For (. . .) . . . the gods a Nin-igi-azag,(2) the god Ea,
. . . (. . .); sat with them,
Ziusudu standing at its side And he repeated their word to
heard (. . .): the house of reeds:
"At the wall on my left side take "Reed-hut, reed-hut! Wall,
thy stand and (. . .), wall!
At the wall I will speak a word O reed-hut, hear! O wall,
to thee (. . .). understand!
O my devout one . . . (. . .), Thou man of Shuruppak, son of
Ubar-Tutu,
By our hand(?) a flood(3) . . . Pull down thy house, build a
(. . .) will be (sent). ship,
To destroy the seed of mankind Leave thy possessions, take
(. . .) heed for thy life,
Is the decision, the word of the Abandon thy property, and save
assembly(4) (of the gods) thy life.
The commands of Anu (and) And bring living seed of every
En(lil . . .) kind into the ship.
Its kingdom, its rule (. . .) As for the ship, which thou
shalt build,
To his (. . .)" Of which the measurements
shall be carefully measured,
(. . .) Its breadth and length shall
correspond.
(. . .) In the deep shalt thou immerse
it."
(1) Col. IV, ll. 1 ff. are there compared with Gilg. Epic,
XI, ll. 19-31.
(2) Nin-igi-azag, "The Lord of Clear Vision", a title borne
by Enki, or Ea, as God of Wisdom.
(3) The Sumerian term _amaru_, here used for the flood and
rendered as "rain-storm" by Dr. Poebel, is explained in a
later syllabary as the equivalent of the Semitic-Babylonian
word _abûbu_ (cf. Meissner, _S.A.I._, No. 8909), the term
employed for the flood both in the early Semitic version of
the Atrakhasis story dated in Ammizaduga's reign and in the
Gilgamesh Epic. The word _abûbu_ is often conventionally
rendered "deluge", but should be more accurately translated
"flood". It is true that the tempests of the Sumerian
Version probably imply rain; and in the Gilgamesh Epic heavy
rain in the evening begins the flood and is followed at dawn
by a thunderstorm and hurricane. But in itself the term
_abûbu_ implies flood, which could take place through a rise
of the rivers unaccompanied by heavy local rain. The annual
rainfall in Babylonia to-day is on an average only about 8
in., and there have been years in succession when the total
rainfall has not exceeded 4 in.; and yet the _abûbu_ is not
a thing of the past.
(4) The word here rendered "assembly" is the Semitic loan-
word _buhrum_, in Babylonian _puhrum_, the term employed for
the "assembly" of the gods both in the Babylonian Creation
Series and in the Gilgamesh Epic. Its employment in the
Sumerian Version, in place of its Sumerian equivalent
_ukkin_, is an interesting example of Semitic influence. Its
occurrence does not necessarily imply the existence of a
recognized Semitic Version at the period our text was
inscribed. The substitution of _buhrum_ for _ukkin_ in the
text may well date from the period of Hammurabi, when we may
assume that the increased importance of the city-council was
reflected in the general adoption of the Semitic term (cf.
Poebel, _Hist. Texts_, p. 53).
In the Semitic Version Ut-napishtim, who tells the story in the first
person, then says that he "understood", and that, after assuring Ea
that he would carry out his commands, he asked how he was to explain his
action to "the city, the people, and the elders"; and the god told
him what to say. Then follows an account of the building of the ship,
introduced by the words "As soon as the dawn began to break". In
the Sumerian Version the close of the warning, in which the ship was
probably referred to, and the lines prescribing how Ziusudu carried out
the divine instructions are not preserved.
It will be seen that in the passage quoted from the Semitic Version
there is no direct mention of a dream; the god is represented at first
as addressing his words to a "house of reeds" and a "wall", and then as
speaking to Ut-napishtim himself. But in a later passage in the Epic,
when Ea seeks to excuse his action to Enlil, he says that the gods'
decision was revealed to Atrakhasis through a dream.(1) Dr. Poebel
rightly compares the direct warning of Ut-napishtim by Ea in the passage
quoted above with the equally direct warning Ziusudu receives in the
Sumerian Version. But he would have us divorce the direct warning from
the dream-warning, and he concludes that no less than three different
versions of the story have been worked together in the Gilgamesh Epic.
In the first, corresponding to that in our text, Ea communicates the
gods' decision directly to Ut-napishtim; in the second he sends a dream
from which Atrakhasis, "the Very Wise one", guesses the impending peril;
while in the third he relates the plan to a wall, taking care that
Ut-napishtim overhears him.(2) The version of Berossus, that Kronos
himself appears to Xisuthros in a dream and warns him, is rejected by
Dr. Poebel, who remarks that here the "original significance of the
dream has already been obliterated". Consequently there seems to him to
be "no logical connexion" between the dreams or dream mentioned at the
close of the Third Column and the communication of the plan of the gods
at the beginning of the Fourth Column of our text.(3)
(1) Cf. l. 195 f.; "I did not divulge the decision of the
great gods. I caused Atrakhasis to behold a dream and thus
he heard the decision of the gods."
