THE STORY OF FLOOD FROM
THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
QUARTER: Midterm
SECTION: BSCE 2A/2B/2C and BSARCH 2B
EXPECT:
● Describe the character of Gilgamesh;
● Retell the story through group story sequencing;
● Compare and contrast the Story of Flood from The Bible: Noah’s Arc
EXPLORE:
Epic
- long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds
- has been and continues to be used by peoples all over the world to
transmit their traditions from one generation to another, without the aid of
writing.
Examples:
Iliad and Odyssey
Beowulf
Epic of Gilgamesh
- An ancient Mesopotamian odyssey recorded in the Akkadian
language about Gilgamesh, the king of the Mesopotamian city-state Uruk
(Erech).
Great BooksPrelim Kayra Mae C. Raut
The Epic of Gilgamesh. (n.d.). Sparknote. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/summary/
The Story of Flood
Characters
Anu
The father of the gods and the god of the firmament.
Enlil
God of earth, wind, and air. A superior deity, Enlil is not very fond of
humankind.
Ea
The god of fresh water, crafts, and wisdom, a patron of humankind. Ea
lives in Apsu, the primal waters below the Earth.
Utnapishtim’s Wife
An unnamed woman who plays an important role in the story.
Utnapishtim’s wife softens her husband toward Gilgamesh, persuading
him to disclose the secret of the magic plant called How-the-Old-Man-
Once-Again-Becomes-a-Young-Man.
Utnapishtim
A king and priest of Shurrupak, whose name translates as “He Who Saw
Life.” By the god Ea’s connivance, Utnapishtim survived the great deluge
that almost destroyed all life on Earth by building a great boat that
carried him, his family, and one of every living creature to safety. The gods
granted eternal life to him and his wife.
“Both Gilgamesh and parts of the Bible are written in similar languages: Hebrew is
related to Akkadian, the Babylonian language that the author used in
composing the late versions of Gilgamesh. The Bible comes from the same
region as Gilgamesh and shares some of its motifs and stories, such as the
serpent as the enemy who deprives humans of eternal life and, most important,
the flood. In both the Bible and Gilgamesh, disobedience to a god or gods brings
dire consequences.”
EXPOUND:
THE STORY OF THE FLOOD
FROM THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH, BY THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH, 2100BCE
‘You know the city Shurrupak, it stands on the banks of Euphrates? That city grew
old and the gods that were in it were old. There was Anu,-lord of the firmament,
their father, and warrior Enlil their counsellor, Ninurta the helper, and Ennugi
watcher over canals; and with them also was Ea. In those days the world
teemed, the people multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great
Great BooksPrelim Kayra Mae C. Raut
The Epic of Gilgamesh. (n.d.). Sparknote. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/summary/
god was aroused by the clamour. Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the
gods in council, “The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer
possible by reason of the babel.” So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind.
Enlil did this, but Ea because of his oath warned me in a dream. He whispered
their words to my house of reeds, “Reed-house, reed-house! Wall, O wall,
hearken reed-house, wall reflect; O man of Shurrupak, son of Ubara-Tutu; tear
down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life,
despise worldly goods and save your soul alive. Tear down your house, I say, and
build a boat. These are the measurements of the barque as you shall build her:
let hex beam equal her length, let her deck be roofed like the vault that covers
the abyss; then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures.”
‘When I had understood I said to my lord, “Behold, what you have
commanded I will honour and perform, but how shall I answer the people, the
city, the elders?” Then Ea opened his mouth and said to me, his servant, “Tell
them this: I have learnt that Enlil is wrathful against me, I dare no longer walk in
his land nor live in his city; I will go down to the Gulf to dwell with Ea my lord. But
on you he will rain down abundance, rare fish and shy wild-fowl, a rich harvest-
tide. In the evening the rider of the storm will bring you wheat in torrents.”
‘In the first light of dawn all my household gathered round me, the
children brought pitch and the men whatever was necessary. On the fifth day I
laid the keel and the ribs, then I made fast the planking. The ground-space was
one acre, each side of the deck measured one hundred and twenty cubits,
making a square. I built six decks below, seven in all, I divided them into nine
sections with bulkheads between. I drove in wedges where needed, I saw to the
punt poles, and laid in supplies. The carriers brought oil in baskets, I poured pitch
into the furnace and asphalt and oil; more oil was consumed in caulking, and
more again the master of the boat took into his stores. I slaughtered bullocks for
the people and every day I killed sheep. I gave the shipwrights wine to drink as
though it were river water, raw wine and red wine and oil and white wine. There
was feasting then as -there is at the time of the New Year’s festival; I myself
anointed my head. On the seventh day the boat was complete.
-’Then was the launching full of difficulty; there was shifting of ballast
above and below till two thirds was submerged. I loaded into her all that 1 had
of gold and of living things, my family, my kin, the beast of the field both wild and
tame, and all the craftsmen. I sent them on board, for the time that Shamash
Great BooksPrelim Kayra Mae C. Raut
The Epic of Gilgamesh. (n.d.). Sparknote. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/summary/
had ordained was already fulfilled when he said, “in the evening, when the rider
of the storm sends down the destroying rain, enter the boat and batten her
down.” The time was fulfilled, the evening came, the rider of the storm sent down
the rain. I looked out at the weather and it was terrible, so I too boarded the
boat and battened her down. All was now complete, the battening and the
caulking; so I handed the tiller to Puzur-Amurri the steersman, with the navigation
and the care of the whole boat.
