The Myth of Anzu
c. 1800–700 BCE · Old Babylonian to Standard Babylonian · Nippur; Nineveh; Assur
The Anzu Myth tells of a monstrous lion-headed eagle who steals the Tablet of Destinies — the divine object conferring authority over all of reality — from the god Enlil. Anzu was appointed by Enlil himself to guard his bathing chamber; beholding the tablet daily, he is seized with ambition and snatches it as Enlil washes. With the tablet, Anzu controls fate: divine powers dissolve, rituals cease, the gods fall silent. Several gods decline to fight him: any arrow shot is unmade by his tablet-granted power. Finally Marduk (in the Standard Babylonian version) or Ninurta (in the older Sumerian tradition) volunteers. Advised by Ea, he learns to split Anzu's wing feathers so they scatter back and pierce the bird — his power can unmake arrows but not their scattered fragments. Anzu is slain, the tablet recovered, and cosmic order restored.
notes
An earlier Sumerian version frames Anzu more ambiguously as a protector. The Standard Babylonian version survives across three tablets in Ashurbanipal's library. Anzu imagery — lion-headed eagle with wings spread — appears on artefacts from the Early Dynastic period onward.
currently held: British Museum; Iraq Museum