(2) Cf. Poebel, _Hist. Texts_, p. 51 f. With the god's
apparent subterfuge in the third of these supposed versions
Sir James Frazer (_Ancient Stories of a Great Flood_, p. 15)
not inaptly compares the well-known story of King Midas's
servant, who, unable to keep the secret of the king's
deformity to himself, whispered it into a hole in the
ground, with the result that the reeds which grew up there
by their rustling in the wind proclaimed it to the world
(Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, xi, 174 ff.).
(3) Op. cit., p. 51; cf. also Jastrow, _Heb. and Bab.
Trad._, p. 346.
So far from Berossus having missed the original significance of the
narrative he relates, I think it can be shown that he reproduces
very accurately the sense of our Sumerian text; and that the apparent
discrepancies in the Semitic Version, and the puzzling references to
a wall in both it and the Sumerian Version, are capable of a simple
explanation. There appears to me no justification for splitting the
Semitic narrative into the several versions suggested, since the
assumption that the direct warning and the dream-warning must be
distinguished is really based on a misunderstanding of the character of
Sumerian dreams by which important decisions of the gods in council were
communicated to mankind. We fortunately possess an instructive Sumerian
parallel to our passage. In it the will of the gods is revealed in
a dream, which is not only described in full but is furnished with a
detailed interpretation; and as it seems to clear up our difficulties,
it may be well to summarize its main features.
The occasion of the dream in this case was not a coming deluge but a
great dearth of water in the rivers, in consequence of which the crops
had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. This occurred
in the reign of Gudea, patesi of Lagash, who lived some centuries before
our Sumerian document was inscribed. In his own inscription(1) he
tells us that he was at a loss to know by what means he might restore
prosperity to his country, when one night he had a dream; and it was
in consequence of the dream that he eventually erected one of the most
sumptuously appointed of Sumerian temples and thereby restored his land
to prosperity. Before recounting his dream he describes how the gods
themselves took counsel. On the day in which destinies were fixed
in heaven and earth, Enlil, the chief of the gods, and Ningirsu, the
city-god of Lagash, held converse; and Enlil, turning to Ningirsu,
described the sad condition of Southern Babylonia, and remarked that
"the decrees of the temple Eninnû should be made glorious in heaven and
upon earth", or, in other words, that Ningirsu's city-temple must be
rebuilt. Thereupon Ningirsu did not communicate his orders directly to
Gudea, but conveyed the will of the gods to him by means of a dream.
(1) See Thureau-Dangin, _Les inscriptions de Sumer et
d'Akkad_, Cyl. A, pp. 134 ff., Germ. ed., pp. 88 ff.; and
cf. King and Hall, _Eg. and West. Asia_, pp. 196 ff.
It will be noticed that we here have a very similar situation to that in
the Deluge story. A conference of the gods has been held; a decision
has been taken by the greatest god, Enlil; and, in consequence, another
deity is anxious to inform a Sumerian ruler of that decision. The only
difference is that here Enlil desires the communication to be made,
while in the Deluge story it is made without his knowledge, and
obviously against his wishes. So the fact that Ningirsu does not
communicate directly with the patesi, but conveys his message by means
of a dream, is particularly instructive. For here there can be no
question of any subterfuge in the method employed, since Enlil was a
consenting party.
The story goes on to relate that, while the patesi slept, a vision of
the night came to him, and he beheld a man whose stature was so great
that it equalled the heavens and the earth. By the diadem he wore upon
his head Gudea knew that the figure must be a god. Beside the god
was the divine eagle, the emblem of Lagash; his feet rested upon the
whirlwind, and a lion crouched upon his right hand and upon his left.
The figure spoke to the patesi, but he did not understand the meaning of
the words. Then it seemed to Gudea that the Sun rose from the earth; and
he beheld a woman holding in her hand a pure reed, and she carried also
a tablet on which was a star of the heavens, and she seemed to take
counsel with herself. While Gudea was gazing, he seemed to see a second
man, who was like a warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis lazuli, on
which he drew out the plan of a temple. Before the patesi himself it
seemed that a fair cushion was placed, and upon the cushion was set
a mould, and within the mould was a brick. And on the right hand the
patesi beheld an ass that lay upon the ground. Such was the dream of
Gudea, and he was troubled because he could not interpret it.(1)
(1) The resemblance its imagery bears to that of apocalyptic
visions of a later period is interesting, as evidence of the
latter's remote ancestry, and of the development in the use
of primitive material to suit a completely changed political
outlook. But those are points which do not concern our
problem.
