(I promise!)

    Now, much as with the creation fables in Chapter 1 gods 'r' us (Part 6), we're coming down the home stretch - let's take a quick look at flood fables originating from the ancient Middle East --
    The flood fable to follow is Greek - Greece not exactly being a Mesopotamian country, it's included here for two reasons: it bears a striking similarity to the Mesopotamian myths, further, the Chaldean myth to follow shows definite Greek influence, in that the hero, Xisuthrus, bears a Greek name, and Chronos, is a Greek god.
    It's far more likely that the Mesopotamian flood-fables influenced the Greeks, than the converse.

GRECO-ROMAN:
    Zeus/Jupiter decided to punish Humanity for its evil ways. Other gods grieved at the destruction, because there would be no beings to worship them. Zeus promised a new stock - a race of miraculous origin. So with the help of Poseidon/Neptune (aka, god of the Sea), he caused storm and earthquake to flood every part of the land except the summit of Mt. Parnassus (the mountain at Delphi, home of the great oracle, sometimes referred to as the “navel of the earth”). When Zeus/Jupiter crushed the hanging clouds in his hands, there was a loud crash, and sheets of rain fell from heaven. The rivers began rushing to the sea. When Poseidon/Neptune struck the ground with his trident, the rivers rushed across the plains. Sea and earth could no longer be distinguished: all was sea - without any shores - covering every living being, except for one fortunate couple, Deucalion and Pyrrha. This pair had earlier consulted Themis, an oracle, at her shrine (they didn’t need an appointment, she knew they were coming). Themis warned them of an imminent flood and advised them to build an ark and stock it with food; they acquired a boat, loaded up, and set sail. In time, their boat ran aground on the summit of Mt. Parnassus. Suppose it can still be seen there today?
    When Deucalion and Pyrrha disemboated, they sacrificed to Zeus a thank-offering for their preservation. "Thanks, Big-Guy, for saving us and killing everyone else - you got my mother-in-law, so as far as I'm concerned, it's a wash - no hard feelings --?"

ZOROASTRIAN (Iran):
    Ahura Mazda warned Yima that destruction, in the form of floods subsequent to the melting of the snow, was threatening the sinful world and gave him instructions for building a vara, in which specimens of small and large cattle, humans, dogs, birds, fires, plants and foods were to be deposited in pairs.

CHALDEAN:
    This myth arose in Chaldea, formerly Babylonia - birthplace, as you may recall from Chapter 1 gods 'r' us (Part 6) - of Marduk, “King of Kings," "Lord of Lords,” - (can't you just hear Handel in the background?) - “shepherd of Men,”“He is the light...light of the glory of his father....,” and, “all people daily have their bread from him.” Who could forget Marduk, with his four eyes, four ears, and jalapeno-breath?
    But this fable arose a few thousand years later (c. 600 B.C.E.). It draws upon ancient Babylonian mythology - (as, we will learn shortly, does the Bible), but substitutes its own character names of the gods and Humans involved - (as, we will learn shortly, does the Bible).
    Xisuthrus was warned of a coming flood by the god, Chronus, who ordered Xisuthrus to write a history of the experience and to build a vessel, "five stadia by two stadia," for his friends and family plan, and two of every type of animal. After the flood began to subside, he sent out some birds, all of which returned. Upon trying again, the birds returned with muddy feet, which, presumably, they wiped on little tiny "Welcome" mats Xisuthrus hopefully set out for them. On the third trial, the birds didn't return. The people disemb-ark-ed and offered sacrifices to the gods. Xisuthrus, his wife, daughter, and the pilot of the ark were eventually transported to live with the gods - in other words, they walked with the gods and they were "not" --

EARLY SUMERIAN:
    This deluge-myth is said to have been the prototype of all the later Mesopotamian flood fables. The main text dates from the late Old Babylonian period. Regrettably, it comes to us as only a fragment of the original story, written in cuneiform on both the front and back of a single clay tablet, both sides of which are shown below. It may have contained a cosmogonic prelude and an account of the creation of mankind, but we will never know.

    In the text, En-ki spoke of the threatened destruction of mankind, but he planed to prevent this from becoming reality. He wanted the people back in their dwellings, the Me*-endowed cities, with their restful shade. (*"Me," in this instance, refers to a formal rule of law, not to be confused with the modern, "Me-Generation") [gap in the tablet] Column II described the institution of Sumerian civilization, kingship, city-states and irrigation. [another gap] Nintu and Inanna were said to weep for the people and En-ki decided to save the situation, although the gods were formally bound by an oath to Anu and En-l-il (remember En-l-il - we'll revisit him later). Ziusudra was described as a humble and pious king. He was singled out by En-ki to receive a secret revelation, announcing the ‘unalterable decision’ of the gods to send a flood. A further gap probably contained instructions on building a seaworthy craft. The text resumed with a flood raging for ‘six days and seven nights’. But then the sun-god Uttu appeared in His boat to Ziusudra, who prostrated Himself and offered sacrifices of an ox and a sheep. [gap] The gods apparently re-populate the earth and when Ziusudra, ‘who protected the seed of mankind…from destruction’, does homage to An and En-l-il, they grant him ‘eternal life, like a god’ and transport him to Dilmun, ‘the place where the sun rises’. The rest of the text is missing, but at least Ziusudra got to walk with the gods, and he was not.

