The Babylonian Flood Story: Epic of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh XI.

     This flood story is taken from a much larger epic tale known as
     the Epic of Gilgamesh.

     Gilgamesh was actually a king of ancient Iraq hundreds of years
     before the epic about him was written. The ancients loved to tell
     tales about Gilgamesh, tales in which he successfully bested his
     kingdom's enemy, king Agga, in which he defeats the Bull of
     Heaven, in which he slays the monster Huwawa, and in which his
     friend Enkidu travels to the Netherworld.

     The larger Epic of Gilgamesh combines many of these old tales but
     adds a new dimension: Gilgamesh's quest for the afterlife. As the
     story begins, Gilgamesh is oppressing his city of Uruk, so the
     gods send a champion, Enkidu, to act as his side-kick as they go
     out on adventures, including the slaying of the monster Huwawa and
     the conquest of the Bull of Heaven. Because of the latter victory,
     Enkidu is punished by the gods with death. This death causes
     Gilgamesh to despair. To achieve immortality, Gilgamesh travels to
     speak to Utnapishtim to find out how he survived the flood to gain
     immortality. This is the text assigned for your reading. Gilgamesh
     soon realizes that he will not gain immortality in this way. His
     only comfort is knowing that he has built a great city.

     When these Assyrian texts were translated in the nineteenth
     century by the British scholar George Adam Smith, they created
     quite a stir. Compare the text with the biblical flood story for
     yourself to see why people may have been amazed.

     The story comes from a collection of stone tablets found at
     Nineveh, a city in ancient Mesopotamia. The tablets date to around
     2700 BCE.
END***************************************************************************