The Gilgamesh flood myth is part of the Gilgamesh Epic. It is one of three ancient Mesopotamian flood stories, along with the one in the Eridu Genesis and an event from the Atra-Hasis Epic. Many scholars think the Gilgamesh flood myth was added to Tablet XI in the common version of the Gilgamesh Epic by someone who included the flood story from the Epic of Atra-Hasis. A brief mention of the flood myth also appears in older Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh, which later Babylonian versions used as inspiration and sources for their stories.

History

Gilgamesh's historical rule is thought to have happened around 2700 BC, just before the first written stories were created. Artifacts linked to Aga and Enmebaragesi of Kish, two other kings mentioned in the stories, help support the idea that Gilgamesh was a real person.

The earliest Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh date back to the Third dynasty of Ur, between 2100 and 2000 BC. One of these poems describes Gilgamesh’s journey to meet a flood hero and includes a short version of the flood story. The earliest Akkadian versions of the complete epic were written between about 2000 and 1500 BC. These Old Babylonian versions are broken or incomplete, so it is unclear if they included a longer version of the flood story. However, one piece of writing definitely includes the story of Gilgamesh’s journey to meet Utnapishtim. The "standard" Akkadian version had a full version of the story and was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni, who lived between 1300 and 1000 BC.

Tablets

Hormuzd Rassam discovered the first Gilgamesh flood tablet in Nineveh. It was in the British Museum's collection but had not been translated yet. In 1872, George Smith, a worker at the British Museum, translated the tablet written in Akkadian from around 700 B.C. He said, "I am the first person to read this after more than 2,000 years of being forgotten."

During a later trip to Nineveh in Iraq, Smith found part of another tablet on May 7, 1873. This tablet had the missing part of the flood story, describing how supplies for the ark would be gathered: "Into the midst of it, your grain, your furniture, your goods, your wealth, your women servants, your female slaves…all the animals of the field, I will gather and send to you, and they will be enclosed in your door."

A much older cuneiform tablet, dating from 1646 to 1626 B.C., was discovered in 1898. This tablet, called the Epic of Atra-Hasis, describes a great flood. It is about 1,000 years older than the Book of Genesis. J.P. Morgan bought it, and it is now in the Morgan Library & Museum.

In 2007, Andrew George translated a tablet that is 3,200 years old. It dates back to around 1200 B.C. and was found during an excavation in Ugarit. The tablet includes a part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, including parts of the story of Utnapishtim and the flood.

Tablet 11

The Gilgamesh flood tablet 11 (XI) includes more story details besides the flood. The flood story is part of the epic because it shows Utnapishtim, the flood hero, being given immortality by the gods. This connects to the theme of living forever in the story. The main idea is that Utnapishtim received eternal life in a special situation that will never happen again. To prove this, Utnapishtim challenges Gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights. But as soon as Utnapishtim finishes speaking, Gilgamesh falls asleep. Utnapishtim tells his wife to bake a loaf of bread for each day Gilgamesh sleeps, so Gilgamesh cannot deny his failure. Gilgamesh, who wants to defeat death, cannot even stay awake.

As Gilgamesh leaves, Utnapishtim’s wife asks her husband to give Gilgamesh a gift. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh about a plant that looks like boxthorn at the bottom of the ocean. This plant can make him young again. Gilgamesh reaches the ocean floor by tying stones to his feet. He finds the plant and plans to test it on an old man when he returns to Uruk. However, when Gilgamesh stops to bathe, a serpent steals the plant. The serpent sheds its skin as it leaves, seeming to be reborn. After failing both challenges, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk. Seeing the city’s strong walls makes him praise the lasting work of human beings. The message might be that people can achieve lasting life through great works of civilization and culture.

Flood myth section

Lines 1-203, Tablet XI (note: additional titles and line numbers have been added for clarity)

Note: The term "Apsu" may describe a freshwater marsh located near the temple of Ea/Enki in the city of Eridu.

Last third of Tablet XI-Outline

Along with the flood story material (lines 1 through 203), tablet XI includes the following parts of the flood story:

List of titled sections, Tablet XI (by Kovacs):

Comparison between Atrahasis and Gilgamesh

Here are some examples of sentences that were almost exactly taken from the Atrahasis version into the Gilgamesh epic:

Material altered or omitted

The Epic of Atrahasis includes more details about the flood and the flood hero that are not found in Gilgamesh XI or other versions of the Ancient Near East flood story. In Atrahasis III ii, lines 40–47, it describes the flood hero during a banquet when the storm and flood began: "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."

