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CHAPTER IV
MISCELLANEOUS MYTHS
THE DELUGE
That the Biblical deluge story is not original with the Hebrew redactors of the Bible has been known now for more than half a century--from the time of the discovery and decipherment of the eleventh tablet of the Semitic Babylonian "Epic of Gilgamesh." The Babylonian deluge myth itself, however, is of Sumerian origin. For in 1914 Arno Poebel published and carefully translated a fragment consisting of the lower third of a six-column Sumerian tablet in the Nippur collection of the University Museum, the larger part of whose contents is devoted to the deluge myth. 88 Unfortunately this fragment still remains unique and unduplicated; neither in Istanbul nor in Philadelphia have I succeeded in uncovering any material that might help to restore the broken part of its contents. v
The first part of the poem deals with the creation of man and animals and with the founding of the five antediluvian cities: Eridu, Badtibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak. For some reason--the passage involved is completely destroyed--the flood was decreed to wipe out man. But at least some of the gods seemed to regret this decision. It was probably the water-god Enki, however, who contrived to save mankind. He informed Ziusudra, the Sumerian counterpart of the Biblical Noah, a pious, god-fearing, and humble king, of the dreadful decision of the gods and advised him to save himself by building a very large boat. The long passage giving the details of the construction of the boat is destroyed; when our text begins again it is in the midst of describing the flood:
All the windstorms, exceedingly powerful, attacked as one,
The deluge raged over the surface of the earth. p. 98
After, for seven days and seven nights,
The deluge had raged in the land,
And the huge boat had been tossed about on the great waters,
Utu came forth, who sheds light on heaven and earth.
Ziusudra opened a window of the huge boat,
Ziusudra, the king,
Before Utu prostrated himself,
The king kills an ox, slaughters a sheep.
Again a long break follows; when our text becomes Intelligible once more, it is describing the immortalizing of Ziusudra:
Ziusudra, the king,
Before An and Enlil prostrated himself;
Life like a god they give him,
Breath eternal like a god they bring down for him.
In those days, Ziusudra, the king,
The preserver of the name of . . . and man,
In the mountain of crossing, the mountain of Dilmun, the place where the sun rises,
They (An and Enlil) caused to dwell.
The remainder of the poem is destroyed.
THE MARRIAGE OF MARTU w
As yet we have but one tablet inscribed with the text of this poem; it is in the Nippur collection of the University Museum and has been copied and translated in part by
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FIG. 2. THE DELUGE
This figure gives the obverse and the reverse of the deluge tablet as published by Poebel in 1914. 88 The marked passage contains the lines describing the flood and reads as follows:
1. tu15-ḫul-tul15-ḫul-ní-gur4-gur4-gál dù-a-bi ur-bi ì-súg-gi-eš
2. a-ma-ru ugu-kab-dug4-ga ba-an-da-ab-ùr-ùr
3. u4-7-àm gi6-7-àm
4. a-ma-ru kalam-ma ba-ùr-ra-ta
5. giš má-gur4-gur4 a-gal-la tu15-ḫul-bul-bul-a-ta
6. dutu im-ma-ra-è an-ki-a u4-gá-gá
For the translation, see pages 97-98.
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