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| | | | | The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History, Second Edition
Richard W. Bulliet, Pamela Kyle Crossley, Daniel R. Headrick, Steven W. Hirsch, Lyman L. Johnson, David Northrup
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Introduction | Questions to Consider | Source
The Epic of Gilgamesh:
A Great Flood
(c. 2700-2500 B.C.E.)
IntroductionThe Epic of Gilgamesh, truly a remarkable mythic saga with many major
philosophical and theological implications, also featured a
description of a cleansing flood sent by the gods. Given the
topography of Babylonia, with its untamed, turbulent rivers and
frequent floods, one should not be surprised that the Babylonians
would have created a myth based on such violent and destructive
natural occurrences.
Questions to Consider- Why did the god Enlil unleash the flood on the city of
Shurrupak? What does this reveal about how the Babylonians viewed
their gods and their environment?
- How were some of the inhabitants of Shurrupak able to survive
this destructive event?
SourceYou know the city Shurrupak, it stands on the banks of Euphrates?
That city grew old and the gods that were in it were old. There was
Anu, Lord of the firmament, their father, and warrior Enlil their
counsellor, Ninurta the helper, and Ennugi watcher over canals; and
with them also was Ea. In those days the world teemed, the people
multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god
was aroused by the clamour. Enlil heard the clamour and he said to
the gods in council, "The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep
is no longer possible by reason of the babel." So the gods agreed to
exterminate mankind. Enlil did this, but Ea because of his oath
warned me in a dream. He whispered their words to my house of reeds,
"Reed-house, reed-house! Wall, O wall, hearken reed-house, wall
reflect; O man of Shurrupak, son of Ubara-Tutu; tear down your house
and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise
worldly goods and save your soul alive. Tear down your house, I say,
and build a boat. These are the measurements of the barque as you
shall build her: let her beam equal her length, let her deck be
roofed like the vault that covers the abyss; then take up into the
boat the seed of all living creatures."
'When I had understood I said to my Lord, "Behold, what you have
commanded I will honour and perform, but how shall I answer the
people, the city, the elders?" Then Ea opened his mouth and said to
me, his servant, "Tell them this: I have learnt that Enlil is
wrathful against me, I dare no longer walk in his land nor live in
his city; I will go down to the Gulf to dwell with Ea my Lord. But on
you he will rain down abundance, rare fish and shy wild-fowl, a rich
harvest-tide. In the evening the rider of the storm will bring you
wheat in torrents."
'In the first light of dawn all my household gathered round me,
the children brought pitch and the men whatever was necessary. On the
fifth day I laid the keel and the ribs, then I made fast the
planking. The ground-space was one acre, each side of the deck
measured one hundred and twenty cubits, making a square. I built six
decks below, seven in all, I divided them into nine sections with
bulkheads between. I drove in wedges where needed, I saw to the
punt-poles, and laid in supplies. The carriers brought oil in
baskets, I poured pitch into the furnace and asphalt and oil; more
oil was consumed in caulking, and more again the master of the boat
took into his stores. I slaughtered bullocks for the people and every
day I killed sheep. I gave the shipwrights wine to drink as though it
were river water, raw wine and red wine and oil and white wine. There
was feasting then as there is at the time of the New Year's festival;
I myself anointed my head. On the seventh day the boat was complete.
'Then was the launching full of difficulty; there was shifting of
ballast above and below till two thirds was submerged. I loaded into
her all that I had of gold and of living things, my family, my kin,
the beast of the field both wild and tame, and all the craftsmen. I
sent them on board, for the time that Shamash had ordained was
already fulfilled when he said, "In the evening, when the rider of
the storm sends down the destroying rain, enter the boat and batten
her down." The time was fulfilled, the evening came, the rider of the
storm sent down the rain. I looked out at the weather and it was
terrible, so I too boarded the boat and battened her down. All was
now complete, the battening and the caulking; so I handed the tiller
to Puzur-Amurri the steersman, with the navigation and the care of
the whole boat.
