding the nose-rope of heaven. You
dominate the whole earth. You lord it over the country. You convulse the sea, you destroy the mountainsÉYou control Suanna. You gather all the divine powers to yourself. The gods fear you."3

Marduk's fall from power is alluded to throughout the poem. One passage makes Erra address Marduk as follows: "Until you enter that house, prince Marduk, and Girra purifies your garment, and you return to your place, Till then I shall rule in your stead and keep strong the government of heaven and earth."4

The welfare of the world is elsewhere said to be dependent upon the state of the bond of heaven Dimkurkurra a euphemism for the heavenly kingdom of the gods, considered to be the "knot" of the universe and center of the world. In the Poem of Erra it is said: "It is you, hero Erra, who did not fear prince Marduk's name! You have undone the bond of Dimkurkurra, the city of the king of the gods, the bond of all the countries."2

Yet another barometer of the state of heavenly affairs, according to Mesopotamian conceptions, was the health and well-being of the World Tree. In Akkadian tradition this tree was known as the Mesu tree, described in the following manner: "The flesh of the gods, the ornament of the king of the universe, that pure tree, whose roots reached as deep down as the bottom of the underworld, whose top reached as high as the sky of Anum."3

In the Poem of Erra it is related that as a consequence of Marduk's discomfiture the Mesu Tree became disturbed. Indeed it is stated that the tree became permanently relocated.4

In summary, the consistent message of the imagery of the Poem of Erra indicates that Erra's uprising posed a severe threat to the kingship of the gods. The throne was wrested from Marduk; the bond of heaven the city of the king of the gods was disfigured; the crown of kingship was obscured (or cast down); and the tree of heaven, a visible sign of the god's Creation, was disturbed. The cataclysmic import of such imagery much of which strikes at the very heart of ancient conceptions of kingship has yet to be recognized.

A careful reading of the Poem of Erra will find that virtually every one of these motives is met by Erra's assault. Erra usurps Marduk's throne; the people, incited by Erra's presence, gather about the hero who has assumed the powers befitting the king of the gods; the government of heaven is dissolved; customary religious practices are suspended; and, finally, under Erra's rule a dark pall hangs over the land, the land itself becoming barren.5

The following passage is indicative of this state of affairs:

I shall cut off the life of the righteous man who acts as intercessor. The evil man, who cut throats, him I shall put in the highest place. I shall so change men's hearts that father will not listen to son and daughter will talk to mother with hatred. I shall cause them to speak ill and they will forget their god and speak blasphemy to their goddess.1

A passage quoted earlier is in a similar vein:
I shall quench the glory of the beams of SamasÉTo the king of the gods I shall say 'Dwell in Esagila' [the underworld] I shall destroy the cities and turn them into barren land. I shall get into the house of the gods, there where the evil man has no access. At the abode of princes I shall let the rogue dwell.2

Surveying the destruction wrought by Erra, Marduk laments: Of all the countries what is there left steady? He has taken the crown of his lordship: kings and princes forget their ordinances, the bond between god and man is undone: difficult it is to knot again.3

Erra's identification with Nergal points the way. Thus both Cagni and Roberts have called attention to the resemblance between the two gods. They share the same consort (Mami); the same residence (Meslam); and an association with the same natural phenomena: war, pestilence, fire, etc.1

Neither scholar, however, considered the possibility that Erra might bear a relationship to the planet Mars, Nergal's identification with Mars being well- known. This is hardly to be wondered at as most scholars consider the identification of Nergal with the red planet to be entirely arbitrary in nature, a product of Oriental astrological speculation. It has been our purpose in this series of essays, however, to show that the cult of Nergal cannot be understood apart from his identification with Mars, the planetary aspect of the god actually determining the god's distinctive characteristics.2

That Erra-like characteristics were associated with the planet Mars in Mesopotamian thought is undeniable, the forbidding nature of the red planet being everywhere apparent. Oriental skywatchers regarded Mars as the "disaster bringer," the star of rebellion, the star of misfortune.3

Consistently associated with the phenomena of war, Mars was the warrior-planet par excellence.4 And in light of Roberts' suggestion that the name of Erra derives from a root meaning "scorcher," it is significant to note that Mars was the fiery planet par excellence in ancient astrological thought.

Indeed, a name of Nergal/Mars in Babylonian texts was sarrapu, "scorcher."1 A Hellenistic name for Mars Pyroeis, "Fiery Star" indicates that similar conceptions prevailed among the Greeks.2

Names applied to the red planet likewise testify to its evil reputation amongst these earliest of astronomers. Consider the name harabu, meaning "to ravage, devastate, lay waste."3 This term is not only consistent with the ancient traditions associated with the planet Mars, it almost certainly traces to the Semitic root *hrr, "to scorch," that regarded by Roberts as the root in Erra.

The Assyrian word mutanu, signifying "death," "plague," "pestilence," was also applied as a name of the planet Mars.4 Kugler translates this name as "he who brings an abundance of death by plague."5

Certain omens associated with the planet Mars in Babylonian texts are also reminiscent of the deeds ascribed to Erra. Mars is directly associated with the usurpation of the king's throne, for example: "If the Sun goes down (by a Darkness/Eclipse) and Mars stands in its place, there will be an usurpator."6

Significant here is the mention of the untimely going down of the sun, with Mars in attendance, not unlike the references in the Poem of Erra to Erra's role in the eclipse of Shamash/Marduk.7
In Mesopotamia it is Nergal who is the preeminent "hero-warrior." Astandard epithet of Nergal was ur-sag: "hero."8 The following passage from the epilogue of Hammurabi's Law Code is typical of his veneration: "May Nergal, the strong one among the gods, the fighter without peer, who achieves victory for me, burn his [i.e., the enemy's] people in his great power, like the raging fire of swamp-reeds!"9

With this passage we might compare a passage from the Poem of Erra: "The hero reached Mount Hehe. He raised his hand and levelled the mountain. He destroyed the cities and turned them into deserts. He devastated reed and rush thickets and burned them like fire."1
It is such passages as the foregoing which have led scholars to emphasize the fiery, destructive power of Erra.

At this point it may be relevant to reflect upon the personality of Erra as described in the Poem of Erra. There he is represented as a terrible, impetuous warrior, an appropriate adjective of which would be "fiery-tempered or hot-tempered." Students of comparative mythology will recognize that this is precisely the personality typically ascribed to Martian heroes throughout the ancient world, the Biblical Samson being perhaps the most famous example of the impetuous berserker.2 Is it not possible that the "fiery-tempered" Erra owes his bellicose personality to the fiery appearance of the red planet?

Emeslam is just as precisely defined. It is the underworld residence of Erra, literally the region beneath Saturn's cosmos. According to the reconstruction offered by Talbott and myself, this region necessarily included the pillar-
like apparition associated with Saturn.3 That such a pillar played a prominent role in ancient conceptions of the underworld has been thoroughly documented by Eliade and other modern scholars.4

...A common interpretation of the celestial pillar envisaged it as the World Tree, said to unite heaven, earth and the underworld. In Mesopotamia, as we have seen, this tree was known as the Mesu, a word cognate with Meslam. It is within this tree-like pillar that the residence of Erra is to be located, and it was from there that he rose to imperil the kingdom of the gods."