AN ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION AND FLOOD, FROM A TABLET WRITTEN AT NIPPUR BEFORE 2000 B. C.
Translation. Comparison with the Other Version.
1. Translation.
This tablet was published by Dr. Arno Poebel, of Breslau. It was apparently written in the time of the dynasty of Nisin, but at any rate not later than the period of the first dynasty of Babylon. Only a part of the tablet has been found, so that the narrative is incomplete both at the beginning and at the end. Possibly the remaining portion may some time be found in the museum at Constantinople. The tablet is inscribed on both sides, and there are three columns to the side. The portions that are still extant read as follows:[400]
Column I (about three-fourths of the column missing)
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“My human-kind from its destruction I will [raise up];
With the aid of Nintu my creation .......... I will raise up;
The people in their settlements I will establish;
The city, wherever man creates one—indeed its protection—therein I will give him rest.
Our house—its brick may he cast in a clean spot!
Our places in a clean place may he establish!”
Its brilliant splendor, the temple platform, he made straight,
The exalted regulations he completed for it;
The land he divided; a favorable plan he established.
After Anu, Enlil,[401] Enki,[402] and Ninkharsag
The black-headed[403] race had created,
All that is from the earth, from the earth they caused to spring,
Cattle and beasts of the field suitably they brought into being.Here the first column ends. The passage opens in the midst of the speech of some deity—perhaps Ninkharsag (a Sumerian name of Ishtar) or possibly Enlil, the god of Nippur. First the deity tells how mankind, which has been overthrown, shall be raised up again. Then we are told how he perfected plans for the accomplishment of this purpose, and lastly how four deities called into being men and animals.
Column II (about three-fifths of the text is missing)
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................. I will ...............................
............. I will turn my eye upon him .............
The ......... creator of the land ...............................
................ of royalty ......................
................ of royalty by him was determined;
The exalted palace of the royal throne was by him set apart,
The exalted precepts .......... he made perfect,
In clean places .......... cities .......... he founded,
Their names were named, they were allotted to guardian-spirits (?)
Of these cities Eridu—the chief command to Nudimmud he gave,
Unto the second the nisag-priests of Umma (?) he gave,
Thirdly, Larak to Pabilkharsag he gave,
Fourthly, Sippar as the dwelling of Shamash he gave,
Fifthly, Shurippak unto Lamkurru he gave.
Their names were assigned; to guardian-spirits (?) they were allotted;
Its rampart (?), a wall (?) he raised up, he established;
Small rivers, canals (?), and water-courses (?) he established.
The last part of this column relates how five cities were established by some deity. Of what the first part treated we cannot make out from the few fragments of lines that are still legible.
Column III
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The land the sway of Anu ..................
The people ....................
A deluge ........................
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Their land (?) it entered ....................
Then Nintu [cried out] like [a woman in travail] ..........
The brilliant Ishtar [uttered] a groan on account of her people.
Enki with himself held communion in his wisdom;
Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninkharsag,
The gods of heaven and earth, invoked the names of Anu and Enlil,
At that time Ziugiddu was king, the priest of ..........
The chief deity he made of wood ..........
In humility prostrating himself, in reverence ..........
Daily at all times was he present in person ..........
Increasing dreams which had not come [before],
Conjuring by the name of heaven and earth ..........In this column the narrative has passed to the story of the deluge. The gods have determined to send a deluge; Ziugiddu in consequence constructed an idol from wood (compare Isa. 40:20), and earnestly worshiped it, seeking oracles for his guidance.
Column IV
For the settlement (?) the gods a wall (?) ..........
Ziugiddu stood by its side, he heard ..........
“At the wall at my left side stand ..........
At the wall I will speak a word to thee
O my brilliant one, let there enter thy ear ..........
By our hand a deluge .......... will be sent.
The seed of mankind to destroy ..........
Is the momentous decision of the assembly (of the gods);
The words of Anu and Enlil ..........
Their kingdom, their rule ..........
To them ....................”
It is clear from these fragmentary lines that Ziugiddu is being informed of the approaching deluge. It is also clear that some of the elements of the narrative are identical with some of the elements of the one discussed in Chapter VI. Ziugiddu is commanded to stand by a wall, where some deity will speak to him. This appears in the other version in the form:
“O reed-hut, reed-hut, O wall, wall,[404]
O reed-hut, hearken; O wall, give heed!
O man of Shurippak, son of Ubartutu,
Pull down thy house, build a ship,” etc.
In that account, too, the assembly of the gods is also referred to in line 120, ff. These are examples of the way the same theme, differently treated, turns up in different forms.
Column V
The evil winds, the wind that is hostile, came; all of them descended,
The deluge .......... came on with them
Seven days and seven nights
The deluge swept over the land,
The evil wind made the huge boat tremble.
Shamash[405] came forth, on heaven and earth he shone;
Ziugiddu the ship at the top uncovered,
The peace of Shamash, his light, entered into the boat.
Ziugiddu, the king
Before Shamash bowed his face to the earth.
The king—an ox he sacrificed, a sheep offered as oblation.
.........................................In this column we have a fragment which relates some details similar to those told in lines 128, 129, and 136-138 of the account given in Chapter VI.
Column VI
By the life of heaven and the life of earth ye shall conjure him,
That he may raise up from you;
Anu and Enlil by the soul of heaven and the soul of earth ye shall conjure,
That they may raise up from you
The curse that has come upon the land, that they may remove it.
Ziugiddu the king
Before Anu and Enlil bowed his face to the earth.
Life like a god’s he gave to him,
An immortal spirit like a god’s he brought to him.
Then Ziugiddu the king,
Of the seed that was cursed, lord of mankind he made;
In the fruitful land, the land of Dilmun .......... they made him dwell
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At this point the last column is hopelessly broken. It is clear, however, from the part which remains that Ziugiddu is in this narrative translated to the Isle of the Blest as was Utnapishtim in the account translated in Chapter VI, lines 202-205.[406] Indeed there is reason to believe that the two accounts of the flood are divergent versions of the same story. In addition to the likenesses already mentioned, the names of the two heroes, though they appear so different, are the same in meaning. Utnapishtim (or Unapishtim) means “day of life,” or “day-life,” while Ziugiddu means “Life-day prolonged.”
2. Comparison with the Other Version.
Although this tablet is much broken, so that we have not the whole of the story, it is clear from the parts that we have that in this version preserved at Nippur the story was much shorter than in the form translated in Chapter VI, which was preserved in the library of Ashurbanipal. It was also combined with a briefer account of the creation than that translated in Chapter I from Ashurbanipal’s library.
Of this Nippurian version of the creation story we have in this tablet only the small fragments preserved in Columns I and II. It is, however, probable that the Nippurian version of the creation was in its main features similar to that preserved in the library at Nineveh, only more brief.
If this be so, the conquest of the dragon TiÂmat is here attributed to Enlil of Nippur, as in the other version it is attributed to Marduk of Babylon, and as in Psa. 74:13, 14, it is attributed to Jehovah. This older account from Nippur agrees in one respect more nearly with the Biblical account than the one from the library at Nineveh does, for it represents Ziugiddu as a very pious man, who was apparently saved from destruction on account of his piety, and in blessing him God removed the curse as Jehovah did in Gen. 8:21.
