Eridu Genesis
c. 1600 BCE · Old Babylonian · Nippur
The Eridu Genesis, also called the Sumerian Flood Story, is a fragmentary text describing the earliest history of humanity and the great flood. In the surviving portions the gods An, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag create the black-headed people and the animals. Kingship descends from heaven and the first cities are founded: Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak. The gods decide to send a flood to destroy humanity. The god Enki warns Ziusudra, a pious and humble king, instructing him to build a large boat. The flood rages for seven days and seven nights, covering all the mountains. When it subsides Ziusudra opens a window in the boat and the sunlight enters. He prostrates himself before the sun-god Utu and sacrifices an ox and a sheep. The gods An and Enlil grant Ziusudra eternal life and place him in the land of Dilmun, where the sun rises.
notes
The Eridu Genesis is one of three Mesopotamian flood narratives, alongside Atrahasis and the Gilgamesh flood tablet (Tablet XI). Ziusudra corresponds to Atrahasis in the Akkadian tradition and to Utnapishtim in the Gilgamesh epic. The text preserves the oldest Sumerian account of the antediluvian kings and their cities. Significantly damaged; key passages reconstructed from parallel traditions.
currently held: University of Pennsylvania Museum
related texts
The Sumerian King List records the succession of kings from the moment kingship first descended from heaven to the compiler's present day. It opens before the flood with eight antediluvian kings who ruled for impossibly long periods — the first king Alulim of Eridu reigned for 28,800 years; the last…
The Atrahasis Epic tells the story of humanity's creation and near-destruction in three tablets. In the beginning the great gods compel the lesser Igigi gods to dig the irrigation canals of Mesopotamia. After forty years the Igigi rebel against their labour. The god Enki proposes a solution: create…