The Feast of Zagmuk begins in December and lasts for twelve days. The name Zagmuk comes from the Sumerian term for 'beginning of the year'. The feast celebrates the victory of hero god Marduk over the forces of Chaos.
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The god Marduk holds considerable influence in ancient Mesopotamia. After the sack of Nippur, the citizens also sack their patron god Enlil and make offerings to Marduk instead.
Marduk, originally the patron god of the city of Babylon, is at first a minor deity. The glory of Babylon is yet to come, and in the 4th millennim BCE Mesopotamians don't consider Marduk or Babylon very important.
Marduk is mentioned in the 3rd millennium BCE. An unnamed ruler built a temple to him in an unnamed city, most likely Babylon.
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The dragon mušḫuššu (mushhushshu) becomes the symbolic animal and servant of Marduk after the God defeats him in a battle. He's a hybrid of several creatures, and generally loyal and helpful.
The festive days of Zagmuk begin on the first day of the first month. In the Persian calendar the first month is March. In c. 700 BCE, Roman king Numa Pompilius brought January and February into the calendar, making March the third month.
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The Twelve Days celebrate the triumph of Marduk, over the forces of Chaos, symbolized in later times by the goddess Tiamat. The battle between Marduk and Chaos lasts 12 days.
In Uruk the festival is associated with the god An or Anu, all-powerful Sumerian god. Both are essentially equivalent in all respects to the Akkadian "Akitu" festival. In some variations, Marduk is killed by Tiamat on the winter solstice, and resurrected on the spring equinox.
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During the Twelve Days of Zagmuk, revels reverberate through the land. The story of Marduk battling the powers of Chaos is acted out in the royal court, with the King playing the part of Marduk. His son and rescuer is Nabu, God of Writing.
Freed from the Underworld, the King undertakes the rite of hieros gamos and has sex with his 'spouse', a high priestess of the special priest class naditum. She has vowed a type of chastity, a refusal to have children.
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The high priestess, also called the entu, and her ritual act of intercourse with the King is
a re-enactment of the primordial couple An and Ki, who brought the world into existence at the beginning of time. The God Enlil separates them so the Earth can be made habitable for humans. Enlil also invents the garden hoe.
If an eclipse of the sun falls on any of the 12 days, a surrogate King is put in his place. Any evils which might affect the King then gravitate to the substitute instead. Not all ersatz kings are volunteers, though it's possible some were unaware of their impending demise.
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On the last day of the Feast of Zagmuk, the King is slain so that he can battle at Marduk's side. Due to the problems associated with offing a king each year, Mesopotamians use a mock King. He was played by a criminal anointed as king at the beginning of Zagmuk, and killed the last day.
The tradition of appointing a fake King is later one of the themes of Narrenfest, or Feast of Fools in Germany, similar to the Lord of Misrule in England. In these later festivities a King is chosen for the day. It must be a man of low standing, a beggar, petty criminal or even a woman.
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The ceremonies both involve switching status and gender roles, showing utmost disrespect to authority figures, drinking and dancing. The temporary King makes up ridiculous orders everyone must obey.
At the end of these festivities the King is usually returned to his former status and Chaos is defeated once more. The traditional date of Narrenfest is the first day of the first month of the year.
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