Professor Lyon gave the fourth of his series of Assyrian Readings, in the Fogg Museum yesterday afternoon. The subject of the reading was a mythological poem from the library of Saradanapalus of Assyria, describing a combat between the god Marduk and Tiamat, a dragon. The poem is written on six tablets, parts of which were brought to light in the British Museum in 1875 by George Smith.

Tiamat, mother of all gods, represented as a dragon, is the primaeval chaos. She plans to overthrow the gods, her children, gathers an army of monsters, and puts Kingu, her son and only faithful child, in command. Both Anu, the god of the heavens, and Ea, the god of the waters under the earth, are turned back in fright before this army. These events occupy the first two tablets. The third tablet tells how Marduk, son of Ea, offers to oppose Tiamat, if the gods in reward will make him ruler over them. In the fourth tablet Marduk defeats Kingu's army, meets Tiamat in combat and slays her. In the fifth tablet Marduk arranges some of the heavenly bodies. The sixth, little of which is preserved, describes the glorification of Marduk.

The poem is somewhat cosmical in character, and probably dates from extreme antiquity. In several parts it suggests the Book of Genesis. It is, so far as known, the most remarkable product of Babylonian imagination.