Atra-Hasis

Atra-Hasis (Akkadian: 𒀜𒊏𒄩𒋀, romanized: Atra-ḫasīs) is an 18th-century BC Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets,^[1] named for its protagonist, Atrahasis ('exceedingly wise').^[2] The Atra-Hasis tablets include both a cosmological creation myth and one of three surviving Babylonian flood myths. The name "Atra-Hasis" also appears, as a king of Shuruppak in the times before a flood, on one of the Sumerian King Lists.

The oldest known copy of the epic tradition concerning Atrahasis^[i] can be dated by colophon (scribal identification) to the reign of Hammurabi’s great-grandson, Ammi-Saduqa (1646–1626 BC). However, various Old Babylonian dialect fragments exist, and the epic continued to be copied into the first millennium BC.^[3]^: 8–15

The story of Atrahasis also exists in a later Assyrian dialect version, first rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal, though its translations have been uncertain due to the artifact being in fragmentary condition and containing ambiguous words. Nonetheless, its fragments were first assembled and translated by George Smith as The Chaldean Account of Genesis, the hero of which had his name corrected to Atra-Hasis by Heinrich Zimmern in 1899.

In 1965, Wilfred G. Lambert and Alan Millard^[4] published many additional texts belonging to the epic, including an Old Babylonian copy (written c. 1650 BC) which is the most complete recension of the tale to have survived. These new texts greatly increased knowledge of the epic and were the basis for Lambert and Millard’s first English translation of the Atrahasis epic in something approaching entirety.^[3] A further fragment was recovered in Ugarit.

Synopsis

Tablet I

Cuneiform tablet with the *Atra-Hasis* epic in the British Museum

Taking place, according to its incipit, “when gods were in the ways of men," Tablet I of Atra-Hasis contains the creation myth of Anu, Enlil, and Enki—the Sumerian gods of sky, wind, and water. Following the cleromancy ('casting of lots'), the sky is ruled by Anu, Earth by Enlil, and the freshwater sea by Enki.^[ii]

Enlil, god of Earth, assigned junior dingirs (Sumerian: 𒀭, lit. 'divines')^[iii] to do farm labor, as well as maintain the rivers and canals. After 40 years, however, the lesser dingirs rebelled and refused to do strenuous labor. Enki, who is also the kind, wise counselor of the gods, suggested that rather than punishing these rebels, humans should be created to do such work, instead. The mother goddess Mami is subsequently assigned the task of creating humans by shaping clay figurines mixed with the flesh and blood of the slain god Geshtu-E ('ear' or 'wisdom'; 'a god who had intelligence').^[iv] All the gods, in turn, spit upon the clay. After 10 months, a specially made womb breaks open and the first human being was born, the so-called Widimmu.

(Here is a gap in the tablet in which could have been described how a woman was created for Widimmu - perhaps with a similar argument to the one Moses makes in his version of the creation of the first human couple in the Garden of Eden: ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; therefore let Us make a woman (Eve) who helps and fits to him.’ Gen. 2.18)

Finally, Mami gave the young couple the order to celebrate a seven-day love feast in honour of the goddess of war and sex, Ištar.* Both obeyed; after nine months, the land of the gods gave birth to its first human child, whose purpose of existence was similar to that of his parents. (* Cf. Gilgamesh epic: there, too, the gods order a seven-day sexual act. Protagonists are the animal man Enki-du, again created - like the Mosaic Adam - from the clay of the steppe and the female temple servant Shamkat, who is endowed with all the advantages necessary for this purpose.)

Tablet I fineshed with the outbreak of an overpopulation crisis.

Tablet II

Tablet II begins with more human overpopulation, that the gods ruling from the upper part of heaven around Enlil try to reverse by initiating various natural disasters with the intention of decimating the mass of unrestrainedly multiplying humans to a tolerable level again. Enlil sends famine and drought at formulaic intervals of 1200 years, but these attempts all fail due to the respective acts of sabotage by Enki, the leader of the lower gods. Athra Hasis - whom the Mosaic verse refers to as Noah and who here in the epic represents a pious priest of Enki's - enters the scene.

Enki in his relation to Enlil can be seen to have parallels to Prometheus rebellion against Zeus. Zeus was also originally the wise leader of a political organisation (primeval Athens), in which the party of the Titans Pro- and Epimetheus embodies the inferior gods; he then changed his character to arrogance and avarice, which leads Prometheus to his uprising against 'heaven'. Similarly, Enki defies the orders of the upper gods, who now harbour genocidal intentions against the humans, and proves to be the benefactor of these creatures (who, of course, were only created as labour slaves to pacify the rebellion of the lower gods around Enki).

Tablet II remains mostly damaged, but it ends with Enlil's anger against Enki's constant sabotage and his decision to completely destroy humanity with a flood unleashed from the cosmic Freshwater Ozean. At this council meeting of the gods, Enki is forced to take a contractual oath to keep this plan secret from mankind.

