Changes
Marduk in the myth enacted in the festival is preserved in the so-called '''''Marduk Ordeal Text''''' (KAR 143). In this myth, Marduk appears as a [[life-death-rebirth deity]], reflecting the festival's agrarian origin based on the cycle of sowing and harvesting. He is [[Descent to the underworld|imprisoned in the underworld]] and rises again on the third day. The obvious parallel to the [[Crucifixion of Jesus|death]] and [[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrection of Christ]] celebrated at Christian [[Easter]] has been noted at an early time, and elaborated in detail by [[Heinrich Zimmern]] in his 1918 ''editio princeps''.
[[Tikva Frymer-Kensky]] noted that Pallis (1926) rejected some of the Christological parallels noted by Zimmern, but
continued to stress that the death of Marduk, the lamentation over him, his subsequent restoration and the rejoicing over his resurrection is among the Near Eastern templates for the [[Mythography of Christ|Christ myth]].<ref name="Frymer">[[Tikva Frymer-Kensky]], ''The Tribulations of Marduk the So-Called "Marduk Ordeal Text"'', Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 103, No. 1, Studies in Literature from the Ancient Near East, by Members of the American Oriental Society, Dedicated to Samuel Noah Kramer (Jan. - Mar., 1983), pp. 131-141</ref> Yet Frymer-Kensky goes on to say that further analysis by von Soden shows that this text is not a tale of a dying and resurrecting god, but that it is a manifestly political text relating to the enmity between Assyria and Babylon.<ref name="Frymer"/>{{rp|139}} The political themes don't involve anyway that the mythical module of the resurrecting god would be meant as inexistent. This theme of a dying young (harvest/vegetable) God (common throughout the Middle east) is also reflected in the legends of [[Tammuz (deity)|Tammuz]], and is condemned in the [[Bible]] as "women weeping for Tammuz" even in the temple of the Hebrew God.
==Legacy==
