The moment
Each spring, in the month of Nisannu, Babylon kept the Akitu festival for Marduk. The creation epic Enuma Elish was recited before the god in his temple of Esagila, Nabu was brought by boat to join him, and the gods were carried in procession to a festival house outside the walls of the city that Nebuchadnezzar II had rebuilt. A ritual tablet copied in the Hellenistic period describes the high priest stripping the king of his insignia and striking his cheek before Marduk.