1. To Nebo, beneficent son, director of the hosts of heaven and
of earth,
2. holder of the tablet of knowledge, he who hath grasped the writing
reed of destinies,
3. lengthener of days, vivifier of the dead, stablisher of light for
the men who are perplexed,
4. [from] the great lord, the noble Ashur-bani-pal, the lord, the
approved of the gods Ashur, Bêl and Nebo,
5. the shepherd, the maintainer of the holy places of the great gods,
stablisher of their revenues,
6. son of Esarhaddon, king of hosts, king of Assyria,
7. grandson of Sennacherib, king of hosts, king of Assyria,
8. for the life of his souls, length of his days, [and] well-being
of his posterity,
9. to make permanent the foundation of his royal throne, to hear
his supplications,
10. to receive his petitions, to deliver into his hands the rebellious.
11. The wisdom of Ea, the precious priesthood, the leadership,
12. what is composed for the contentment of the heart of the great
gods,
13. I wrote upon tablets, I collated, I revised
14. literally according to all the tablets of the lands of Ashur
and Akkad,
15. and I placed in the Library of E-Zida, the temple of Nebo my lord,
which is in Nineveh.
16. O Nebo, lord of the hosts of heaven and of earth, look upon that
Library joyfully for years (i.e., for ever).
17. Of Ashur-bani-pal, the chief, the worshipper of thy divinity,
daily the reward of the offering--
18. his life decree, so that he may exalt thy great godhead.
The tablets from both Libraries when unbroken vary in size from 15
inches by 8 5/8 inches to 1 inch by 7/8 inch, and they are usually
about 1 inch thick. In shape they are rectangular, the obverse being
flat and tile reverse slightly convex. Contract tablets, letter tablets
and "case" tablets are very much smaller, and resemble small pillows in
shape. The principal subjects dealt with in the tablets are history,
annalistic or summaries, letters, despatches, reports, oracles,
prayers, contracts, deeds of sale of land, produce, cattle, slaves,
agreements, dowries, bonds for interest (with impressions of seals,
and fingernails, or nail marks), chronography, chronology, Canons of
Eponyms, astrology (forecasts, omens, divinations, charms, spells,
incantations), mythology, legends, grammar, law, geography, etc. [5]
George Smith's Discovery of the Epic of Gilgamish and the Story of
the Deluge.
The mass of tablets which had been discovered by Layard and Rassam at
Nineveh came to the British Museum in 1854-5, and their examination
by Rawlinson and Norris began very soon after. Mr. Bowler, a skilful
draughtsman and copyist of tablets, whom Rawlinson employed in
making transfers of copies of cuneiform texts for publication by
lithography, rejoined a considerable number of fragments of bilingual
lists, syllabaries, etc., which were published in the second volume
of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, in 1866. In that
year the Trustees of the British Museum employed George Smith to
assist Rawlinson in sorting, classifying and rejoining fragments,
and a comprehensive examination of the collection by him began. His
personal interest in Assyriology was centred upon historical texts,
especially those which threw any light on the Bible Narrative. But in
the course of his search for stories of the campaigns of Sargon II,
Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashur-bani-pal, he discovered among other
important documents (1) a series of portions of tablets which give
the adventures of Gilgamish, an ancient king of Erech; (2) An account
of the Deluge, which is supplied by the Eleventh Tablet of the Legend
of Gilgamish (in more than one version); (3) A detailed description
of the Creation; (4) the Legend of the Descent of Ishtar into Hades
in quest of Tammuz. The general meaning of the texts was quite clear,
but there were many gaps in them, and it was not until December, 1872,
that George Smith published his description of the Legend of Gilgamish,
and a translation of the "Chaldean Account of the Deluge." The interest
which his paper evoked was universal, and the proprietors of the
"Daily Telegraph" advocated that Smith should be at once dispatched
to Nineveh to search for the missing fragments of tablets which would
fill up the gaps in his texts, and generously offered to contribute
1,000 guineas towards the cost of the excavations. The Trustees
accepted the offer and gave six months' leave of absence to Smith,
who left London in January, and arrived in Môsul in March, 1873. In
the following May he recovered from Kuyûnjik a fragment that contained
"the greater portion of seventeen lines of inscription belonging to
the first column of the Chaldean account of the Deluge, and fitting
into the only place where there was a serious blank in the story." [6]
During the excavations which Smith carried out at Kuyûnjik in 1873
and 1874 he recovered many fragments of tablets, the texts of which
enabled him to complete his description of the contents of the Twelve
Tablets of the Legend of Gilgamish which included his translation
of the story of the Deluge. Unfortunately Smith died of hunger
and sickness near Aleppo in 1876, and he was unable to revise his
early work, and to supplement it with the information which he had
acquired during his latest travels in Assyria and Babylonia. Thanks
to the excavations which were carried on at Kuyûnjik by the Trustees
of the British Museum after his untimely death, several hundreds of
tablets and fragments have been recovered, and many of these have been
rejoined to the tablets of the older collection. By the careful study
and investigation of the old and new material Assyriologists have,
during the last forty years, been enabled to restore and complete
many passages in the Legends of Gilgamish and the Flood. It is now
clear that the Legend of the Flood had not originally any connection
with the Legend of Gilgamish, and that it was introduced into it by a
late editor or redactor of the Legend, probably in order to complete
the number of the Twelve Tablets on which it was written in the time
of Ashur-bani-pal.