‘With the first light of dawn a black cloud came from the horizon; it
thundered within where Adad, lord of the storm was riding. In front over hill and
plain Shullat and Hanish, heralds of the storm, led on. Then the gods of the abyss
rose up; Nergal pulled out the dams of the nether waters, Ninurta the war-lord
threw down the dykes, and the seven judges of hell, the Annunaki, raised their
torches, lighting the land with their livid flame. A stupor of despair went up to
heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight to darkness, when he
smashed the land like a cup. One whole day the tempest raged, gathering fury
as .it went, it poured over the people like the tides of battle; a imam could not
see his brother nor the people be seen from heaven. Even the gods were
terrified at the flood, they fled to the highest heaven, the firmament of Ann; they
crouched against the walls, cowering like curs. Then Ishtar the sweet-voiced
Queen of Heaven cried out like a woman in travail: “Alas the days -of old are
turned to dust because I commanded evil; why did I command thus evil in the
council of all the gods? I commanded wars to destroy the people, but are they
not my people, for I brought them forth? Now like the spawn of fish they float in
the ocean.” The great gods of heaven and of hell wept, they covered their
mouths.
‘For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood
overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts.
When the seventh day dawned the storm from the south subsided, the sea grew
calm, the, flood was stilled; I looked at the face of the world and there was
silence, all mankind was turned to clay. The surface of the sea stretched as flat
as a roof-top; I opened a hatch and the light fell on my face. Then I bowed low, I
sat down and I wept, the tears streamed down my face, for on every side was
the waste of water. I looked for land in vain, but fourteen leagues distant there
appeared a mountain, and there the boat grounded; on the mountain of Nisir
the boat held fast, she held fast and did not budge. One day she held, and -a
second day on the mountain of Nisir she held fast and did not budge. A third
Great BooksPrelim Kayra Mae C. Raut
The Epic of Gilgamesh. (n.d.). Sparknote. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/summary/
day, and a fourth day she held fast on the mountain and did not budge; a fifth
day and a sixth day she held fast on the mountain. When the seventh day
dawned I loosed a dove and let her go. She flew away, but finding no resting-
place she returned. Then I loosed a swallow, and she flew away but finding no
resting-place she returned. I loosed a raven, she saw that the waters had
retreated, she ate, she flew around, she cawed, and she did not come back.
Then I threw everything open to the four winds, I made a sacrifice and poured
out a libation on the mountain top. Seven and again seven cauldrons I set up on
their stands, I heaped up wood and cane and cedar and myrtle. When the gods
smelled the sweet savour, they gathered like flies over the sacrifice. Then, at last,
Ishtar also came, she lifted her necklace with the jewels of heaven that once
Anu had made to please her. “O you gods here present, by the lapis lazuli round
my neck I shall remember these days as I remember the jewels of my throat;
these last days I shall not forget. Let all the gods gather round the sacrifice,
except Enlil. He shall not approach this offering, for without reflection he brought
the flood; he consigned my people to destruction.”
‘When Enlil had come, when he saw the boat, he was wrath and swelled
with anger at the gods, the host of heaven, “Has any of these mortals escaped?
Not one was to have survived the destruction.” Then the god of the wells and
canals Ninurta opened his mouth and said to the warrior Enlil, “Who is there of
the gods that can devise without Ea? It is Ea alone who knows all things.” Then
Ea opened his mouth and spoke to warrior Enlil, “Wisest of gods, hero Enlil, how
could you so senselessly bring down the flood?
Lay upon the sinner his sin,
Lay upon the transgressor his transgression,
Punish him a little when he breaks loose,
Do not drive him too hard or he perishes,
Would that a lion had ravaged mankind
Rather than the f loud,
Would that a wolf had ravaged mankind
Rather than the flood,
Would that famine had wasted the world
Rather than the flood,
Would that pestilence had wasted mankind
Rather than the flood.
Great BooksPrelim Kayra Mae C. Raut
The Epic of Gilgamesh. (n.d.). Sparknote. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/summary/
It was not I that revealed the secret of the gods; the wise man learned it in
a dream. Now take your counsel what shall be done with him.”
‘Then Enlil went up into the boat, he took me by the hand and my wife
and made us enter the boat and kneel down on either side, he standing
between us. He touched our foreheads to bless us saying, “In time past
Utnapishtim was a mortal man; henceforth he and his wife shall live in the
distance at the mouth of the rivers.” Thus it was that the gods took me and
placed me here to live in the distance, at the mouth of the rivers.'
READ:
Full reading on The Epic of Gilgamesh|| Sin-leqiunninni:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53b59f96e4b089bf6ae90076/t/5dc19b0aa9a2b60e
2f72e207/1572969227533/TGC+Gilgamesh.pdf
Great BooksPrelim Kayra Mae C. Raut
The Epic of Gilgamesh. (n.d.). Sparknote. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/summary/
Great BooksPrelim Kayra Mae C. Raut
The Epic of Gilgamesh. (n.d.). Sparknote. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/summary/
