Atrahasis: The Epic Where Gods Made Humans, Then Sent the Flood

The Babylonian epic where overworked gods strike, humans are made from a slain god's blood and clay, and the Flood is sent to silence them.

Atrahasis is an Akkadian epic, best preserved in a 17th-century BCE copy, that tells how the gods made humans to do their work and later sent a flood that the hero Atrahasis survived in a boat.

Atrahasis, 'exceedingly wise', is both the hero and the title of an Akkadian epic. The best copy was written in the reign of the Babylonian king Ammi-saduqa, in the 17th century BCE, on three tablets of about 1,245 lines. The standard edition is by W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard (1969). It tells the whole story from the creation of humans to the Flood.

It opens 'When the gods, like men, bore the work'. The junior gods, the Igigi, dig the rivers until they revolt. Enki proposes a worker. A god named We-ila, 'who had intelligence', is slain, and the birth goddess Nintu mixes his flesh and blood with clay. From him comes the human spirit, and the drumbeat of the heart. Seven men and seven women are born.

Humans multiply and their noise disturbs Enlil. He sends plague, drought, and famine, and each time Enki shows people a way through. Finally the gods vote for a flood and swear Enki to silence. He tells the reed wall of Atrahasis' house instead, and Atrahasis builds a boat. He loads the animals, seals the door with pitch, and the storm roars for seven days and seven nights.

After the Flood, the gods set new limits on humanity: some women will be barren, a demon will snatch babies, and some priestesses will not bear children. The story explains, in its own terms, why humans die and why there are not more of them. The gods also regret the Flood when they find themselves hungry and thirsty without humans to make offerings.