September 30 2015 Lecture Outline Atrahasis and the Flood Culture Babylonian more broadly Mesopotamian Note We re back to Mesopotamia cf Enuma Elish Work Read Atrahasis Form Poem Period c 1700 BCE Language Akkadian using Cuneiform script 1 Flood Myth perhaps all the flood myths started in Mesopotamia because of the Tigris and Euphrates that flooded catastrophically AND regularly So possibly all flood myths or the idea comes from Mesopotamia and then it spread abroad 2 Flood myth is a subcategory of an Apocalyptic Myth where gods level destruction on humans cause one or more humans offended the gods For flood myths the gods level destruction on humans by way of flood destroying all life on earth Basic Scheme of a Flood Myth 1 God one is angry 2 Sends flood to destroy all life on earth 3 Another god warns one man to build a boat and put animals on it 4 Man and wife survive 5 Man sacrifices gods pivotal moment where gods regret the flood Note that no one flood myth we have read will read has all of these points possibly because of text story fragmentation but this is the basic scheme Earliest flood myths are Sumerian versions 3000 2000 BCE Babylonian version Atrahasis c 1700 BCE Hebrew version Epic of Gilgamesh c 1200 BCE Greco Roman version Ovid s Metamorphosis 8 BCE Atrahasis Form Poem 1 Fragmented into two sets the OBV Old Babylonian version c 2000 2 1600 BCE and the SBV Standard Babylonian version c 1000 539 BCE Ipiq Aya c 1700 is the proposed author or compiler Similar to Greek Homer how he s a proposed author though we don t even know if he really existed The poem is formed into three tablets of Cuneiform script Compared to Enuma Elish 7 Tablets Note Enki is in OBV as the Sumerian name and Ea is in SBV which is his Akkadian name The Beginning Gods At Work For 3600 years gods dig canals into the earth that already exists and they ve had enough One of the main jobs of Mesopotamian kings were maintaining the Tigris and Euphrates irrigation canals as that equaled water to the farmers which equaled life though in Atrahasis the gods were doing this work and they re tired So they go on a worker strike and complain to Ellil the boss of the gods Ellil is the god of storms and winds seen in the song of Ullikumi as a quick cameo when Ullikumi was born Ellil said this baby will be something The author says that the gods drew lots Ellil gets earth Anu binatural as a god and the upper sky gets the sky and Enki Ea farsighted for wisdom gets Apsu the waters because that s where he lives where his temple resides So here we see a tripartite kingdom Compared to Enuma Elish where one god was in charge Marduk and here we have three gods in charge Atrahasis Ellil doesn t know what to do about the gods complaints so he goes to Enki Ea wisdom serving as advisor once again like he was to Kumarbi in Kumarbi Cycle Enki says that we need the creator goddess Mami Nintu to make humans to do the work of the gods This is the recurrence of the fundamental way of how Mesopotamians thought of their relationships to the gods They re created in Atrahasis by the blood of a slain god Ilawela which can be compared to Quingu the vizier soldier for Tiamat who s blood was used to create humans in Enuma Elish For the creation of humans Ilawela s role is just to be the slain god and then with her blood plus clay 14 pieces 7 men 7 women who are the first created humans Compare this to Genesis and how humans are formed from clay and water Next Section The Anger of Ellil 600 years post human creation and there s overpopulation Perhaps Mami Nintu made them immortal forgot to give them short little human lives but there s an overpopulation of humans and that noise So much noise that Ellil is angered cf Enuma Elish and Apsu fresh water husband to Tiamat who was salt water getting annoyed with the noise of the gods Ellil calls an assembly divine council myth Will they help hurt humans As the divine council myth is where two or more gods come together to discuss the fate of humans Ellil says that he wants to rid the earth of all humans so there is his first attempt a human specific plague Atrahasis translates to extra wise is the king of Shuruppak He prays to Enki Ea and we get the Mesopotamian concept of a personal god that humans and certain gods have personal connections relationships Atrahasis and Enki Ea are both connected by their wisdom cf Greek god Athena and Poseidon are connected by their intelligence the idea of a patron god who is the protector of a specific city like Marduk being the patron god of Babylon they have a connection personal god Enki s advice is don t worship the gods that you normally worship This is what you can do in a polytheistic society shop around for the god you want to worship Simply go to another god for whatever reason you like So Atrahasis has his people worship the god Namtara who s now getting all this attention and human built temples and he s like okay this is great and he lifts the plague Ellil Famine Attempt 2 Enki s advice is to again go on a strike and worship the god Adad With all the worships and temples he lifts the famine Ellil drought attempt 3 Within the text the drought is completely fragmented The third god whoever he is he gets worships from Atrahasis and his people and he lifts the drought from the people and Ellil s attempt is foiled all over again Ellil s angry now and there s a shift now s he s like Let me just kill EVERYTHING This results in another divine council myth At the divine council Ellil s proposal for a flood to wipe out everything gets approved and Ellil makes the gods swear to tell no one of such a flood But Enki god of wisdom gets around it by going to a wall reed hut and he tells the wall of what s happening But of course who s behind that wall is Atrahasis and he builds a boat and puts animals in it according to Enki Ea s advice Note NEW ATRAHASIS FRAGMENT Found in 2010 and hasn t even been released to the public because it still needs work The clay tablet was found by the son of a man who was in WWII in Iraq The man found some tablets and put them in the basement of his home which the son found years later in 2010 The tablet contains the boat building instructions from Enki to Atrahasis we get more of the story On the tablet Enki tells Atrahasis to build the boat out of palm fibers and make it circular What …
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