The Legend of the Deluge in Babylonia.
In the introduction to his paper on the "Chaldean Account of the
Deluge," which Smith read in December, 1872, and published in 1873,
he stated that the Assyrian text which he had found on Ashur-bani-pal's
tablets was copied from an archetype at Erech in Lower Babylonia. This
archetype was, he thought, "either written in, or translated into
Semitic Babylonian, at a very early period," and although he could
not assign a date to it, he adduced a number of convincing proofs in
support of his opinion. The language in which he assumed the Legend
to have been originally composed was known to him under the name of
"Accadian," or "Akkadian," but is now called "Sumerian." Recent
research has shown that his view on this point was correct on the
whole. But there is satisfactory proof available to show that versions
or recensions of the Legend of the Deluge and of the Epic of Gilgamish
existed both in Sumerian and Babylonian, as early as B.C. 2000. The
discovery has been made of a fragment of a tablet with a small portion
of the Babylonian version of the Legend of the Deluge inscribed upon
it, and dated in a year which is the equivalent of the 11th year of
Ammisaduga, i.e. about B.C. 2000. [7] And in the Museum at Philadelphia
[8] is preserved half of a tablet which when whole contained a complete
copy of the Sumerian version of the Legend, and must have been written
about the same date. The fragment of the tablet written in the reign
of Ammisaduga is of special importance because the colophon shows
that the tablet to which it belonged was the second of a series,
and that this series was not that of the Epic of Gilgamish, and from
this we learn that in B.C. 2000 the Legend of the Deluge did not form
the XIth Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamish, as it did in the reign of
Ashur-bani-pal, or earlier. The Sumerian version is equally important,
though from another point of view, for the contents and position of
the portion of it that remains on the half of the tablet mentioned
above make it certain that already at this early period there were
several versions of the Legend of the Deluge current in the Sumerian
language. The fact is that the Legend of the Deluge was then already
so old in Mesopotamia that the scribes added to or abbreviated the
text at will, and treated the incidents recorded in it according to
local or popular taste, tradition and prejudice. There seems to be
no evidence that proves conclusively that the Sumerian version is
older than the Semitic, or that the latter was translated direct
from the former version. It is probable that both the Sumerians
and the Semites, each in their own way, attempted to commemorate an
appalling disaster of unparalleled magnitude, the knowledge of which,
through tradition, was common to both peoples. It is, at all events,
clear that the Sumerians regarded the Deluge as an historic event,
which they were, practically, able to date, for some of their tablets
contain lists of kings who reigned before the Deluge, though it must
be confessed that the lengths assigned to their reigns are incredible.
