angered by Marduk’s disruptive ways, Tiamat fought Marduk and was defeated. Marduk thus became the chief god and, after killing Tiamat, created the world by tearing her corpse in half. “Then the lord [Marduk] paused to view her [Tiamat’s] dead body, That he might divide the monster and do artful works. He split her like a shellfish into two parts: Half of her he set up and ceiled it as sky …”5 Later, Marduk created man from the blood of the slain god Kingu. In another story from Mesopotamia, Atrahasis,