| The Sumerian account of Genesis and the Flood Nintur was paying attention: Let me bethink myself of my humankind, all forgotten as they are; and mindful of mine, Nintur's creatures let me bring them back let me lead the people back from their trails. May they come and build cities and cult places, that I may cool myself in their shade; may they lay the bricks for the cult cities in pure spots and may they found places for divination in pure spots! When An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursaga fashioned the dark-headed people they had made the small animals that come up from out of the earth, come from the earth in abundance and had let there be, as it befits it, gazelles wild donkeys, and four-footed beasts in the desert. ...and let me have him advise; let me have him oversee their labor, and let him teach the nation to follow along unerringly like cattle! When the royal scepter was coming down from heaven, the august crown and the royal throne being already down from heaven, he (the king) regularly performed to perfection the august divine services and offices, laid the bricks of those cities in pure spots. They were named by name and allotted half-bushel baskets. The firstling of those cities, Eridu, she gave to the leader Nudimmud, the second, Bad-Tibira, she gave to the prince and the sacred one, the third, Larak, she gave to Pabilsag, the fourth, Sippar, she gave to the gallant Utu. The fifth, Shuruppak, she gave to Ansud. That day Nintur wept over her creatures and holy Inanna was full of grief over their people; but Enki took counsel with his own heart. An, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursaga had the gods of heaven and earth swear by the names of An and Enlil. At that time, Ziusudra was king and lustration priest. He fashioned, being a seer, the god of giddiness and stood in awe beside it, wording his wishes humbly. And as Ziusudra stood there beside it, he went on hearing: Step up to the wall to my left and listen! Let me speak a word to you at the wall and may you grasp what I say, may you heed my advice! By our hand a flood will sweep over the cities of the half-bushel baskets, and the country; |
the decision, that mankind is to be destroyed has been made. A verdict, a command of the assembly cannot be revoked, an order of An and Enlil is not known ever to have been countermanded, their kingship, their term, has been uprooted they must bethink themselves of that. Now... What I have to say to you... "Tear down the house, build a ship! Give up possessions, seek thou life! Forswear belongings, keep soul alive! Aboard ship take thou the seed of all living things. That ship thou shalt build; Her dimensions shall be to measure." All the evil winds, all stormy winds gathered into one and with them, then, the flood was sweeping over the cities of the half-bushel baskets for seven days and seven nights. After the flood had swept over the country, after the evil wind had tossed the big boat about on the great waters, the sun came out spreading light over heaven and earth. Ziusudra then drilled an opening in the big boat. And the gallant Utu sent his light into the interior of the big boat. Ziusudra, being king, stepped up before Utu kissing the ground before him. (49) One of the problems, even for experts, in deciphering Sumerian and Mesopotamian pictographic seals is that they rely on interpretation of imagery. The seals do not have words just images laid out into stories. Sometimes, scholars are lucky and have a chance to align the story with the seal with confidence, but most of the time, they tell us they have interpreted it as such and such, but we seldom know the truth, which is that they guessed. We are fortunate in the case of “Etana and the Plant of Life,” which is probably the oldest Sumerian myth we have which relates to the bird and the serpent, because scholars have successfully matched it up. The myth of Etana is not very well known though, not nearly as much as the myth of Gilgamesh, and in the case of Gilgamesh, we cannot match up the seals conclusively in many cases. (49) The Harps That Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation" by Thorkild Jacobsen. Yale University Press, Publishers; 1987, http://www.piney.com/EriduGen.html |