MARDUK

The Babylonian god Marduk was an evil Goa'uld. The forces of Marduk, searching for hosts, had captured Kendra during a raid of the temple on Jebanna. His temple on P2X-338 used an entrance code that was a retelling of the Babylonian creation myth in which Marduk slew the winged serpent, Tiamat. He cut her in two and used half of her to create the sky and the other half to create the Earth. The story was told out of order on the temple walls, providing the key to unlock the code and enter the ziggurat. A Babylonian tablet discovered in Iraq included a reference to the Eye of Tiamat, a jeweled artifact from which Marduk derived his magical abilities.

Marduk was such an evil tyrant that his own priests eventually rebelled against him, and sealed him in a sarcophagus with a creature that has no translated name. The creature continually ate his body as the sarcophagus kept him alive, until the symbiote entered the creature instead. He remained in the sarcophagus for thousands of years until he was accidentally released by the Russian expedition to P2X-338. From the creature, the symbiote entered Major Vallarin and, retaining the knowledge of the host, attempted to recover the Eye of Tiamat from Colonel Zukhov. Instead, Zukhov and SG-1 set off an explosion that caused the collapse of the ziggurat, and Marduk was presumed killed and left behind in the ruins.

Portrayed by: Alexander Kalugin

Cross Reference: Alexander Britski, Eye of Tiamat, Goa'uld, Kendra, Valentine Kirensky, Lieutenant Marchenko, P2X-338, Russians, Russian Officers, Sarcophagus, Lieutenant Tolinev, Major Vallarin, Colonel Zukhov

Episode Reference: The Tomb