World at War  /  Conflicts  /  Mesopotamian Myth
Wars of the First Cities

Marduk vs Tiamat

3000 BC Apsu / Tiamat Status: ended Casualties: Tiamat split in two; her general Kingu slain

When Tiamat, mother of all, rose to destroy the younger gods, Marduk alone would fight — for the price of supreme kingship. He bound her with a net, drove the four winds into her open mouth, and shot the arrow that split her heart. From her body he made the heavens and the earth; from Kingu's blood, with a little clay, he made man to bear the gods' labour. Enuma Elish IV.

Open on the interactive globe → Wikipedia ↗

Belligerents

  • Marduk
  • Tiamat & her host of eleven monsters

Casualties

Tiamat split in two; her general Kingu slain

Key events

  • Apsû slain by Ea; Tiamat raises the eleven monsters
  • Marduk demanded supreme rule as price
  • Drove the winds into Tiamat's mouth
  • Split her like a fish; her halves became sky and earth
  • Tablet of Destinies taken from Kingu; mankind made from his blood

Weapons & matériel

  • The four winds
  • Bow and arrow
  • The net of the four quarters
  • The mace Imhullu

Sources

  • Enūma Eliš (seven tablets, Ashurbanipal's library)
From World at War, an interactive atlas by Jairus Pereira. Figures are approximate, drawn from Wikipedia, UCDP, ACLED and academic sources — a design artefact, not an authoritative register. Contact.