With the first light of dawn a black cloud came from the horizon;
it thundered within where Adad, Lord of the storm was riding. In
front over hill and plain Shullat and Hanish, heralds of the storm,
led on. Then the gods of the abyss rose up; Nergal pulled out the
dams of the nether waters, Ninurta the war-Lord threw down the dykes,
and the seven judges of hell, the Annunaki, raised their torches,
lighting the land with their livid flame. A stupor of despair went up
to heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight to darkness, when
he smashed the land like a cup. One whole day the tempest raged,
gathering fury as it went, it poured over the people like the tide of
battle; a man could not see his brother nor the people be seen from
heaven. Even the gods were terrified at the flood, they fled to the
highest heaven, the firmament of Anu; they crouched against the
walls, cowering like curs. Then Ishtar the sweet-voiced Queen of
Heaven cried out like a woman in travail: "Alas the days of old are
turned to dust because I commanded evil; why did I command this evil
in the council of all the gods? I commanded wars to destroy the
people, but are they not my people, for I brought them forth? Now
like the spawn of fish they float in the ocean." The great gods of
heaven and of hell wept, they covered their mouths.
'For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest
and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together
like warring hosts. When the seventh day dawned the storm from the
south subsided, the sea grew calm, the flood was stilled; I looked at
the face of the world and there was silence, all mankind was turned
to clay. The surface of the sea stretched as flat as a roof-top; I
opened a hatch and the light fell on my face. Then I bowed low, I sat
down and I wept, the tears streamed down my face, for on every side
was the waste of water. I looked for land in vain, but fourteen
leagues distant there appeared a mountain, and there the boat
grounded; on the mountain of Nisir the boat held fast, she held fast
and did not budge. One day she held, and a second day on the mountain
of Nisir she held fast and did not budge. A third day, and a fourth
day she held fast on the mountain and did not budge; a fifth day and
a sixth day she held fast on the mountain. When the seventh day
dawned I loosed a dove and let her go. She flew away, but finding no
resting-place she returned. Then I loosed a swallow, and she flew
away but finding no resting-place she returned. I loosed a raven, she
saw that the waters had retreated, she ate, she flew around, she
cawed, and she did not come back. Then I threw everything open to the
four winds, I made a sacrifice and poured out a libation on the
mountain top. Seven and again seven cauldrons I set up on their
stands, I heaped up wood and cane and cedar and myrtle. When the gods
smelled the sweet savour, they gathered like flies over the
sacrifice. Then, at last, Ishtar also came, she lifted her necklace
with the jewels of heaven that once Anu had made to please her. "O
you gods here present, by the lapis lazuli round my neck I shall
remember these days as I remember the jewels of my throat; these last
days I shall not forget. Let all the gods gather round the sacrifice,
except Enlil. He shall not approach this offering, for without
reflection he brought the flood; he consigned my people to
destruction."
'When Enlil had come, when he saw the boat, he was wroth and
swelled with anger at the gods, the host of heaven, "Has any of these
mortals escaped? Not one was to have survived the destruction." Then
the god of the wells and canals Ninurta opened his mouth and said to
the warrior Enlil, "Who is there of the gods that can devise without
Ea? It is Ea alone who knows all things." Then Ea opened his mouth
and spoke to warrior Enlil, "Wisest of gods, hero Enlil, how could
you so senselessly bring down the flood?
Lay upon the sinner his sin,
Lay upon the transgressor his transgression,
Punish him a little when he breaks loose,
Do not drive him too hard or he perishes;
Would that a lion had ravaged mankind
Rather than the flood,
Would that a wolf had ravaged mankind
Rather than the flood,
Would that famine had wasted the world
Rather than the flood,
Would that pestilence had wasted mankind
Rather than the flood.
It was not I that revealed the secret of the gods; the wise man
learned it in a dream. Now take your counsel what shall be done with
him."
'Then Enlil went up into the boat, he took me by the hand and my
wife and made us enter the boat and kneel down on either side, he
standing between us. He touched our foreheads to bless us saying, "In
time past Utnapishtim was a mortal man; henceforth he and his wife
shall live in the distance at the mouth of the rivers." Thus it was
that the gods took me and placed me here to live in the distance, at
the mouth of the rivers.'
Source: Epic of Gilgamesh, trans. N. K. Sanders
(Baltimore: Penguin, 1960), 108-113.
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