The Great Flood and Utnapishtim

The Divine Decision

Humanity had multiplied, and their noise rose to heaven. The people were too many, their clamor too great, and Enlil, lord of the gods, could not sleep. He summoned the divine assembly and decreed: humanity must be destroyed.

First he sent plagues, but Ea, the wise god who loved humanity, taught them prayers to turn back the disease. Then came droughts, but Ea showed them how to survive. At last, Enlil determined to send a flood so great that no one could escape. He bound the gods by oath never to warn the mortals.

The Warning

But Ea would not let his creation perish. He went to the reed hut of Utnapishtim in the city of Shuruppak and spoke not to the man but to the wall:

"Reed hut, reed hut! Wall, wall! Reed hut, hear. Wall, understand. Man of Shuruppak, son of Ubara-Tutu: tear down the house, build a boat! Abandon wealth, seek life. Spurn possessions, save living things. Load the seed of all living creatures into your boat."

Technically, Ea had not broken his oath. He had spoken to the wall, and if Utnapishtim happened to overhear, that was not Ea's doing.

The Building of the Ark

Utnapishtim gathered the craftsmen of his city and built a vast vessel, one hundred twenty cubits on each side, with six decks divided into nine sections. He coated it inside and out with pitch and loaded it with silver and gold, the seed of all living things, and all his family and the craftsmen who had helped him build.

When the people asked what he was doing, Ea instructed him to say that Enlil had cursed him and he must flee by sea. He told them that after he left, Enlil would shower them with abundance. In this way, the people helped load the boat, not knowing they prepared for their own destruction.

The Flood

The appointed day arrived. Black clouds gathered on the horizon. The thunder god Adad roared in the sky. The gods of the underworld tore up the foundation stones of the earth. Even the gods cowered in terror at what they had unleashed, fleeing like dogs to the heights of heaven.

For six days and seven nights the wind blew, the flood swept the land. On the seventh day the storm subsided, the flood grew calm, the sea became quiet. I looked at the face of the world: stillness had set in. All of humanity had returned to clay.

Utnapishtim opened a hatch and light fell on his face. He knelt and wept, tears running down his cheeks. All around, as far as he could see, there was nothing but water. The boat had come to rest on Mount Nisir.

The Birds

For seven days the boat held fast on the mountain. On the seventh day, Utnapishtim released a dove. The dove flew away but found no resting place and returned. He released a swallow, and it too returned. Finally he released a raven. The raven found food and did not return.

Utnapishtim knew the waters had subsided. He let out the animals to the four winds and made a sacrifice on the mountaintop. He set out reed, cedar, and myrtle, and the gods, who had received no offerings since the flood began, smelled the sweet savor and gathered around like flies.

The Aftermath

Ishtar arrived, cursing Enlil for destroying her creation without thinking. "How could I consent to evil in the assembly? Was it I who gave birth to my people only to fill the sea like fish?" She swore by her necklace never to forget these days.

Enlil arrived and was enraged to see survivors. "No one was to escape!" But Ea rebuked him: "How could you bring about a flood without reflection? On the sinner lay his sin, on the transgressor lay his transgression. But do not destroy the innocent with the guilty."

Ea confessed his stratagem. He had not violated his oath but had sent Utnapishtim a dream. Enlil's anger cooled. He went aboard the boat, took Utnapishtim and his wife by the hand, and blessed them:

"Formerly Utnapishtim was a human being. Now let Utnapishtim and his wife be like us, the gods. Let Utnapishtim dwell far away, at the mouth of the rivers."

So Utnapishtim and his wife were granted eternal life and set at the edge of the world, where Gilgamesh would one day come seeking the secret of immortality.