Sumerian creation myth
The earliest record of a Sumerian creation myth, called The Eridu Genesis by historian Thorkild
Jacobsen,[1] is found on a single fragmentary tablet excavated in Nippur by the Expedition of the University
of Pennsylvania in 1893, and first recognized by Arno Poebel in 1912. It is written in the Sumerian language
and dated to around 1600 BCE.[1] Other Sumerian creation myths from around this date are called the
Barton Cylinder, the Debate between sheep and grain and the Debate between Winter and Summer, also
found at Nippur.[2]
Contents
Summary
Flood myth
Legacy
Ziusudra and Xisuthros
See also
Notes
External links
Summary
The beginning of the tablet is lost, but at the point of the story where the surviving portion begins, it
describes how the gods An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursanga created the Sumerians and comfortable conditions
for the animals to live and procreate. Kingship then descends from heaven, and the first cities are founded:
Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak.
After a missing section in the tablet, we learn that the gods have decided not to save mankind from an
impending flood. Zi-ud-sura, the king and gudug priest, learns of this. In the later Akkadian version
recorded in the Atra-Hasis Epic, Ea, or Enki in Sumerian, the god of the waters, warns the hero (Atrahasis in
this case) and gives him instructions for building an ark. This is missing in the Sumerian fragment, but a
mention of Enki taking counsel with himself suggests that this is Enki's role in the Sumerian version as well.
Flood myth
After a missing section in the tablet, we learn that the gods have decided to send a flood to destroy mankind.
The god Enki (lord of the underworld sea of fresh water and Sumerian equivalent of Babylonian god Ea)
warns Ziusudra, the ruler of Shuruppak, to build a large boat (the passage describing the directions for the
boat is also lost).
When the tablet resumes, it is describing the flood. A terrible storm raged for seven days and nights. "The
huge boat had been tossed about on the great waters." Then Utu (Sun) appears and Ziusudra opens a
window, prostrates himself, and sacrifices an ox and a sheep.
After another break, the text resumes with the flood apparently over, and Ziusudra is prostrating himself
before An (Sky) and Enlil (Lordbreath), who give him "breath eternal" for "preserving the animals and the
seed of mankind". The remainder of the poem is lost.[3]
The Epic of Ziusudra adds an element at lines 258–261 not found in other versions, that after the river
flood[4] "king Ziusudra ... they caused to dwell in the land of the country of Dilmun, the place where the sun
rises". In this version of the story, Ziusudra's boat floats down the Euphrates river into the Persian Gulf
(rather than up onto a mountain, or up-stream to Kish).[5] The Sumerian word KUR (http://psd.museum.upen
n.edu/epsd/e3180.html) in line 140 of the Gilgamesh flood myth was interpreted to mean "mountain" in
Akkadian, although in Sumerian, KUR did not mean "mountain" but rather "land", especially a foreign
country.
Some modern scholars believe the Sumerian deluge story corresponds to localized river flooding at
Shuruppak (modern Tell Fara, Iraq) and various other cities as far north as Kish, as revealed by a layer of
riverine sediments, radiocarbon dated to c. 2900 BCE, which interrupt the continuity of settlement.
Polychrome pottery from the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3000–2900 BCE) was discovered immediately below
this Shuruppak flood stratum. None of the predynastic antediluvian rulers have been verified as historical by
archaeological excavations, epigraphical inscriptions or otherwise. While there is no evidence they ever
reigned as such, the Sumerians purported them to have lived in the mythical era before the great deluge.[6]
A Sumerian document known as the Instructions of Shuruppak, dated by Kramer to about 2600 BCE, refers
in a later version to Ziusudra. Kramer stated Ziusudra had become a "venerable figure in literary tradition"
by the 3rd millennium BCE.[7]
Legacy
Other flood myths with many similarities to the Sumerian story are the story of the Dravida king Manu in
the Matsya Purana, the Utnapishtim episode in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis flood narrative found
in the Bible. The ancient Greeks have two similar myths from a later date: The Deucalion and Zeus' flooding
of the world in Book I of Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Ziusudra and Xisuthros
Zi-ud-sura is known to us from the following sources:
From the Sumerian Flood myth discussed above.
In reference to his immortality in some versions of The Death of Gilgamesh[8]
Again in reference to his immortality in The Poem of Early Rulers[9]
As Xisuthros (Ξίσουθρος) in Berossus' Hellenistic account of the Babylonian history
As Ziusudra in the WB-62 recension of the Sumerian king list. This text diverges from all other
extant king lists by listing the city of Shuruppak as a king, and including Ziusudra as
"Shuruppak's" successor.[10]
A later version of a document known as The Instructions of Shuruppak[11] refers to
Ziusudra.[12]
In both of the late-dated king lists cited above, the name Zi-ud-sura was inserted immediately before a flood
event included in all versions of the Sumerian king list, apparently creating a connection between the
ancient Flood myth and a historic flood mentioned in the king list. However, no other king list mentions Zi-
ud-sura.
See also
Atra-Hasis
Creation myth
Deluge (mythology)
Enûma Eliš
Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh flood myth
Mesopotamian mythology
Song of the hoe
Sumerian literature
Notes
1. Thorkild Jacobsen (1994). Hess, Richard S.; Tsumuro, David Toshio (eds.). I Studied
Inscriptions from Before the Flood: Ancient Near Eastern Literary and Linguistic Approaches to
Genesis (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=g5MGVP6gAPkC&pg=PA129&dq=Eridu+Gene
sis.+Nippur&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAGoVChMI4ImL2PiCxwIVhNWACh01nwD6#v=o
nepage&q=Eridu%20Genesis.%20Nippur&f=false). Eisenbraun's. p. 129. ISBN 978-
0931464881. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
2. Ewa Wasilewska (2000). Creation stories of the Middle East (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=sMj1tyho3CoC&pg=PA146). Jessica Kingsley Publishers. pp. 146–. ISBN 978-1-85302-681-
2. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
3. Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Fluckiger-Hawker, E, Robson, E., and Zólyomi, G. (1998) The
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/). Oxford.
4. Lambert & Millard 1999, p. 97.
5. Best 1999, pp. 30–31.
6. Harriet Crawford (2004), Sumer and the Sumerians (https://books.google.com/books?id=eX8y
3yW04n4C&pg=PA8), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-53338-6
7. Kramer 1967, p.16, col.2.
8. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.8.1.3# Translation of versions of The Death
of Gilgamesh
9. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.5.2.5# Translation of The Poem of Early
Rulers
10. George, A. R. (2003) The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and
Cuneiform Texts. Oxford University Press
11. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.5.6.1# Translation of The Instructions of
Shuruppak
12. Speculated by Samuel Noah Kramer as deriving from sources from as early as 2500 BCE,
Kramer concluded that "Ziusudra had become a venerable figure in literary tradition by the
middle of the third millennium B.C." , (Samuel Noah Kramer "Reflections on the Mesopotamian
Flood," Expedition, 9, 4, (summer 1967), pp 12-18.)
External links
ETCSL - Text and translation of the Eridu Genesis (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?t
ext=t.1.7.4#) (alternate site (https://web.archive.org/web/20110130213932/http://www-etcsl.ori
ent.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr174.htm)) (The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford
(http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/))
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sumerian_creation_myth&oldid=945995928"
This page was last edited on 17 March 2020, at 12:18 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