Tablet III

Tablet III of the Atra-Hasis epic contains the flood myth.

It tells how Enki - in order not to break his tooken oath - speaks to the reed wall of the house^[v] of his priest Atra-Hasis ('extremely wise'), in reality warning him of Enlil's plan to destroy mankind by flood. He strongly advises the hero to dismantle his house (reed to provide a construction site) and build a boat to escape. Moreover, this boat should have a roof "like Abzu" itself; to have upper and lower decks; and to be sealed with bitumen.

Atra-Hasis boards the boat with his family and animals, then he seals the door when storms begin to roar from all ends of the world. Enlil opens all the floodgates of the freshwater sky so that a mighty flood rushes down to earth, and even the gods are afraid. The most of them suffer and cry because there seems to be no human soul left to work for them and feed them with pious sacrifices.

After seven days, the flood ends and Atra-Hasis offers sacrifices to the gods. Enlil is furious with Enki for violating his oath, but Enki denies doing so: "I made sure life was preserved." In conclusion, Enki and Enlil agree on other means for controlling the human population.

The words "river" and "riverbank" are used in Tablet III,^[5] probably in reference to the Euphrates, the river upon which the ancient city Shuruppak, ruled by Atra-Hasis,^[6] was located.

Alterations and adaptations

Lineage of Atra-Hasis

In later versions of the flood story, contained in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Eridu Genesis, the hero is not named Atra-Hasis.

In Gilgamesh, the name of the flood hero is Utnapishtim, who is said to be the son of Ubara-Tutu, king of Shuruppak: "Gilgamesh spoke to Utnapishtim, the Faraway... O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubara-Tutu."^[7] Many available tablets comprising the Sumerian King Lists support the lineage of the flood hero given in Gilgamesh by omitting a king named Shuruppak as a historical ruler of Shuruppak, implying a belief that the flood story took place after or during the rule of Ubara-Tutu.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh , first recorded in the 17th century BC (i.e. the Old Babylonian Empire), the hero is named Ziusudra, who also appears in the Instructions of Shuruppak as the son of the eponymous Shuruppak, who himself is called the son of Ubara-Tutu.^[8]

The Sumerian King Lists also make no mention of Atra-Hasis, Utnapishtim, or Ziusudra.^[9] Tablet WB 62, however, provides a different chronology: Atra-Hasis is listed as a ruler of Shuruppak and a gudug priest, preceded by his father Shuruppak, who is, in turn, preceded by his father Ubara-Tutu, as in The Instructions of Shuruppak.^[9] This tablet is unique in that it mentions both Shuruppak and Atra-Hasis.

Gilgamesh and the flood myth

Subsequent versions of the flood myth in the Ancient Near East evidently alter (omit and/or editorially change) information about the flood and the flood hero found in the original Atra-Hasis story.^[10]^: xxx In particular, a lost, intermediate version of the Atra-Hasis flood myth seems to have been paraphrased or copied in a late edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh (Tablet XI).^[11] This modern addition of Gilgamesh, known as the 'standard version', is traditionally associated with the Babylonian scribe Sîn-lēqi-unninni (circa 1300–1000 BC), though some minor changes may have been made since his time.^[10]^{: xxiv–xxv}

Regarding the editorial changes to the Atra-Hasis text in Gilgamesh, Jeffrey H. Tigay comments: "The dropping of individual lines between others which are preserved, but are not synonymous with them, appears to be a more deliberate editorial act. These lines share a common theme, the hunger and thirst of the gods during the flood."^[11]

Alterations

Examples of alterations to the Atra-Hasis story in Gilgamesh include:

Omitting information, for example:
- The hero being at a banquet when the storm and flood begins: "He invited his people...to a banquet.... He sent his family on board. They ate and they drank. But he [Atrahasis] was in and out. He could not sit, could not crouch, for his heart was broken and he was vomiting gall."^[12]
- "She was surfeited with grief and thirsted for beer."^[13]
- "From hunger they were suffering cramp."^[13]
Editorial changes, for example:
- "Like dragonflies they have filled the river"^[14] was changed to "Like the spawn of fishes, they fill the sea."^[15]
Weakening of anthropomorphic descriptions of the gods, for example:
- "The Anunnaki (the senior gods) [were sitt]ing in thirst and hunger"^[16] changed to "The gods feared the deluge."^[17]

References

Notes

^ The variant versions are not direct translations of a single original.
^ Walter Burkert traces the model drawn from Atrahasis to a corresponding passage, the division by lots of the air, underworld and sea among Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon in the Iliad, in which “a resetting through which the foreign framework still shows” (pp. 88–91). Burkert, Walter. 1992. The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age. Harvard University Press.
^ Green, Margaret Whitney. 1975. "Eridu in Sumerian Literature" (PhD dissertation). University of Chicago. p. 224. The Akkadian determinative dingir (𒀭) primarily translates to 'god' or 'goddess'. However, it may also mean 'priest' or 'priestess', even while other Akkadian words (e.g. ēnu and ēntu) also translate to such. The noun 'divine' is thus used to preserve this ambiguity in dingir.
^ On some tablets the under-god Weila or Aw-ilu, was slain for this purpose.
^ Suggestive of an oracle.