    Ziusudra (Sumerian), or Ziudsuttu (Akkadian) is of particular importance, in that he was one of the Mesopotamian kings who had particularly long - i.e., thousands of years - life-spans, even more exaggerated versions than the life-spans the ghost-writer for Moses would, a couple of thousand years later, plagiarize and attribute to the ten patriarchs of the Hebrew faith.
    The importance of Ziusudra's name on the King List is that it links the flood mentioned in the Epics of Ziusudra, Atrahasis, Utnapishtim, et al, to an archaeologically attested Euphrates river flood in Shuruppak, Uruk, and Kish - three Sumerian cities - in what is now southern Iraq, about 125 miles southeast of Baghdad - river flood sediments there have been radio carbon-dated as 2900 BCE, so scholars conclude that the flood hero was a king of Shuruppak at the end of the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3000-2900 B.C.E.) which ended with the river flood of that latter date.
    Author Robert M. Best offers an interesting perspective of the times and conditions under which this small, localized flood occurred. In his book, Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic, Sumerian Origins of the Flood Myth, Mr. Best relates that a six-day thunderstorm caused the Euphrates River to rise 15 cubits, overflowing the levees.
    When the levees overflowed, Ziusudra boarded a small commercial river barge that had been hauling grain, beer, and a few hundred cattle, sheep, and goats. The barge floated down the river into the Persian (Arabian) Gulf where it grounded in an estuary at the mouth of the river. He assures us that, "Ziusudra (i.e., Noah) then offered a sacrifice on an altar at the top of a nearby hill which storytellers mistranslated as mountain. This led them to falsely assume that the nearby barge had grounded on top of a mountain. Actually it never came close to a mountain."


    Realistically, geologists confirm that even a rise of a foot of water on the Euphrates river can, in that level land, result in the coverage of a considerable area of acreage, and since a cubit is roughly 18 inches, the river could actually have risen 22.5 feet. Any river that rose 22.5 feet above flood stage would certainly be something to write home about and could definitely be defined as a flood as regards that local area, but hardly one of global, or even mountainous proportions - no need to rush out and start lining up lions, tigers and bears -- (I know you said it - no one can resist!).

BABYLONIAN:
    This text, which is known from several fragments from the Old and Neo-Babylonian period, as well as from Neo-Assyrian tablets, was written in Akkadian. The Old Babylonian version is reputed to be the work of a scribe called Nur-Aya, from Sippar, and the first part tells of the creation of Mankind to perform work for the Anannaki, as the collective gods are called. This section exactly parallels the Enuma Elish, described in Chapter 1, gods 'r' us (Part 6).
    The flood-story proper begins after a break in the tablet. ‘Twelve-hundred years had yet not passed’ and mankind had multiplied so quickly that their ‘noise and bustle’ disturbed the peace of the great gods. En-l-il (lord of the ghost-land) sent first a plague, then famine, in an attempt to decimate the number of people. But his plans were foiled by the subterfuge of En-ki (god of beneficence), who relayed En-l-il’s intentions to his protégé, Atrahasis, ‘the exceedingly wise’. He also informed him of the means to counteract the threat with appropriate measures (mainly by bringing special offerings to specific gods). Furious, En-l-il decided to put an end to it all by sending a great and devastating flood, which would kill every single human being. He made the gods swear a solemn oath of secrecy but En-ki, anxious for the survival of ‘his creation’, appeared to Atrahasis in a dream, where he spoke to a reed-wall, thereby circumventing En-l-il’s prohibition by a trick. He told Atrahasis to build himself an ark in which to escape, along with cattle, wild animals, birds, and the family of Atrahasis. The flood was released, but Atrahasis was safe in his boat. The gods were in distress, especially the mother-goddess, who bemoaned the fate of her creatures. [gap] The smell of Atrahasis’ first offering after the subsiding of the flood announced his survival. En-l-il was furious at the betrayal, but En-ki spoke up and pointed out that En-l-il would have gone too far and that henceforth he ought to limit his acts of revenge on the criminals who disobey his commands. However, he proposed certain measures to limit the population. Again assisted by the mother-goddess, he created, or rather ‘decreed’, the existence of sterile women, special classes of priestesses barred from having progeny (we call them Nuns), as well as infant mortality personified by the child-snatching demon Pasittu.
    Atrahasis, like Ziusudra and Xixuthrus, was given eternal life and a place ‘among the gods,' and was not - there certainly seemed to be a lot of that going around --

