The Mesopotamian Flood

The Flood is the most rewritten story in Mesopotamian literature, older by well over a millennium than the Noah narrative of Genesis. The skeleton stays constant: the gods resolve to destroy mankind, one wise god leaks the plan, one righteous man builds a boat and rides out the deluge with his household and animals, and the repentant gods swear never to do it again. The hero is Ziusudra, king of Shuruppak, in the Sumerian flood story; Atrahasis, 'exceedingly wise,' in the Old Babylonian epic of that name; and Utnapishtim in Tablet XI of Gilgamesh.

Atrahasis supplies the motive: humans, created to relieve the gods of toil, multiply until their noise robs Enlil of sleep, and when plague, drought, and famine each fail, he decrees the Flood. Enki, bound by oath, addresses the reed wall of his devotee's house: 'Wall, listen — tear down the house, build a boat, spurn possessions, save life.' In the Gilgamesh version the storm rages six days and seven nights, so fierce that the gods themselves cower 'like dogs against the outer wall'; the boat grounds on Mount Nimush, and Utnapishtim releases a dove, a swallow, and a raven — the raven does not return. At his sacrifice the famished gods gather 'like flies over the offering.' Enlil rages that anyone escaped, but Ea shames him, and Utnapishtim and his wife are granted eternal life at the mouth of the rivers.

In December 1872 George Smith of the British Museum announced his reading of the Nineveh flood tablet, one of the most celebrated moments in Assyriology. The Sumerian King List likewise splits all kingship into reigns before the Flood and 'after the Flood swept over.'