AkΔ«tu, the Babylonian New Year, and the updating of the Sacred

Through the mythical re-actualization of the clash between the god Marduk and the "sea monster" Tiamat, the AkΔ«tu was configured, in the final analysis, following the studies of Mircea Eliade, as a collective rite of passage: at the beginning of the new year, through the ritual and recitation of the ancient cosmogonic poem EnΓ»ma Elish, time and space were "refounded".