SUMERIAN:
    The Epic of Gilgamesh is believed to be the oldest written story on earth, predating the era of the biblical Noah by anywhere from three to five hundred years. It concerns the adventures of Gilgamesh, the historical king of Uruk, of ancient Sumeria, and much like the Enuma Elish, described in Chapter 1 gods 'r' us (Part 6), was inscribed in cuneiform script on clay tablets. The entire story, while certainly interesting, is irrelevant to the purpose of this chapter, except for Tablet Eleven, or XI, if you will, and I certainly hope you will.
    Gilgamesh was a mighty man, a man of renown - reputedly two-thirds god and one-third Man, He may well have been the offspring of one of those "sons of god" that we heard about at the beginning of this chapter - or not.
    At any rate, old Gil had heard of a legendary Man, one Utanapishtim, who rode out a flood sent by the gods, and was thereafter spirited away by those gods, along with His wife, to live forever at the end of the earth - much like Enoch, and Xisuthrus, and Atrahasis, and Ziusudra, etc., etc., He walked with the gods and He was not. In fact, some authorities believe that the biblical character of Enoch, was originally intended to have been the hero of the biblical flood, rather than His great-grandson, Noah, but the anonymous author decided on a last-minute substitution: "Noah in for Enoch," or something like that.
    As with most mighty Men, Gilgamesh had led a hard life and put a lot of wear and tear on His body (it's mentioned in one of the tablets that He looked ten years older than His actual age) and in the tablet preceding XI (X), had seen His closest friend, En-kidu, die, and so was troubled by the fact that one day, He too, must share His friend's fate.

    "'En-kidu, my friend, whom I loved deeply, who went through every hardship with me, the fate of Mankind has overtaken him.
    'Six days and seven nights I have mourned over him, and would not allow him to be buried until a maggot fell out of his nose.'"

    Maybe it's just me, but I'd say it was time to get that boy in the ground.

    "'The issue of my friend oppresses me, so I have been roaming long trails through the wilderness....How can I stay silent, how can I be still! My friend, whom I love, has turned to clay;....Am I not like him! Will I (not) lie down, never to get up again!'"

    Contemplating death as something He'd prefer to avoid, He began a quest to find Utanapishtim, in hope that Ut would share with Him the secret of eternal life. He wasn't sure what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Utanapishtim was a normal-looking Man, much like Himself.

    "'Tell me,' Gilgamesh implored, 'How is it that you stand in the Assembly of the gods and have found life!'"
    "Utanapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh, saying: 'I will reveal to you, Gilgamesh, a thing that is hidden, a secret of the gods I will tell you! Shuruppak, a city that you surely know, situated on the banks of the Eurphrates, that city was very old, and there were gods inside it. The hearts of the great gods moved them to inflict a flood.'"

    The gods involved in the plot were the father-god, Anu, joined by En-l-il, Ninurta and En-nugi.
    Ea, "the clever Prince," warned Utanapishtim, advising Him to tear down His house and use the lumber to build a boat, to abandon His wealth and possessions, and concern Himself with keeping alive living things. He further advised Him as to the dimensions of the boat, and told Him to put a roof on it as well.

    "'On the fifth day, I laid out her exterior. It was a field in area, its walls were each ten times twelve cubits in height, the sides of its top were of equal length, ten times twelve cubits each. I laid out its interior structure and drew a picture of it. I provided it with six decks, thus dividing it into seven levels. The inside of it I divided into nine compartments. I drove plugs to keep out water in its middle part. I saw to the punting poles and laid in what was necessary. Three times 3,600 (units) of raw bitumen I poured into the bitumen kiln, three times 3,600 (units) of pitch into it. There were three times 3,600 porters of casks who carried vegetable oil, apart from the 3,600 (units of) oil which they consumed, and two times 3,600 (units) of oil which the boatman stored away.
    'I butchered oxen for meat, and day upon day, I slaughtered sheep. I gave the workmen ale, beer, oil and wine, as if it were river water, so they could make a party like the New Year's Festival....The boat was finished by sunset.*'" (*on the seventh day)

    He continued, "'All the living beings I had, I loaded on it. I had all my kith and kin go up in the boat, all the beasts and animals of the field and the craftsmen I had go up.'"
    Utanapishtim was told to watch for a sign - that in the morning, miraculous showers of bread would rain down from the sky (manna?), and according to the fable, it did, thus coining the phrase, Wonder Bread, which is still in use today.

