An Akkadian epic in which the gods, disturbed by an overpopulated and noisy humanity, move from plague to famine and finally to a great flood to silence it. Warned by the god Enki, the wise man Atrahasis builds a boat and survives, and the gods afterward accept permanent limits on human fertility and lifespan in place of destruction.
Facts
Text
Source TextThe Atrahasis Epic, three tablets, Old Babylonian recension, translated in Dalley 2000 1 Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteAssyriologists read the Gilgamesh flood account, Tablet Eleven, as a later borrowing of the Atrahasis flood narrative, with Utnapishtim standing in for Atrahasis, evidence used to trace how far Mesopotamian flood tradition predates its better known telling. 1 History
Historical NoteThe Old Babylonian tablets naming a scribe and a regnal date place the surviving copy in the reign of Ammi-saduqa, seventeenth century BC, centuries older than the Gilgamesh flood tablet that later absorbed the same story. 1 Sources
Primary SourceThe standard text is reconstructed from Old Babylonian tablets held in the British Museum, supplemented by later Assyrian fragments, with no single manuscript preserving the whole poem. 1 Meaning
Central MotifDivine population control escalating to a flood that only a divinely warned survivor escapes 1 Controversy
Point in DisputeScholars are divided on whether the epic's opening rebellion of junior gods against forced labor reflects a real memory of Mesopotamian corvee labor or is a literary device invented to explain humanity's creation. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Related To
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.