When I looked at the storm, the
uproar had ceased,
And all mankind was turned into
clay;
In place of fields there was a
swamp.
Ziusudu opened the opening of I opened the opening (lit.
the great boat; "hole"), and daylight fell
upon my countenance.
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 I bowed myself down and sat down
Sun-god; weeping;
The king sacrifices an ox, a Over my countenance flowed my
sheep he slaughters(?). tears.
I gazed upon the quarters (of
the world)--all(?) was sea.
It will be seen that in the Semitic Version the beams of the Sun-god
have been reduced to "daylight", and Ziusudu's act of worship has become
merely prostration in token of grief.
Both in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus the sacrifice offered by the
Deluge hero to the gods follows the episode of the birds, and it takes
place on the top of the mountain after the landing from the vessel. It
is hardly probable that two sacrifices were recounted in the Sumerian
Version, one to the Sun-god in the boat and another on the mountain
after landing; and if we are right in identifying Ziusudu's recorded
sacrifice with that of Ut-napishtim and Xisuthros, it would seem that,
according to the Sumerian Version, no birds were sent out to test the
abatement of the waters. This conclusion cannot be regarded as quite
certain, inasmuch as the greater part of the Fifth Column is waning. We
have, moreover, already seen reason to believe that the account on our
tablet is epitomized, and that consequently the omission of any episode
from our text does not necessarily imply its absence from the original
Sumerian Version which it follows. But here at least it is clear that
nothing can have been omitted between the opening of the light-hole and
the sacrifice, for the one act is the natural sequence of the other. On
the whole it seems preferable to assume that we have recovered a simpler
form of the story.
As the storm itself is described in a few phrases, so the cessation
of the flood may have been dismissed with equal brevity; the gradual
abatement of the waters, as attested by the dove, the swallow, and the
raven, may well be due to later elaboration or to combination with some
variant account. Under its amended form the narrative leads naturally up
to the landing on the mountain and the sacrifice of thanksgiving to
the gods. In the Sumerian Version, on the other hand, Ziusudu regards
himself as saved when he sees the Sun shining; he needs no further tests
to assure himself that the danger is over, and his sacrifice too is one
of gratitude for his escape. The disappearance of the Sun-god from the
Semitic Version was thus a necessity, to avoid an anti-climax; and the
hero's attitude of worship had obviously to be translated into one of
grief. An indication that the sacrifice was originally represented as
having taken place on board the boat may be seen in the lines of
the Gilgamesh Epic which recount how Enlil, after acquiescing in
Ut-napishtim's survival of the Flood, went up into the ship and led
him forth by the hand, although, in the preceding lines, he had already
landed and had sacrificed upon the mountain. The two passages are hardly
consistent as they stand, but they find a simple explanation of we
regard the second of them as an unaltered survival from an earlier form
of the story.
If the above line of reasoning be sound, it follows that, while the
earlier Hebrew Version closely resembles the Gilgamesh Epic, the later
Hebrew Version, by its omission of the birds, would offer a parallel to
the Sumerian Version. But whether we may draw any conclusion from this
apparent grouping of our authorities will be best dealt with when we
have concluded our survey of the new evidence.
As we have seen, the text of the Fifth Column breaks off with Ziusudu's
sacrifice to the Sun-god, after he had opened a light-hole in the boat
and had seen by the god's beams that the storm was over. The missing
portion of the Fifth Column must have included at least some account of
the abatement of the waters, the stranding of the boat, and the
manner in which Anu and Enlil became apprised of Ziusudu's escape, and
consequently of the failure of their intention to annihilate mankind.
For in the Sixth Column of the text we find these two deities reconciled
to Ziusudu and bestowing immortality upon him, as Enlil bestows
immortality upon Ut-napishtim at the close of the Semitic Version. In
the latter account, after the vessel had grounded on Mount Nisir and
Ut-napishtim had tested the abatement of the waters by means of the
birds, he brings all out from the ship and offers his libation and
sacrifice upon the mountain, heaping up reed, cedar-wood, and myrtle
beneath his seven sacrificial vessels. And it was by this act on his
part that the gods first had knowledge of his escape. For they smelt
the sweet savour of the sacrifice, and "gathered like flies over the
sacrificer".(1)
(1) Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 162.
It is possible in our text that Ziusudu's sacrifice in the boat was also
the means by which the gods became acquainted with his survival; and
it seems obvious that the Sun-god, to whom it was offered, should have
continued to play some part in the narrative, perhaps by assisting
Ziusudu in propitiating Anu and Enlil. In the Semitic-Babylonian
Version, the first deity to approach the sacrifice is Bêlit-ili or
Ishtar, who is indignant with Enlil for what he has done. When Enlil
himself approaches and sees the ship he is filled with anger against the
gods, and, asking who has escaped, exclaims that no man must live in the
destruction. Thereupon Ninib accuses Ea, who by his pleading succeeds in
turning Enlil's purpose. He bids Enlil visit the sinner with his sin and
lay his transgression on the transgressor; Enlil should not again send a
deluge to destroy the whole of mankind, but should be content with less
wholesale destruction, such as that wrought by wild beasts, famine, and
plague. Finally he confesses that it was he who warned Ziusudu of the
gods' decision by sending him a dream. Enlil thereupon changes his
intention, and going up into the ship, leads Ut-napishtim forth.
Though Ea's intervention finds, of course, no parallel in either Hebrew
version, the subject-matter of his speech is reflected in both. In the
earlier Hebrew Version Yahweh smells the sweet savour of Noah's burnt
offering and says in his heart he will no more destroy every living
creature as he had done; while in the later Hebrew Version Elohim,
after remembering Noah and causing the waters to abate, establishes his
covenant to the same effect, and, as a sign of the covenant, sets his
bow in the clouds.
In its treatment of the climax of the story we shall see that the
Sumerian Version, at any rate in the form it has reached us, is on
a lower ethical level than the Babylonian and Hebrew Versions. Ea's
argument that the sinner should bear his own sin and the transgressor
his own transgression in some measure forestalls that of Ezekiel;(1)
and both the Hebrew Versions represent the saving of Noah as part of the
divine intention from the beginning. But the Sumerian Version introduces
the element of magic as the means by which man can bend the will of the
gods to his own ends. How far the details of the Sumerian myth at this
point resembled that of the Gilgamesh Epic it is impossible to say, but
the general course of the story must have been the same. In the latter
Enlil's anger is appeased, in the former that of Anu and Enlil; and it
is legitimate to suppose that Enki, like Ea, was Ziusudu's principal
supporter, in view of the part he had already taken in ensuring his
escape.
(1) Cf. Ezek. xviii, passim, esp. xviii. 20.