First-millennium BCE Babylonian epic across five tablets (~750 lines), known in antiquity as Šar gimir dadmē ("King of All Habitations") and commonly called Erra and Ishum. According to its colophon in Tablet V, the entire composition was revealed in a nocturnal vision to the Babylonian priest Kabti-ilāni-Marduk, who woke and recited it without omitting or adding a single line. It narrates how the plague and war god Erra persuades Marduk to step down from his throne so his soiled cultic insignia can be cleaned, unleashing civil war and devastation across Babylon, Sippar, Uruk, and Der until Erra's herald Ishum appeases his fury.
Erra (god of war and plague), Ishum (herald and intercessor), Marduk (sovereign of Babylon), Babylon (devastated and restored capital), Cult Statues (refurbishment of Marduk's image)