    "'I watched the appearance of the weather - the weather was frightful to behold! I went into the boat and sealed the entry....Just as dawn began to glow there arose from the horizon a black cloud. Adad (a thunder-god) rumbled inside of it; before him went Shullat and Hanish, heralds going over mountain and land. Erragal pulled out the mooring poles, forth went Ninurta and made the dikes overflow. The Anunnaki lifted the torches, setting the land ablaze with their flare. Stunned shock overtook the heavens and turned to blackness all that had been light. The land shattered like a clay pot. All day long the South Wind blew, blowing fast, submerging the mountain in water, overwhelming the people like an attack. No one could see his fellow, they could not recognize each other in the torrent.'"

    Makes for some rather dramatic reading, doesn't it - this guy gives great simile - Moses could have used a ghost-writer like that --
    Utanapishtim told Gilgamesh that even the gods were frightened by the flood and retreated, ascending to heaven. The goddess Ishtar, for example, "'...shrieked like a woman in childbirth....'"

    "'Six days and seven nights came the wind and flood, the storm flattening the land. When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding - the flood was a war, struggling with itself like a woman writhing in labor. (Then) The sea calmed, fell still, the whirlwind and the flood stopped. I looked around all day long - quiet had set in.'"

    His boat lodged firmly on Mt. Nimush, and there it was held fast for seven days - a time frame that seems to be quite popular with this author - En-kidu laid uninterred for seven days, it took seven days to build the boat, the tempest lasted for seven days, and now, seven days for the water to recede. That's not uncommon, many cultures have had numbers that they considered "mystical" - the Bible, for example, is particularly fond of "forty days and forty nights."

    "'When the seventh day arrived, I sent forth a dove and released it. The dove went off, but came back to me; no perch was visible so it circled back to me. I sent forth a swallow and released it. The swallow went off, but came back to me; no perch was visible so it circled back to me. Then I sent forth a raven and released it. The raven went off and saw the waters slither back. It eats, it scratches, it bobs, but does not circle back to me.
    "'Then I sent out everything in all directions and sacrificed a sheep. I offered incense in front of the mountain-ziggurat.'" [ziggurat = a temple - remember? from Chapter 1 gods 'r' us (Part 6)?]
    "'Seven and seven cult vessels I put in place, and into the fire underneath I poured reeds, cedar and myrtle. The gods smelled the savor, the gods smelled the sweet savor and collected like flies over a sacrifice.'" (Emphasis mine, for a reason --)

    En-l-il, the god who caused the flood to reduce the population, arrived - one must assume, having smelled the sweet savor - and was really upset that a single group of Humans escaped extinction in his flood. The god-father, Anu, chastened him for causing the flood in the first place, advising him that next time, he should use famine or pestilence, or even lions or wolves, in order to reduce the Human population, while not eradicating it entirely.
    As previously mentioned, for His ordeal, Utanapishtim and His wife walked with the gods and were not - They were made immortal and magically whisked away to the end of the earth, where likely we would find Them today, if any of us knew how to get there - oh, and you can forget Google Maps, I already tried --
    Remember, this epic tale was literally written in stone three to five hundred years before the flood of Noah was supposed to have occurred, and nearly a millennium before Hebrews developed a written language.
    Just to demonstrate how these Middle Eastern flood fables interlace with each other, in both the Babylonian flood myth and the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, though the names of the other gods are different, it is the god, En-l-il, in both myths, that brought about the flood. Of interest also, is the fact that at one point in The Epic of Gilgamesh, Utanapishtim is referred to as Atrahasis, hero of the Babylonian flood fable.

    So let’s review the Mesopotamian Flood Fable Formula (I like a lot of alliteration --):
    •    a god or gods decide to kill all Humans
    •    a Man and His family are selected to be saved
    •    the Man is instructed to build a boat, and does     
    •    the flood comes; everyone dies; the Man, et al, are saved
    •    the boat lands on a mountain
    •    the Man sends out birds to determine if the flood has receded
    •    the Man, et al, disemb-ark
    •    the Man offers a burnt sacrifice to the god/gods who killed everyone but Him
    •    the god/gods “smell the sweet savor,” and promise not to be so naughty again

    Since we're speaking of interlacing Mesopotamian myths, it's worth repeating that The New American Bible, in a footnote to Chapter 5, relates that the long lifespans attributed to the ten patriarchs - the ten founding fathers of the Hebrew religion, upon whom, both Christianity and Islam are based, correspond directly to ten kings of Mesopotamian mythology who also had incredibly long lifespans (we'll peek at the Kings' List in a later chapter), but it further adds that those lengthy lifespans are to be considered symbolically, rather than historically - and you know what that means -- it didn't happen!

pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx