Atra-Hasis
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The 18th century BC Akkadian Atra-Hasis epic, named after its human hero, contains both a creation and a flood account, and is one of three surviving Babylonian flood stories. In its cosmology, heaven is ruled by the god Anu, earth by Enlil, and the freshwater ocean by Enki. Enlil set the lesser gods to work farming the land and maintaining the irrigation canals, but after forty years they refused to work any longer. Enki, who is also the wise counselor to the gods, proposes that humans be created to take on the work, so the goddess Mami makes humans by shaping clay mixed with saliva and the blood of the under-god Aw-ilu, who was slain for this purpose.
Atrahasis tablet III,iv, lines 6-9 clearly identify 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."
See also
References
W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard, Atrahasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood, Eisenbrauns, 1999, ISBN 1-57506-039-6.
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