To cut the long story short, Gudea decided to seek the help of Ninâ,
"the child of Eridu", who, as daughter of Enki, the God of Wisdom, could
divine all the mysteries of the gods. But first of all by sacrifices
and libations he secured the mediation of his own city-god and goddess,
Ningirsu and Gatumdug; and then, repairing to Ninâ's temple, he
recounted to her the details of his vision. When the patesi had
finished, the goddess addressed him and said she would explain to him
the meaning of his dream. Here, no doubt, we are to understand that
she spoke through the mouth of her chief priest. And this was the
interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so great, and
whose head was that of a god, was the god Ningirsu, and the words which
he uttered were an order to the patesi to rebuild the temple Eninnû. The
Sun which rose from the earth was the god Ningishzida, for like the
Sun he goes forth from the earth. The maiden who held the pure reed and
carried the tablet with the star was the goddess Nisaba; the star was
the pure star of the temple's construction, which she proclaimed. The
second man, who was like a warrior, was the god Nibub; and the plan of
the temple which he drew was the plan of Eninnû; and the ass that lay
upon the ground was the patesi himself.(1)
(1) The symbolism of the ass, as a beast of burden, was
applicable to the patesi in his task of carrying out the
building of the temple.
The essential feature of the vision is that the god himself appeared to
the sleeper and delivered his message in words. That is precisely the
manner in which Kronos warned Xisuthros of the coming Deluge in
the version of Berossus; while in the Gilgamesh Epic the apparent
contradiction between the direct warning and the dream-warning at once
disappears. It is true that Gudea states that he did not understand the
meaning of the god's message, and so required an interpretation; but
he was equally at a loss as to the identity of the god who gave it,
although Ningirsu was his own city-god and was accompanied by his own
familiar city-emblem. We may thus assume that the god's words, as words,
were equally intelligible to Gudea. But as they were uttered in a dream,
it was necessary that the patesi, in view of his country's peril, should
have divine assurance that they implied no other meaning. And in his
case such assurance was the more essential, in view of the symbolism
attaching to the other features of his vision. That this is sound
reasoning is proved by a second vision vouchsafed to Gudea by Ningirsu.
For the patesi, though he began to prepare for the building of the
temple, was not content even with Ninâ's assurance. He offered a prayer
to Ningirsu himself, saying that he wished to build the temple, but had
received no sign that this was the will of the god; and he prayed for a
sign. Then, as the patesi lay stretched upon the ground, the god again
appeared to him and gave him detailed instructions, adding that he would
grant the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his
side touched as by a flame,(1) and thereby he should know that he was
the man chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands. Here it is the
sign which confirms the apparent meaning of the god's words. And Gudea
was at last content and built the temple.(2)
(1) Cyl. A., col. xii, l. 10 f.; cf. Thureau-Dangin, op.
cit., p. 150 f., Germ. ed., p. 102 f. The word translated
"side" may also be rendered as "hand"; but "side" is the
more probable rendering of the two. The touching of Gudea's
side (or hand) presents an interesting resemblance to the
touching of Jacob's thigh by the divine wrestler at Peniel
in Gen. xxxii. 24 ff. (J or JE). Given a belief in the
constant presence of the unseen and its frequent
manifestation, such a story as that of Peniel might well
arise from an unexplained injury to the sciatic muscle,
while more than one ailment of the heart or liver might
perhaps suggest the touch of a beckoning god. There is of
course no connexion between the Sumerian and Hebrew stories
beyond their common background. It may be added that those
critics who would reverse the _rôles_ of Jacob and the
wrestler miss the point of the Hebrew story.
(2) Even so, before starting on the work, he took the
further precautions of ascertaining that the omens were
favourable and of purifying his city from all malign
influence.
We may conclude, then, that in the new Sumerian Version of the Deluge we
have traced a logical connexion between the direct warning to Ziusudu in
the Fourth Column of the text and the reference to a dream in the broken
lines at the close of the Third Column. As in the Gilgamesh Epic and
in Berossus, here too the god's warning is conveyed in a dream; and
the accompanying reference to conjuring by the Name of Heaven and Earth
probably represents the means by which Ziusudu was enabled to verify its
apparent meaning. The assurance which Gudea obtained through the priest
of Ninâ and the sign, the priest-king Ziusudu secured by his own act,
in virtue of his piety and practice of divination. And his employment of
the particular class of incantation referred to, that which conjures by
the Name of Heaven and Earth, is singularly appropriate to the context.
