* The account of Bcrossus implies this as a cause of the
Deluge, since he mentions the injunction imposed upon the
survivors by a mysterious voice to be henceforward
respectful towards the gods, [Greek word]. The Chalæan
account considers the Deluge to have been sent as a
punishment upon men for their sins against the gods, since
it represents towards the end (cf. p. 52 of this History) Ea
as reproaching Bel for having confounded the innocent and
the guilty in one punishment.
** The name of this individual has been read in various
ways: Shamashnapishtim, “sun of life,” Sitnapishtim, “the
saved,” and Pirnapishtim. In one passage at least we find,
in place of Shamashnapishtim, the name or epithet of
Aclrakhasis, or by inversion Khasisadra, which appears to
signify “the very shrewd,” and is explained by the skill
with which he interpreted the oracle of Ea. Khasisadra is
most probably the form which the Greeks have transcribed by
Xisuthros, Sisuthros, Sisithes.
*** The account of the Deluge covers the eleventh tablet of
the poem of Gilgames. The hero, threatened with death,
proceeds to rejoin his ancestor Shamashnapishtim to demand
from him the secret of immortality, and the latter tells him
the manner in which he escaped from the waters: he had saved
his life only at the expense of the destruction of men. The
text of it was published by Smith and by Haupt, fragment by
fragment, and then restored consecutively. The studies of
which it is the object would make a complete library. The
principal translations are those of Smith, of Oppert, of
Lenor-mant, of Haupt, of Jensen, of A. Jeremias, of
Sauveplane, and of Zimmern.
Facsimile by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph published by
G. Smith, Chaldæan Account of the Deluge from terra-cotta
tablets found at Nineveh.
He confided to a hedge of reeds the resolution that had been adopted:* “Hedge, hedge, wall, wall! Hearken, hedge, and understand well, wall! Man of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu, construct a wooden house, build a ship, abandon thy goods, seek life; throw away thy possessions, save thy life, and place in the vessel all the seed of life. The ship which thou shalt build, let its proportions be exactly measured, let its dimensions and shape be well arranged, then launch it in the sea.” Shamashnapishtim heard the address to the field of reeds, or perhaps the reeds repeated it to him. “I understood it, and I said to my master Ea ‘The command, O my master, which thou hast thus enunciated, I myself will respect it, and I will execute it: but what shall I say to the town, the people and the elders?’” Ea opened his mouth and spake; he said to his servant: “Answer thus and say to them: ‘Because Bel hates me, I will no longer dwell in your town, and upon the land of Bel I will no longer lay my head, but I will go upon the sea, and will dwell with Ea my master. Now Bel will make rain to fall upon you, upon the swarm of birds and the multitude of fishes, upon all the animals of the field, and upon all the crops; but Ea will give you a sign: the god who rules the rain will cause to fall upon you, on a certain evening, an abundant rain. When the dawn of the next day appears, the deluge will begin, which will cover the earth and drown all living things.’” Shamashnapishtim repeated the warning to the people, but the people refused to believe it, and turned him into ridicule. The work went rapidly forward: the hull was a hundred and forty cubits long, the deck one hundred and forty broad; all the joints were caulked with pitch and bitumen. A solemn festival was observed at its completion, and the embarkation began.** “All that I possessed I filled the ship with it all that I had of silver, I filled it with it; all that I had of gold I filled it with it, all that I had of the seed of life of every kind I filled it with it; I caused all my family and my servants to go up into it; beasts of the field, wild beasts of the field, I caused them to go up all together. Shamash had given me a sign: ‘When the god who rules the rain, in the evening shall cause an abundant rain to fall, enter into the ship and close thy door.’ The sign was revealed: the god who rules the rain caused to fall one night an abundant rain. The day, I feared its dawning; I feared to see the daylight; I entered into the ship and I shut the door; that the ship might be guided, I handed over to Buzur-Bel, the pilot, the great ark and its fortunes.”
* The sense of this passage is far from being certain; I
have followed the interpretation proposed, with some
variations, by Pinches, by Haupt, and by Jensen. The
stratagem at once recalls the history of King Midas, and the
talking reeds which knew the secret of his ass’s ears. In
the version of Berossus, it is Kronos who plays the part
here assigned to Ea in regard to Xisuthros.
** The text is mutilated, and does not furnish enough
information to follow in every detail the building of the
ark. From what we can understand, the vessel of
Shamashnapishtim was a kind of immense kelek, decked, but
without masts or rigging of any sort. The text identifies
the festival celebrated by the hero before the embarkation
with the festival Akitu of Merodach, at Babylon, during
which “Nebo, the powerful son, sailed from Borsippa to
Babylon in the bark of the river Asmu, of beauty.” The
embarkation of Nebo and his voyage on the stream had
probably inspired the information according to which the
embarkation of Shamashnapishtim was made the occasion of a
festival Akitu, celebrated at Shurippak; the time of the
Babylonian festival was probably thought to coincide with
the anniversary of the Deluge.
“As soon as the morning became clear, a black cloud arose from the foundations of heaven. Bamman growled in its bosom; Nebo and Marduk ran before it—ran like two throne-bearers over hill and dale. Nera the Great tore up the stake to which the ark was moored. Ninib came up quickly; he began the attack; the Anunnaki raised their torches and made the earth to tremble at their brilliancy; the tempest of Ramman scaled the heaven, changed all the light to darkness, flooded the earth like a lake.* For a whole day the hurricane raged, and blew violently over the mountains and over the country; the tempest rushed upon men like the shock of an army, brother no longer beheld brother, men recognized each other no more.
* The progress of the tempest is described as the attack of
the gods, who had resolved on the destruction of men. Ramman
is the thunder which growls in the cloud; Nebo, Merodach,
Nera the Great (Nergal), and Ninib, denote the different
phases of the hurricane from the moment when the wind gets
up until it is at its height; the Anunnaki represent the
lightning which flashes carelessly across the heaven.