It is not too much to assume that the original event commemorated
in the Legend of the Deluge was a serious and prolonged inundation
or flood in Lower Babylonia, which was accompanied by great loss of
life and destruction of property. The Babylonian versions state that
this inundation or flood was caused by rain, but passages in some
of them suggest that the effects of the rainstorm were intensified
by other physical happenings connected with the earth, of a most
destructive character. The Hebrews also, as we may see from the Bible,
had alternative views as to the cause of the Deluge. According to one,
rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights (Gen. vii,
12), and according to the other the Deluge came because "all the
fountains of the "great deep" were broken up, and "the flood-gates
of heaven were opened" (Gen. vii, 11). The latter view suggests that
the rain flood was joined by the waters of the sea. Later tradition,
based partly on Babylonian and partly on Hebrew sources, asserts in
the "Cave of Treasures" [9] that when Noah had entered the Ark and the
door was shut, "the sluices of heaven were opened, and the deeps were
rent asunder," and "that the Ocean, that great sea that surroundeth
the whole world, vomited its waters, and the sluices of heaven being
opened, and the deeps of the earth being rent asunder, the storehouses
of the winds were opened, and the whirlwinds broke loose, and the Ocean
roared and poured out its waters in floods." The ark was steered over
the waters by an angel who acted as pilot, and when that had come to
rest on the mountains of Kardô (Armenia) "God commanded the waters
and they separated from each other. The waters that had been above
ascended to their place above the heavens, whence they had come;
and the waters that had come up from under the earth returned to the
lower deep; and the waters that were from the Ocean returned into it"
(Brit. Mus. MS. Orient. No. 25,875, fol. 17b, col. 1 and fol. 18a,
cols. 1 and 2). Many authorities seeking to find a foundation of fact
for the Legend of the Deluge in Mesopotamia have assumed that the rain
flood was accompanied either by an earthquake or a tidal wave, or by
both. There is no doubt that the cities of Lower Babylonia were nearer
the sea in the Sumerian Period than they are at the present time,
and it is a generally accepted view that the head of the Persian Gulf
lay further to the north at that time. A cyclone coupled with a tidal
wave is a sufficient base for any of the forms of the Legend now known.
A comparison of the contents of the various Sumerian and Babylonian
versions of the Deluge that have come down to us shows us that they
are incomplete. And as none of them tells so connected and full a
narrative of the prehistoric shipbuilder as Berosus, a priest of Bêl,
the great god of Babylon, it seems that the Mesopotamian scribes
were content to copy the Legend in an abbreviated form. Berosus, it
is true, is not a very ancient authority, for he was not born until
the reign of Alexander the Great, but he was a learned man and was
well acquainted with the Babylonian language, and with the ancient
literature of his country, and he wrote a history of Babylonia, some
fragments of which have been preserved to us in the works of Alexander
Polyhistor, Eusebius, and others. The following is a version of the
fragment which describes the flood that took place in the days of
Xisuthrus, the tenth King of the Chaldeans, and is of importance for
comparison with the rendering of the Legend of the Deluge, as found
on the Ninevite tablets, which follows immediately after.
The Legend of the Deluge According to Berosus.
"After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen
sari. In his time happened a great Deluge; the history of which is
thus described. The Deity, Cronus, appeared to him in a vision, and
warned him that upon the 15th day of the month Daesius there would be
a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined
him to write a history of the beginning, procedure and conclusion of
all things; and to bury it in the city of the Sun at Sippara; and to
build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations;
and to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life, together
with all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust
himself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the Deity, whither he was
to sail? he was answered, 'To the Gods': upon which he offered up a
prayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition;
and built a vessel 5 stadia in length, and 2 in breadth. Into this he
put everything which he had prepared; and last of all conveyed into
it his wife, his children, and his friends. After the flood had been
upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from
the vessel; which, not finding any food nor any place whereupon they
might rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some
days, he sent them forth a second time; and they now returned with
their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these
birds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that
the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. He therefore
made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was
stranded upon the side of some mountain; upon which he immediately
quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then
paid his adoration to the earth, and, having constructed an altar,
offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of
the vessel with him, disappeared. They, who remained within, finding
that their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many
lamentations, and called continually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him
they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air,
and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and
likewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that he
was translated to live with the gods; that his wife and daughter,
and the pilot, had obtained the same honour. To this he added that
they should return to Babylonia; and, it was ordained, search for
the writings at Sippara, which they were to make known to mankind:
moreover that the place, wherein they then were, was the land of
Armenia. The rest having heard these words, offered sacrifices to
the gods; and taking a circuit journeyed towards Babylonia." (Cory,
Ancient Fragments, London, 1832, p. 26ff.)
The Babylonian Legend of the Deluge as Told to the Hero Gilgamish by
His Ancestor Uta-Napishtim, Who Had Been Made Immortal by the Gods.
