The Story of the
From The Epic of
Flood Gilgamesh 2100BCE
CHARACTERS
In the Story
• Gilgamesh
• Utnapishtim
• Enlil
• Ea
• Ishtar
• Adad
• Gods of the Dead: Nergal, Ninurta,
Annunaki
GILGAMESH
• Historical priest king of the city of Uruk in
Babylonia on the river Euphrates in what
is now Iraq.
Utnapishtim
• Utnapishtim is a simple and devout man. He
listened to the dream in which Ea told him to
build a great ship before the flood, and spent
a great deal of time and effort.
Enlil
• a proud and impulsive god. Irritated by the
noisiness of human cities.
Ea
• the goddess Ea tells Utnapishtim to build an
enormous boat to preserve mankind. Ea is
also the god who criticizes Enlil for sending
the flood as an excessive punishment for
mankind’s noisy cities.
Ishtar
• is a goddess of fertility, love, sex, and
beauty. Brash and proud, she is enraged
when Gilgamesh rejects her marriage
proposal.
Adad
• Weather god of the Babylonian and
Assyrian pantheon gods of the dead
Nergal
• is a Mesopotamian god of death,
destruction, and war. The death god was
also called Erra and Irra, names taken
from independent Babylonian deities.
Ninurta
• was originally the Sumerian god of
springtime thunder and rainstorms and of
the plow and plowing and was later a
deity of war.
Annunaki
• is the sky father, and the father of Ishtar.
“It was not that I revealed
the secret of the Gods, the
wise man learned it in a
dream”
Summary
Story Line
• Gilgamesh met an
immortal upon his voyage.
Summary
Story Line
• Utnapishtim begins his
tale.
Summary
Story Line
• Utnapishtim agrees to
build the boat but is
concerned about how to
explain his actions to the
neighbors.
Summary
Story Line
• He begins to build the boat
with his family and hires
men to help them.
Summary
Story Line
• The boat is complete.
Summary
Story Line
• At dawn, the storm begins.
Summary
Story Line
• Ishtar is the first of the gods to
regret the decision to flood.
Summary
Story Line
• The storm continues.
Summary
Story Line
• Utnapishtim unseals the
hatches of the boat.
Summary
Story Line
• For six days, and six night.
Summary
Story Line
• Utnapishtim opens up the boat
and makes an offering to the
gods.
Summary
Story Line
• Ishtar says she will always
remember the flood.
Summary
Story Line
• Enlil is angry that any humans
survived.
Summary
Story Line
• Ea sings a song about how
small punishment is better than
too large a punishment.
Summary
Story Line
• Enil demands to know who told
Utnapishtim how to survive.
thank
You!
