Eridu Genesis
The Sumerian creation myth, the earliest account of the Sumerian creation and Flood myth, is found on a single fragmentary tablet excavated in Nippur, sometimes called the Eridu Genesis. It is written in the Sumerian language and datable by its script to the 18th century BC (First Dynasty of Babylon, where the language of writing and administration was still Sumerian). The tablet was published in 1914 by Arno Poebel.
Summary
Where the tablet picks up, the gods An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursanga create the Sumerians (the "black-headed people") and the animals. Then kingship descends from heaven and the first cities are founded: Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar, and Shuruppak.
After a missing section in the tablet, we learn that the gods have decided to send a flood to destroy mankind. Zi-ud-sura, the king and gudug priest, learns of this. (In the later Akkadian version, Ea, or Enki in Sumerian, the god of the waters, warns the hero (Atra-hasis in this case) and gives him instructions for the ark. This is missing in the Sumerian fragment, but a mention of Enki taking counsel with himself suggests that this is Enki's role in the Sumerian version as well.)
When the tablet resumes it is describing the flood. A terrible storm rocks the huge boat for seven days and seven nights, then Utu (the Sun god) appears and Zi-ud-sura creates an opening in the boat, prostrates himself, and sacrifices oxen and sheep.
After another break the text resumes, the flood is apparently over, the animals disembark and Zi-ud-sura prostrates himself before An (sky-god) and Enlil (chief of the gods), who give him eternal life and take him to dwell in Dilmun for "preserving the animals and the seed of mankind". The remainder of the poem is lost. (translation of the text)[1]
Legacy
Flood myths with many similarities to the Sumerian story appear widely in subsequent Ancient Near Eastern mythologies: including the Atrahasis myth, the Utnapishtim episode in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the biblical Noah story. The ancient Greeks also had a very similar flood myth.
In all of these stories, deities (or a deity) create the animals and human beings, but people anger the god(s), so they decide to wipe out the world with a flood. A divine being warns one pious person of the impending flood and tells him to build a very large boat, and with it he preserves mankind, and usually the animals, from extinction. In the end the god(s) reward him for his actions.
Ziusudra and Xisuthros
Zi-ud-sura is known to us from the following sources:
- From the Sumerian Flood myth discussed above.
- In reference to his immortality in some versions of The Death of Gilgamesh[2]
- Again in reference to his immortality in The Poem of Early Rulers[3]
- As Xisuthros (or Xisouthros, Ξίσουθρος) in Berossus' Hellenistic account of the Ancient Near East Flood myth, preserved in later excerpts.
- Xisuthros was also included in Berossus' king list, also preserved in later excerpts.
- As Ziusudra in the WB-62 recension of the Sumerian king list. This text diverges from all other extant king lists by listing the city of Shuruppak as a king, and including Ziusudra as "Shuruppak's" successor.[4]
- A later version of a document known as The Instructions of Shuruppak[5] refers to Ziusudra.[6]
In both of the late-dated king lists cited above, the name Zi-ud-sura was inserted immediately before a flood event included in all versions of the Sumerian king list, apparently creating a connection between the ancient Flood myth and a historic flood mentioned in the king list. However, no other king list mentions Zi-ud-sura, and there is no evidence that the mythical Flood in the Sumerian creation myth had anything to do with the historic flood mentioned in the king list.
See also
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- Sumerian literature
- Mesopotamian mythology
- Enûma Eliš
- Creation myth
- Deluge (mythology)
- Epic of Gilgamesh
- Gilgamesh flood myth
- Atra-Hasis
Notes
- ^ Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Fluckiger-Hawker, E, Robson, E., and Zólyomi, G. (1998) The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Oxford.
- ^ http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.8.1.3# Translation of versions of The Death of Gilgamesh
- ^ http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.5.2.5# Translation of The Poem of Early Rulers
- ^ George, A. R. (2003) The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. Oxford University Press
- ^ http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.5.6.1# Translation of The Instructions of Shuruppak
- ^ Speculated by Samuel Noah Kramer as deriving from sources from as early as 2500 BC, Kramer concluded that "Ziusudra had become a venerable figure in literary tradition by the middle of the third millennium B.C." , (Samuel Noah Kramer "Reflections on the Mesopotamian Flood," Expedition, 9, 4, (summer 1967), pp 12-18.)