Kingu

   Babylonian god of the powers of darkness, who was placed by Tiamat in command of the brood of monsters spawned by Hubur, and of the Eleven Mighty Helpers, in her fight against the powers of good led by Ea, who had destroyed her husband Apsu. Kingu, who is Tammuz, was the counterpart of Anu, the sky god. He appears also to have become the second husband of Tiamat. When Tiamat appointed him as her captain, she also gave him the Tablets of Wisdom, or Dup Shimati, saying ‘Whatsoever goes forth from thy mouth shall be established.’ In spite of this he was deported by Marduk, who had been chosen as the champion of the new order, and who seized the Tablets of Wisdom and placed them on his own breast. Later, when Marduk created man out of ‘blood and bone’, Kingu was named by the gods as a sacrifice for this purpose as a punishment for having fought against Marduk. He was seized and, after being fettered, ‘they inflicted punishment upon him and let his blood’, from which Ea fashioned mankind for the service of the gods.