Anzu

Anzu is what a thunderhead looks like if you give it a body: a lion's head on an eagle, which is exactly the shape of the Tell al-Ubaid relief. The myth is about administration. The Tablet of Destinies is the document by which the chief god decrees what happens, Anzu steals it while Enlil is bathing, and the difficulty is not that he is strong but that he now holds the office — he can order an arrow to go back to being a reed. The gods are asked in turn to go after him and decline; Ninurta goes, and wins by wearing the bird out rather than by out-ranking it. One version of the text gives the kill to Marduk, which is the usual Babylonian editing.

Variant accounts

• Which god kills Anzu depends on the version.The standard Akkadian myth gives the killing to Ninurta; another text credits Marduk, and the Sumerian tradition also connects Lugalbanda with the bird in a different register, treating it as a benefactor rather than a thief. The record follows the Ninurta version and notes the others.Reference treatment noting that in one text Marduk kills Anzu and in another it dies by the arrows of Ninurta. (secondary)

Domains

• storm

Powers

• to unmake a weapon in flight by the authority of the Tablet of Destinies

Relations

• enemy: NinurtaKilled by Ninurta, who recovers the Tablet; a variant text gives the killing to Marduk instead.Reference treatment of the Anzu myth: Ninurta severs the bird's wings and kills it, recovering the Tablet of Destinies. (secondary)

Sources

• Anzu, the Sumerian Imdugud, is the lion-headed storm bird who steals the Tablet of Destinies from Enlil and is killed by Ninurta.: The Akkadian Anzu epic (the Epic of Anzu). (primary); Reference treatment of Anzu as storm bird, of the theft of the Tablet of Destinies and of the versions in which Ninurta or Marduk kills him. (secondary)