... The renowned cities of Babylonia seem to have been regarded as being as much creations of Merodach as the world and its inhabitants—indeed, it is apparently for the glorification of those cities by attributing their origin to Merodach, that the bilingual account of the creation was composed.  "When within the sea there was a stream"—that is, when the veins of Tiawath had been cut through—Eridu (probably = Paradise) and the temple E-sagila within the Abyss were constructed, and after that Babylon and the earthly temple of E-sagila within it.  Then he made the gods and the Annunnaki (the gods of the earth), proclaimed a glorious city as the seat of the joy of their hearts, and afterwards made a pleasant place in which the gods might dwell.  The creation of mankind followed, in which Merodach was aided by the goddess Aruru,... (The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Pinches, 1906).