For by its use he was enabled to test the meaning of Enki's words, which
related to the intentions of Anu and Enlil, the gods respectively of
Heaven and of Earth. The symbolical setting of Gudea's vision also finds
a parallel in the reed-house and wall of the Deluge story, though in the
latter case we have not the benefit of interpretation by a goddess. In
the Sumerian Version the wall is merely part of the vision and does
not receive a direct address from the god. That appears as a later
development in the Semitic Version, and it may perhaps have suggested
the excuse, put in that version into the mouth of Ea, that he had not
directly revealed the decision of the gods.(1)
(1) In that case the parallel suggested by Sir James Frazer
between the reed-house and wall of the Gilgamesh Epic, now
regarded as a medium of communication, and the whispering
reeds of the Midas story would still hold good.
The omission of any reference to a dream before the warning in the
Gilgamesh Epic may be accounted for on the assumption that readers of
the poem would naturally suppose that the usual method of divine warning
was implied; and the text does indicate that the warning took place at
night, for Gilgamesh proceeds to carry out the divine instructions at
the break of day. The direct warning of the Hebrew Versions, on the
other hand, does not carry this implication, since according to Hebrew
ideas direct speech, as well as vision, was included among the methods
by which the divine will could be conveyed to man.
V. THE FLOOD, THE ESCAPE OF THE GREAT BOAT, AND THE SACRIFICE TO THE
SUN-GOD
The missing portion of the Fourth Column must have described Ziusudu's
building of his great boat in order to escape the Deluge, for at the
beginning of the Fifth Column we are in the middle of the Deluge itself.
The column begins:
All the mighty wind-storms together blew,
The flood . . . raged.
When for seven days, for seven nights,
The flood had overwhelmed the land
When the wind-storm had driven the great boat over the mighty
waters,
The Sun-god came forth, shedding light over heaven and earth.
Ziusudu opened the opening of the great boat;
The light of the hero, the Sun-god, (he) causes to enter into the
interior(?) of the great boat.
Ziusudu, the king,
Bows himself down before the Sun-god;
The king sacrifices an ox, a sheep he slaughters(?).
The connected text of the column then breaks off, only a sign or two
remaining of the following half-dozen lines. It will be seen that in the
eleven lines that are preserved we have several close parallels to
the Babylonian Version and some equally striking differences. While
attempting to define the latter, it will be well to point out how close
the resemblances are, and at the same time to draw a comparison between
the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions of this part of the story and the
corresponding Hebrew accounts.
Here, as in the Babylonian Version, the Flood is accompanied by
hurricanes of wind, though in the latter the description is worked up
in considerable detail. We there read(1) that at the appointed time the
ruler of the darkness at eventide sent a heavy rain. Ut-napishtim saw
its beginning, but fearing to watch the storm, he entered the interior
of the ship by Ea's instructions, closed the door, and handed over the
direction of the vessel to the pilot Puzur-Amurri. Later a thunder-storm
and hurricane added their terrors to the deluge. For at early dawn a
black cloud came up from the horizon, Adad the Storm-god thundering in
its midst, and his heralds, Nabû and Sharru, flying over mountain and
plain. Nergal tore away the ship's anchor, while Ninib directed the
storm; the Anunnaki carried their lightning-torches and lit up the
land with their brightness; the whirlwind of the Storm-god reached the
heavens, and all light was turned into darkness. The storm raged the
whole day, covering mountain and people with water.(2) No man beheld his
fellow; the gods themselves were afraid, so that they retreated into
the highest heaven, where they crouched down, cowering like dogs. Then
follows the lamentation of Ishtar, to which reference has already been
made, the goddess reproaching herself for the part she had taken in the
destruction of her people. This section of the Semitic narrative closes
with the picture of the gods weeping with her, sitting bowed down with
their lips pressed together.
(1) Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 90 ff.
(2) In the Atrakhasis version, dated in the reign of
Ammizaduga, Col. I, l. 5, contains a reference to the "cry"
of men when Adad the Storm-god, slays them with his flood.
It is probable that the Sumerian Version, in the missing portion of its
Fourth Column, contained some account of Ziusudu's entry into his
boat; and this may have been preceded, as in the Gilgamesh Epic, by a
reference to "the living seed of every kind", or at any rate to "the
four-legged creatures of the field", and to his personal possessions,
with which we may assume he had previously loaded it. But in the Fifth
Column we have no mention of the pilot or of any other companions who
may have accompanied the king; and we shall see that the Sixth Column
contains no reference to Ziusudu's wife. The description of the storm
may have begun with the closing lines of the Fourth Column, though it
is also quite possible that the first line of the Fifth Column actually
begins the account. However that may be, and in spite of the poetic
imagery of the Semitic Babylonian narrative, the general character of
the catastrophe is the same in both versions.
We find an equally close parallel, between the Sumerian and Babylonian
accounts, in the duration of the storm which accompanied the Flood, as
will be seen by printing the two versions together:(3)