From the reference to "my human race" it is clear that the speaker is a
creating deity; and since the expression is exactly parallel to the term
"my people" used by Ishtar, or Bêlit-ili, "the Lady of the gods", in the
Babylonian Version of the Deluge story when she bewails the destruction
of mankind, Dr. Poebel assigns the speech to Ninkharsagga, or Nintu,(1)
the goddess who later in the column is associated with Anu, Enlil, and
Enki in man's creation. But the mention of Nintu in her own speech
is hardly consistent with that supposition,(2) if we assume with Dr.
Poebel, as we are probably justified in doing, that the title Nintu
is employed here and elsewhere in the narrative merely as a synonym of
Ninkharsagga.(3) It appears to me far more probable that one of the two
supreme gods, Anu or Enlil, is the speaker,(4) and additional grounds
will be cited later in support of this view. It is indeed possible, in
spite of the verbs and suffixes in the singular, that the speech is to
be assigned to both Anu and Enlil, for in the last column, as we shall
see, we find verb in the singular following references to both these
deities. In any case one of the two chief gods may be regarded as
speaking and acting on behalf of both, though it may be that the
inclusion of the second name in the narrative was not original but
simply due to a combination of variant traditions. Such a conflate use
of Anu-Enlil would present a striking parallel to the Hebrew combination
Yahweh-Elohim, though of course in the case of the former pair the
subsequent stage of identification was never attained. But the evidence
furnished by the text is not conclusive, and it is preferable here and
elsewhere in the narrative to regard either Anu or Enlil as speaking and
acting both on his own behalf and as the other's representative.
(1) Op. cit., p. 21 f.; and cf. Jastrow, _Hebrew and
Babylonian Traditions_, p. 336.
(2) It necessitates the taking of (_dingir_) _Nin-tu-ra_ as
a genitive, not a dative, and the very awkward rendering
"my, Nintu's, creations".
(3) Another of the recently published Sumerian mythological
compositions from Nippur includes a number of myths in which
Enki is associated first with Ninella, referred to also as
Nintu, "the Goddess of Birth", then with Ninshar, referred
to also as Ninkurra, and finally with Ninkharsagga. This
text exhibits the process by which separate traditions with
regard to goddesses originally distinct were combined
together, with the result that their heroines were
subsequently often identified with one another. There the
myths that have not been subjected to a very severe process
of editing, and in consequence the welding is not so
complete as in the Sumerian Version of the Deluge.
(4) If Enlil's name should prove to be the first word of the
composition, we should naturally regard him as the speaker
here and as the protagonist of the gods throughout the text,
a _rôle_ he also plays in the Semitic-Babylonian Version.
This reference to the Deluge, which occurs so early in the text,
suggests the probability that the account of the Creation and of the
founding of Antediluvian cities, included in the first two columns, is
to be taken merely as summarizing the events that led up to the Deluge.
And an almost certain proof of this may be seen in the opening words
of the composition, which are preserved in its colophon or title on the
left-hand edge of the tablet. We have already noted that the first two
words are there to be read, either as the prefix "Incantation" followed
by the name "Enlil", or as the two divine names "Anu (and) Enlil". Now
the signs which follow the traces of Enlil's name are quite certain;
they represent "Ziusudu", which, as we shall see in the Third Column,
is the name of the Deluge hero in our Sumerian Version. He is thus
mentioned in the opening words of the text, in some relation to one or
both of the two chief gods of the subsequent narrative. But the natural
place for his first introduction into the story is in the Third Column,
where it is related that "at that time Ziusudu, the king" did so-and-so.
The prominence given him at the beginning of the text, at nearly a
column's interval before the lines which record the creation of man, is
sufficient proof that the Deluge story is the writer's main interest,
and that preceding episodes are merely introductory to it.
What subject then may we conjecture was treated in the missing lines of
this column, which precede the account of Creation and close with the
speech of the chief creating deity? Now the Deluge narrative practically
ends with the last lines of the tablet that are preserved, and the lower
half of the Sixth Column is entirely wanting. We shall see reason
to believe that the missing end of the tablet was not left blank and
uninscribed, but contained an incantation, the magical efficacy of which
was ensured by the preceding recitation of the Deluge myth. If that were
so, it would be natural enough that the text should open with its main
subject. The cause of the catastrophe and the reason for man's rescue
from it might well be referred to by one of the creating deities in
virtue of the analogy these aspects of the myth would present to the
circumstances for which the incantation was designed. A brief account
of the Creation and of Antediluvian history would then form a natural
transition to the narrative of the Deluge itself. And even if the text
contained no incantation, the narrative may well have been introduced
in the manner suggested, since this explanation in any case fits in with
what is still preserved of the First Column. For after his reference to
the destruction of mankind, the deity proceeds to fix the chief duty
of man, either as a preliminary to his creation, or as a reassertion
of that duty after his rescue from destruction by the Flood. It is
noteworthy that this duty consists in the building of temples to the
gods "in a clean spot", that is to say "in hallowed places". The passage
may be given in full, including the two opening lines already discussed:
"As for my human race, from (_or_ in) its destruction will I
cause it to be (. . .), For Nintu my creatures (. . .) will
I (. . .).
The people will I cause to . . . in their settlements,
Cities . . . shall (man) build, in there protection will I
cause him to rest,
That he may lay the brick of our houses in a clean spot,