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Sumer and Babylon · Gilgamesh, tablet XI

Utnapishtim's boat and the torches of the Anunnaki

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ReferenceGilgamesh, tablet XI
Writtenc. 1200–1000 BCE
SetThe Flood
Ea tells Utnapishtim to tear down his house and build a boat. When the storm comes, 'the Anunnaki lift up their torches' and set the land ablaze. The gods cower 'like dogs' and Ishtar cries out. After seven days the boat grounds on Mount Nimush.

Summary by the editors. Translation: Summary in my own words

Read it literally

The Anunnaki cause fire on the ground as the flood begins, and even the gods are afraid of what they started. Utnapishtim is then given eternal life and moved 'far away'.

What scholars say

Adapted from Atrahasis.

Council of gods Looks like technology Taken up alive
People and places hereMount Nimush (Nisir)

Quick answers about Gilgamesh, tablet XI

Where is Gilgamesh, tablet XI found?

Gilgamesh, tablet XI (Sumer and Babylon). Translation quoted: Summary in my own words.

When was Gilgamesh, tablet XI written?

c. 1200–1000 BCE.

What do scholars say about Gilgamesh, tablet XI?

Adapted from Atrahasis.

Rabbit holes in this passage

BeingAnunnakiIn one Sumerian poem, the gods who rule the cosmos sit as seven underworld judges who can turn a goddess into a corpse with a single look. The name probably means "offspring of An," yet modern writers made it famous as a name for astronauts. What do the real texts say about these gods?TextAtrahasisAccording to the Babylonian epic Atrahasis, the first humans were made partly from the flesh and blood of a god who was killed because he had intelligence. Overworked junior gods had gone on strike, and humans were the fix; then people grew too noisy, and the Flood followed. What went wrong with the plan?GodInannaTo revive Inanna in the underworld, Enki makes two small beings from the dirt under his fingernails. She is also the goddess who, the story says, stole more than a hundred divine powers, the me behind kingship, priesthood and music, and sailed them home to Uruk in the Boat of Heaven. How did she get away with it?PersonUtnapishtimWhen the Babylonian flood hero makes his offering after the storm, the starving gods gather over it "like flies," because with humanity drowned no one had been feeding them. When George Smith read the tale in London in 1872, it caused a sensation for matching Genesis. Why was this one man given eternal life?

Sources

  1. Inana's Descent to the Nether World, ETCSL t.1.4.1, University of OxfordPrimary text
  2. Atra-hasis, ed. and trans. W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard, Atra-hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood (Oxford, 1969)Primary text
  3. Inana and Enki, ETCSL t.1.3.1, University of OxfordPrimary text
  4. Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI, trans. R. Campbell Thompson (1928)Primary text

Scholarly dates are rounded. The wording follows the named public-domain translation.

Updated