onian pantheon. In his ship,
magnificently fitted out,[1544] Nabu was carried along the street known
as Ai-ibur-shabu,[1545] leading from Borsippa across the Euphrates to
Babylon.

The street was handsomely paved,[1546] and everything was done to
heighten the impressiveness of the ceremony. The visit of Nabu marked
the homage of the gods to Marduk; and Nabu set the example for other
gods, who were all supposed to assemble in E-Sagila during the great
festival. We have already pointed out that the cult of Nabu at Borsippa
at one time was regarded with greater sanctity than the Marduk worship
in Babylon. As a concession to the former supremacy of Nabu, the priests
of E-Sagila, carrying the statue of Marduk, escorted Nabu back to
Borsippa. The return visit raises the suspicion that it was originally
Marduk who was obliged to pay an annual homage to Nabu.

However this may be, the double ceremony became to such an extent the
noteworthy feature of the Zagmuku or Akitu that when the chroniclers
wish to indicate that, because of political disturbances, the festival
was not celebrated, they use the simple formula:

Nabu did not come to Babylon.
Bel [_i.e._, Marduk] did not march out.[1547]

The Akitu festival brought worshippers from all parts of Babylonia and
Assyria to the capitol. Kings and subjects alike paid their devotions to
Marduk. The former approached the divine presence directly, and, seizing
hold of the hands of Marduk's statue, were admitted into a kind of
covenant with the god. The ceremony became the formal rite of royal
installation in Babylonia. "To seize the hands of Bel" was equivalent to
legitimizing one's claim to the throne of Babylonia, and the chroniclers
of the south consistently decline to recognize Assyrian rulers as kings
of Babylonia until they have come to Babylon and "seized the hands of
Bel."[1548] That this ceremony was annually performed by the kings of
Babylonia after the union of the southern states is quite certain. It
marked a renewal of the pledge between the king and his god. The
Assyrian kings, however, contented themselves with a single visit. Of
Tiglathpileser II.[1549] and Sargon,[1550] we know that they came to
Babylonia for the purpose of performing the old ceremony; and others did
the same.

The eighth and eleventh days of the festival month were invested with
special sanctity. On these days all the gods were brought together in
the "chamber of fates" of Marduk's temple.