relic

Tablet of Destinies

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Description

Dupšimati, stolen and worn

In the Anzu poem, the bird Anzu steals the Tablet of Destinies from Enlil; Ninurta fights to recover it. Enuma Elish has Tiamat give the tablet to Kingu; Marduk wins it and fastens it to his breast. Possession is the right to decree fates — the offices of heaven and earth. These are second-millennium Akkadian compositions, copied in first-millennium libraries. No museum tablet is "the" original. It is a mythic document of sovereignty, clay in the story, authority in the plot.

Primary Sources

“Anzu seized the Tablet of Destinies in his claws, and the decrees of the gods went silent until Ninurta brought it back.”
Anzu epic(c. 2nd millennium BCE)

“Marduk defeated Kingu and took from him the Tablet of Destinies, sealed it with his seal, and fastened it on his breast.”
Enuma Elish(c. late 2nd millennium BCE)

Powers & Abilities

Cosmic AuthorityDivine DecreeFate Binding