A four-faced god places a foot on a ram, while holding a scimitar in one hand. The identity of the idol, which dates to the early second millennium B.C.E., is unknown, although he has been identified with the creator god Marduk. (In the Babylonian creation epic the EnuÆma Elish, Marduk is described as having multiple eyes and ears.) Others suggest that the statue represents the four winds because it was found alongside a four-headed goddess holding a vase of flowing water, thought to personify rain. Now in the Oriental Institute in Chicago, the statue comes from the ancient city of Neribtum, modern Ischali, in Iraq.