Citations

^ Bottéro, Jean. 2000. Ancestor of the West: Writing, Reasoning, and Religion in Mesopotamia, Elam, and Greece. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226067155. p. 40.
^ Helle, Sophus (2021-10-26). Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-26259-9.
^ ^a ^b Lambert, Wilfred G., and Alan R. Millard. 1999 [1969]. Atrahasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood. London: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 1-57506-039-6.
^ Lambert, Wilfred G., and Alan Millard. 1965. Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum. London.
^ Atra-Hasis III, iv.7–9.
^ "Sumerian King List." WB 62. circa 2000 BC.
^ Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, trans. 1998. "The Story of the Flood." Epic of Gilgamesh XI (electronic ed.), edited by W. Carnahan. Academy of Ancient Texts.
^ Zólyomi, Gábor, trans. 2003 [1999]. "The instructions of Šuruppag." The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (2nd ed.), edited by G. Zólyomi, J. A. Black, E. Robson, and G. Cunningham. London: Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
^ ^a ^b Zólyomi, Gábor, trans. 2001 [1999]. "The Sumerian king list: translation." The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (2nd ed.), edited by G. Zólyomi, J. A. Black, G. Cunningham, and E. Robson. London: Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
^ ^a ^b George, Andrew R., trans. 2003 [1999]. The Epic of Gilgamesh (reprint and corrected ed.), edited by A. R. George. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044919-1.
^ ^a ^b Tigay, Jeffrey H. 1982. The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-7805-4. pp. 238–39.
^ Atra-Hasis III, ii.40–47.
^ ^a ^b Atra-Hasis III.iv.
^ Atra-Hasis III.iv 6–7.
^ The Epic of Gilgamesh XI 123.
^ Atra-Hasis III 30–31.
^ The Epic of Gilgamesh XI 113.

External links

English text of The Epic of Atraḥasis

[3] The variant versions are not direct translations of a single original.

[6] Walter Burkert traces the model drawn from Atrahasis to a corresponding passage, the division by lots of the air, underworld and sea among Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon in the Iliad, in which “a resetting through which the foreign framework still shows” (pp. 88–91). Burkert, Walter. 1992. The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age. Harvard University Press.

[7] Green, Margaret Whitney. 1975. "Eridu in Sumerian Literature" (PhD dissertation). University of Chicago. p. 224. The Akkadian determinative dingir (𒀭) primarily translates to 'god' or 'goddess'. However, it may also mean 'priest' or 'priestess', even while other Akkadian words (e.g. ēnu and ēntu) also translate to such. The noun 'divine' is thus used to preserve this ambiguity in dingir.

[8] On some tablets the under-god Weila or Aw-ilu, was slain for this purpose.

[9] Suggestive of an oracle.

[1] Bottéro, Jean. 2000. Ancestor of the West: Writing, Reasoning, and Religion in Mesopotamia, Elam, and Greece. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226067155. p. 40.

[2] Helle, Sophus (2021-10-26). Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-26259-9.

[:0-4] Lambert, Wilfred G., and Alan R. Millard. 1999 [1969]. Atrahasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood. London: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 1-57506-039-6.

[5] Lambert, Wilfred G., and Alan Millard. 1965. Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum. London.

[10] Atra-Hasis III, iv.7–9.

[11] "Sumerian King List." WB 62. circa 2000 BC.

[12] Kovacs, Maureen Gallery, trans. 1998. "The Story of the Flood." Epic of Gilgamesh XI (electronic ed.), edited by W. Carnahan. Academy of Ancient Texts.

[13] Zólyomi, Gábor, trans. 2003 [1999]. "The instructions of Šuruppag." The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (2nd ed.), edited by G. Zólyomi, J. A. Black, E. Robson, and G. Cunningham. London: Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. Retrieved 15 May 2020.

[:1-14] Zólyomi, Gábor, trans. 2001 [1999]. "The Sumerian king list: translation." The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (2nd ed.), edited by G. Zólyomi, J. A. Black, G. Cunningham, and E. Robson. London: Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2020.

[:2-15] George, Andrew R., trans. 2003 [1999]. The Epic of Gilgamesh (reprint and corrected ed.), edited by A. R. George. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044919-1.

[:3-16] Tigay, Jeffrey H. 1982. The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-7805-4. pp. 238–39.

[17] Atra-Hasis III, ii.40–47.

[:4-18] Atra-Hasis III.iv.

[19] Atra-Hasis III.iv 6–7.

[20] The Epic of Gilgamesh XI 123.

[21] Atra-Hasis III 30–31.

[22] The Epic of Gilgamesh XI 113.

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