, koji je preživio veliki potop. Gilgameš putuje do morskog kraja kako bi pronašao Utnapishtima i saznao tajnu besmrtnosti. Nakon brojnih iskušenja i neuspjeha, Gilgameš se vraća u Uruk praznih ruku, ali bogovi mu otkrivaju da je pravi put do besmrtnosti u ostavljenoj mudrosti i ostavljenoj djeci. Gilgameš shvaća važnost ostavštine koju ostavljamo za buduće generacije i priznaje svoju smrtnost. tell the story of Utnapishtim surviving the great flood.
After a long journey, exhausted from numerous trials he had to overcome, Gilgamesh finds Utnapishtim in Dilmun, the earthly paradise, and he tells him how he survived the flood. In this epic, unlike some others, the reason for the flood is not mentioned. Utnapishtim begins his narration:
“Shuruppak, a city that you also know,
which lies on the banks of the Euphrates,
was an ancient city,
just like the gods within it,
when the great gods in their hearts
decided to unleash the flood.”
The decision of the gods to bring about the flood is communicated to Utnapishtim, a man from Shuruppak, by Ea, the god of wisdom and water. He also gives him instructions on how to survive the flood.
“Leave behind everything you have,
save your own life.
Give up earthly possessions
and save your soul.”
As instructed by Ea, Utnapishtim constructs a large ark of precise proportions made of reeds, into which he boards his family members, slaves, and carpenters who built the boat, and then wild and tame animals.
The eleventh tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, on which
This is an Assyrian version of the myth of the flood; the tile is 13.7 cm tall. British Museum, London.
“All people turned into clay.
The landscape was flat as a flat roof.
I opened the lid, and the light shone on my face.
I searched the coast over the open sea,
I fell to the ground, sat down, and cried.”
After that, he saw Mount Nisir, on which the ark had stranded. To check if the water was receding, on the seventh day he released a dove, but it flew, circled, and returned. He then released a swallow, but it also came back. After them, he released a raven, and the raven began to croak and never returned. Utnapishtim then climbed to the top of the mountain and offered a sacrifice to the gods, setting up “seven and seven candles” in which he placed cedar wood, myrtle, and reeds. Ishtar, the goddess of love, life, and death, swears on her necklace of jewels (the rainbow) that she will never forget that day. Only the storm god Enlil was angry that the secret of the upcoming flood had been revealed. The wise god Ea calms Enlil, and grants Utnapishtim and his wife immortality. reveal the content of this myth. However, an even older mention of the flood and the precursor to the Akkadian-Babylonian myth is preserved in the Sumerian myth of Ziusudra. This myth is recorded on a tablet from Nippur in six columns, but only the lower part of the tablet is preserved, so it is estimated that about 260 lines are missing. It is dated to the late 17th century BCE. The myth tells the story of Ziusudra (translated as “he saw life/he experienced life”), the king of the pre-flood Sumerian city of Shuruppak, who was warned by the water god Enki, equivalent to the god Ea in Babylon, about the decision of the gods to destroy humanity.
“…the flood will engulf the religious centers;
to destroy the seed of mankind (…)
And (…) it is the decision, the command of the assembly of gods.
From the command given by An and Enlil…”
Enki advises Ziusudra on how to build a boat (the instructions are also lost). After a great flood of seven days and seven nights, Ziusudra offers sacrifices to the sky god Anu and the supreme god Enlil, thus gaining eternal life in the Sumerian paradise of Dilmun.
Archaeological excavations. witness to a great flood in Shuruppak, and the water reached to Kish and Uruk.
On a tablet from Nippur, which records the great flood, there is also a genealogy of the mythical pre-flood kings and the historical ones who ruled after the flood.
The description of the flood is also found in the Babylonian myth of Atrahasis. According to one Sumerian king list, Atrahasis was also one of the pre-flood kings of Shuruppak, and his name means “exceedingly wise”. This myth was written in an even older Akkadian script, and is believed to have been written in the middle of the 17th century BC.
In this story, as well as in the myth of Ziusudra, the god Enki warns Atrahasis of the water cataclysm. After twelve hundred years, overpopulation and great noise bothered the god Enlil, and he proposed to the assembly of gods to destroy the human race.
The gods send a series of plagues: first, a plague, then hail, famine, great drought, scarcity, but all was in vain. This same situation repeated every twelve hundred years. After many unsuccessful attempts, In order to silence the people, the gods decided to destroy the nation with a flood. The god Enki, who disapproved of this solution, revealed the entire plan to Atrahasis and advised him to build a massive ark.
“The flood roared like a bull,
the winds howled like a wild donkey
darkness was complete, there was no sun (…)
for seven days and seven nights
the deluge, storm, and flood surged (…).”
When the water receded, Atrahasis offered sacrifices to the gods, and Enlil, dissatisfied that the human race was saved, blamed Enki for it. Enlil eventually calmed down, allowing humans to live, but demanded that Enki and the mother goddess better organize them in order to be spared from the noise.
The next flood myth, the myth of Xisuthros, is actually a Sumerian myth of Ziusudra, with modified deities. According to the tradition of the Babylonian priest Berossus, Xisuthros was from the city of Sippar and was warned about the flood by Kronos.
Cylinder seal impression from the Akkadian Dynasty period. The impression depicts the sacred journey of the god Enki, height Stamp 2.7 cm, Louvre Museum, Paris.
Therefore, the striking similarity between the mentioned myths leaves no room for doubt that they are versions of the same myth, the oldest Sumerian one, which other Near Eastern peoples adopted and modified. The core of all these myths is one: God signifies the end of an era marked by a cataclysmic flood, in which harmony and order are disrupted, and the beginning of a new era in which the face of the earth is renewed and natural order is restored. Thus, the flood has a corrective effect, restoring the lost balance to the universe. In doing so, Sumerian Ziusudra, Babylonian Atrahasis, Akkadian Utnapishtim, and biblical Noah are assistants in executing the divine plan. They listen to the voice of the gods and follow their advice, thanks to which they have gained immortality as saviors of the human race.