According to Tigay, Atrahasis tablet III iv, lines 6–9 describe the flood as a local river flood: "Like dragonflies they [dead bodies] have filled the river. Like a raft they have moved in to the edge [of the boat]. Like a raft they have moved in to the riverbank." This sentence, "Like dragonflies they have filled the river," was changed in Gilgamesh XI line 123 to "Like the spawn of fishes, they fill the sea." Tigay explains that this change shows the mythmaker altered a local river flood into a global ocean flood.

Most other scholars believe the flood in Atrahasis was universal. A. R. George, and Lambert and Millard explain that the gods in Atrahasis aimed to "wipe out mankind." The flood destroyed "all of the earth." Similar language in the Gilgamesh epic suggests that "dragonflies [filling] the river" is a vivid image of death, not a literal description of the flood.

Other changes were made in the Atrahasis text when it was adapted into Gilgamesh to reduce the idea that the gods shared human needs. For example, Atrahasis OB III, 30–31, "The Anunnaki, the great gods [were sitt]ing in thirst and hunger," was changed in Gilgamesh XI, line 113, to "The gods feared the deluge." Sentences in Atrahasis III iv, such as "She was surfeited with grief and thirsted for beer" and "From hunger they were suffering cramp," were removed in Gilgamesh.

These and other changes to Atrahasis are described in a book by Prof. Tigay, who is an associate professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Prof. Tigay notes: "The removal of specific lines that are not repeated elsewhere but share a common theme—such as the gods' hunger and thirst during the flood—seems to be a deliberate editorial choice."

Although the 18th century BC version of the Atrahasis (Atra-Hasis) epic was written later than the early Gilgamesh epic, it is unclear if the Old-Akkadian Gilgamesh tablets included the flood story because surviving tablets are incomplete. Some scholars, including Tigay, argue that three major additions to the Gilgamesh epic—the prologue, the flood story (tablet XI), and tablet XII—were added by editors, possibly by Sin-leqi-unninninni, to whom the entire epic was later attributed. According to this view, the flood story in tablet XI was based on a later version of the Atrahasis story.

Alternative translations

Scholars often disagree on the meanings of unclear parts in ancient texts, especially when translating from long-dead languages. For example, line 57 of Gilgamesh XI is sometimes translated as "ten rods the height of her sides" or "its walls were each 10 times 12 cubits in height." A rod equals 12 cubits, and a Sumerian cubit was about 20 inches. These translations suggest the boat was about 200 feet tall, which seems unlikely given the technology of Gilgamesh's time (around 2700 BC). However, the original text does not include the word for "height" in line 57. It literally says, "Ten dozen-cubits each I-raised its-walls." A similar phrase from another tablet describes a wall length of about 83 feet, not height.

Line 142 of Gilgamesh XI is often translated as "Mount Niṣir held the boat, allowing no motion." The Akkadian words for "Mount Niṣir" are "KUR-ú KUR ni-ṣir." The word KUR can mean hill, mountain, or country. The first KUR is followed by a clue that helps read it as "šadú" (hill) in Akkadian, not "mātu" (country). Since "šadú" can also mean mountain, and the Biblical term "Mount Ararat" is known, scholars often translate it as "mountain." The flood hero in the story is Sumerian, as recorded in the Sumerian King List. In Sumerian, KUR primarily means "mountain," and the word "country" developed later due to Sumer's mountainous neighbors. The second KUR is read as "mātu" (country), so the full phrase becomes "The hill/mound country niṣir held the boat."

Lines 146–147 of Gilgamesh XI are usually translated as "I … made sacrifice, incense I placed on the peak of the mountain." Similarly, "I poured out a libation on the peak of the mountain." However, Kovacs translates line 156 as "I offered incense in front of the mountain-ziggurat." Parpola provides the original Akkadian: "áš-kun sur-qin-nu ina UGU ziq-qur-rat KUR-i." This means, "I placed an offering on top of a hilly ziggurat." A ziggurat was a temple tower where priests made offerings to gods. Most translators skip "ziggurat" in line 157, but Kovacs includes it, as Parpola's dictionary defines "ziq-qur-rat" as "temple tower, ziggurat."

One Sumerian city with a ziggurat was Eridu, located near the Euphrates River and a swampy area called the apsû. The only ziggurat in Eridu was at the temple of the god Ea (Enki), known as the apsû-house. In Gilgamesh XI, line 42, the flood hero says, "I will go down [the river] to the apsû to live with Ea, my Lord."

Lines 189–192 (lines 198–201) of Gilgamesh XI are usually translated as "Then Enlil came aboard the boat. He took hold of my hand and brought me on board. He brought aboard my wife and made her kneel at my side. Standing between us, he touched our foreheads to bless us." The first sentence reads, "Then dingir-kabtu came aboard the boat." The Akkadian word "dingir" usually means "god" but can also mean "priest." "Dingir-kabtu" literally means "divine important-person." Translating this as "Enlil" is a guess by the translator.