The Great Flood/Deluge – Noah’s Ark in different Myths: In the other Flood myths
the amount of time the Flood occurred is seven days, and seven nights. This is
shown in the Sumerian Flood Myth. The tale of Ziusudra is known from a single
fragmentary tablet written in Sumerian, datable by its script to the 17th century BC (Old
Babylonian Empire), and published in 1914 by Arno Poebel. The first part deals with the
creation of man and the animals and the founding of the first cities Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak,
Sippar, and Shuruppak. After a missing section in the tablet, we learn that the gods have
decided to send a flood to destroy mankind. The god Enki (lord of the underworld sea of
fresh water and Sumerian equivalent of Babylonian god Ea) warns Ziusudra, the ruler of
Shuruppak, to build a large boat; the passage describing the directions for the boat is also
lost. When the tablet resumes, it is describing the flood. A terrible storm raged for seven
days, “the huge boat had been tossed about on the great waters,” then Utu (Sun) appears
and Ziusudra opens a window, prostrates himself, and sacrifices an ox and a sheep. After
another break, the text resumes, the flood is apparently over, and Ziusudra is prostrating
himself before An (Sky) and Enlil (Lordbreath), who give him “breath eternal” and take him to
dwell in Dilmun. The remainder of the poem is lost. Ut-napishtim is a legendary king of
Shuruppak in southern Iraq, who survived the Flood by making a boat. He is called by
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different names in different traditions: Ziusudra (“Life of long days”, rendered Xisuthros,
Ξίσουθρος in Berossus) in the earliest, Sumerian versions, later Shuruppak (after his city),
Atra-Hasis (“exceeding wise”) in the earliest Akkadian sources, and Uta-napishtim (“he has
found life” Akkadian: ) in later Akkadian sources such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. His
father is the king Ubar-Tutu (“Friend of the god Tutu”). Uta-napishtim is the eighth of the
antediluvian kings in Mesopotamian legend, just as Noah is the eighth from Enoch in
Genesis. He would have lived around 2900 BC, corresponding to the flood deposit at
Shuruppak between the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic levels. In the Mesopotamian stories
he is tasked by the god Enki (Akkadian: Ea) to create a giant ship to be called Preserver of
Life in preparation of a giant flood that would wipe out all life. The character appears in the
Epic of Gilgamesh. The story of Utnapishtim has drawn scholarly comparisons due to the
similarities between it and the storylines about Noah in the Bible. Ut-napishtim is tasked by
the god Enki to abandon his worldly possessions and create a giant ship to be called the
Preserver of Life. In Erra and Išum, Marduk is said to have been the originator of the flood
and the Seven Sages. In the epic, overcome with the death of his friend Enkidu, the hero
Gilgamesh sets out on a series of journeys to search for his ancestor Utnapishtim
(Xisouthros) who lives at the mouth of the rivers and has been given eternal life. Utnapishtim
counsels Gilgamesh to abandon his search for immortality, but gives him a trial to defy sleep
if he wishes to obtain immortality. Gilgamesh failing at his trial to defy sleep, Utnapishtim next
tells him about a plant that can make him young again. Gilgamesh obtains the plant from the
bottom of the sea in Dilmun (often considered to be current-day Kuwait) but a serpent steals
it, and Gilgamesh returns home to the city of Uruk, having abandoned hope of either
immortality or renewed youth.
