Utnapishtim And The Babylonian Flood Story

Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - The ancient story of the great Flood has been re-told worldwide. We find accounts of the event among many ancient cultures all across the world. They all have myths and legends describing a time in the distant past when a horrifying Deluge wiped almost all life on Earth.

The story of Noah’s Ark is not just a Biblical story. Noah was known under a different name in India, among ancient Egyptians and Native Americans, to mention a few cultures.

The life of Utnapishtim and the Babylonian Flood Story are described in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Just like Noah, Utnapishtim is the survivor of the Deluge.  Gilgamesh is the semi-mythic King of Uruk best known from The Epic of Gilgamesh (written c. 2150-1400 BCE) the great Sumerian/Babylonian poetic work.

Memories of an antediluvian (pre-flood) period were preserved throughout Mesopotamia: The Sumerian King List includes antediluvian kings, and reliefs of antediluvian sages known as apkallu, winged and bird-headed creatures lined the walls of Assyrian palaces and remain one of the most iconic forms of Mesopotamian art to this day.

The Chaldean Flood Tablets from the city of Ur in what is now Southern Iraq contain a story that describes how the Babylonian god Enlil had been bothered by the incessant noise generated by humans. To punish people he sends a Deluge to wipe out life on the planet.

The Sumerian god Enki, later known as Ea in Akkadian and Babylonian mythology went against the decision of the rest of the gods and ordered Utnapishtim to abandon his worldly possessions and create a huge ship to be called The Preserver of Life.

The ship was made of solid timber so that the rays of Shamash (the Sun) would not shine in, and of equal dimensions in length and width. God Enki assisted with the design and construction of The Preserver of Life. The building of the ship took five days. The ship’s interior had seven floors, each floor divided into 9 sections, finishing the ark fully on the seventh day.

Knowing that the oncoming flood would wipe out all life on Earth, Utnapishtim was told to quickly take his wife, relatives, some of the villagers, animals along with various grains and seeds and board the ship. The entrance to the ship was sealed once everyone had boarded it.

Utnapishtim spent 12 days on The Preserver of Life. When he finally felt it was safe to open the hatch, he saw the slopes of Mount Nisir, supposedly the mountain known today as Pir Omar near the city Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan. Researchers have speculated the name may mean "Mount of Salvation".

He waited seven days before he sent a dove out to see if the water had receded, but the dove could not find anything but water and returned. Utnapishtim repeated the procedure. Next time he sent out a swallow, and just as before, it returned, having found nothing. Finally, Utnapishtim sent out a raven, and the raven saw that the waters had receded, so it circled around but did not return. Utnapishtim then set all the animals free and made a sacrifice to the gods.

The gods were happy he had obeyed their wish and preserved the seed of man. In return for his trust and loyalty, the gods gave him and his wife the gift of immortality and a place among the heavenly gods.

The story of the quest for immortality is explored in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh, who is devasted by the death of his brother Enkidu sets out on a series of journeys to search for his ancestor Utnapishtim who lives at the mouth of the rivers and has been given eternal life. Gilgamesh fears his own death and searches for a way to preserve his life forever.

Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh to abandon his search for immortality but tells him that there is a place where the Flower of Immortality is located and that it can restore his youth and the youth of others. Gilgamesh gets the flower and leaves for home with the boatman, but along the way, a serpent in the pool steals the flower and it is lost. An interesting symbol of evil similar to the bible is the snake or the serpent.

Left: The Babylonian Flood Tablet translated by George Smith in the mid/late 19th century. The British Museum.
Right: The so-called Ark Tablet, recently translated by Irving Finkel, is an Old Babylonian (1900-1700 B.C.E.) account of the flood in which the god Enki instructs Atrahasis—the Babylonian Noah—on how to build an ark.

Gilgamesh returned home to the city of Uruk, having abandoned hope of either immortality or renewed youth.

The tale of Utnapishtim and the Earth before the Great Flood would have all been forgotten had it not been for his chance of acquaintance with the hero Gilgamesh.

The Epic of Gilgamesh has been of interest to Christians ever since its discovery in the mid-nineteenth century in the ruins of the great library at Nineveh, with its account of a universal flood with significant parallels to the Flood of Noah's day.

While there are great similarities between the Biblical and Babylonian flood stories, there are also certain fundamental differences.

Whether the Deluge story is based on something that really took place or is just a myth remains unknown, but there are scientists who are convinced the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark were real events.

Written by  Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com

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