The form of the Legend of the Deluge given below is that which is
found on the Eleventh of the Series of Twelve Tablets in the Library
of Nebo at Nineveh, which described the life and exploits of Gilgamish
(), an early king of the city of Erech. As we have seen above, the
Legend of the Deluge has in reality no connection with the Epic of
Gilgamish, but was introduced into it by the editors of the Epic
at a comparatively late period, perhaps even during the reign of
Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 668-626). A summary of the contents of the other
Tablets of the Gilgamish Series is given in the following section of
this short monograph. It is therefore only necessary to state here
that Gilgamish, who was horrified and almost beside himself when
his bosom friend and companion Enkidu (Eabâni) died, meditated
deeply how he could escape death himself. He knew that his ancestor
Uta-Napishtim had become immortal, therefore he determined to set
out for the place where Uta-Napishtim lived so that he might obtain
from him the secret of immortality. Guided by a dream in which he saw
the direction of the place where Uta-Napishtim lived, Gilgamish set
out for the Mountain of the Sunset, and, after great toil and many
difficulties, came to the shore of a vast sea. Here he met Ur-Shanabi,
the boatman of Uta-Napishtim, who was persuaded to carry him in
his boat over the "waters of death," and at length he landed on the
shore of the country of Uta-Napishtim. The immortal came down to the
shore and asked the newcomer the object of his visit, and Gilgamish
told him of the death of his great friend Enkidu, and of his desire
to escape from death and to find immortality. Uta-Napishtim having
made to Gilgamish some remarks which seem to indicate that in his
opinion death was inevitable,
1. Gilgamish [10] said unto Uta-Napishtim, to Uta-Napishtim the remote:
2. "I am looking at thee, Uta-Napishtim.
3. Thy person is not altered; even as am I so art thou.
4. Verily, nothing about thee is changed; even as am I so art thou.
5. [Moved is my] heart to do battle,
6. But thou art at leisure and dost lie upon thy back.
7. How then wast thou able to enter the company of the gods and
see life?"
Thereupon Uta-Napishtim related to Gilgamish the Story of the Deluge,
and the Eleventh Tablet continues thus:--
8. Uta-Napishtim said unto him, to Gilgamish:
9. "I will reveal unto thee, O Gilgamish, a hidden mystery,
10. And a secret matter of the gods I will declare unto thee.
11. Shurippak, [11] a city which thou thyself knowest,
12. On [the bank] of the river Puratti (Euphrates) is situated,
13. That city was old and the gods [dwelling] within it--
14. Their hearts induced the great gods to make a wind-storm
(a-bu-bi), [12]
15. Their father Anu,
16. Their counsellor, the warrior Enlil,
17. Their messenger En-urta [and]
18. Their prince Ennugi.
19. Nin-igi-azag, Ea, was with them [in council] and
20. reported their word to the house of reeds.
[First Speech of Ea to Uta-Napishtim who is sleeping in a reed hut.]
21. O House of reeds, O House of reeds! O Wall, O Wall!
22. O House of reeds, hear! O Wall, understand!
23. O man of Shurippak, son of Ubara-Tutu.
24. Throw down the house, build a ship,
25. Forsake wealth, seek after life,
26. Abandon possessions, save thy life,
27. Carry grain of every kind into the ship.
28. The ship which thou shalt build,
29. The dimensions thereof shall be measured,
30. The breadth and the length thereof shall be the same.
31. ... the ocean, provide it with a roof."
[Uta-Napishtim's answer to Ea.]
32. "I understood and I said unto Ea, my lord:
33. [I comprehend] my lord, that which thou hast ordered,
34. I will regard it with great reverence, and will perform it.
35. But what shall I say to the town, to the multitude, and to the
elders?"
[Second Speech of Ea.]
36. "Ea opened his mouth and spake
37. And said unto his servant, myself,
38. ... Thus shalt thou say unto them:
39. Ill-will hath the god Enlil formed against me,
40. Therefore I can no longer dwell in your city,
41. And never more will I turn my countenance upon the soil of Enlil.
42. I will descend into the ocean to dwell with my lord Ea.
43. But upon you he will rain riches:
44. A catch of birds, a catch of fish
45. ... an [abundant] harvest,
46. ... the prince (?) of the darkness
47. ... shall make a violent cyclone [to fall upon you]."
[The Building of the Ship.]