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Sumer and Babylon · Berossus, Babyloniaca, via Alexander Polyhistor

Xisuthrus buries the writings before the Flood

EvidenceDocumentedThe text exists and is quoted from a published translation. What it describes is a separate question.What this means
ReferenceBerossus, Babyloniaca, via Alexander Polyhistor
Writtenc. 290–278 BCE
SetThe Flood
The Deity, Cronus, appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the month Daesius there would be a flood… He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things; and to bury it in the City of the Sun at Sippara.

Translation: Cory, Ancient Fragments, 1832 · About the translator

Read it literally

Records from before the Flood, buried on purpose at Sippar, a real city that archaeologists have dug. What if the archive is still there?

What scholars say

Berossus's version of the Flood, with Kronos in place of Enki.

Looks like technology Strange time
People and places hereSippar

Quick answers about Berossus, Babyloniaca, via Alexander Polyhistor

Where is Berossus, Babyloniaca, via Alexander Polyhistor found?

Berossus, Babyloniaca, via Alexander Polyhistor (Sumer and Babylon). Translation quoted: I. P. Cory, Ancient Fragments (1832; 1876 ed.).

When was Berossus, Babyloniaca, via Alexander Polyhistor written?

c. 290–278 BCE.

What do scholars say about Berossus, Babyloniaca, via Alexander Polyhistor?

Berossus's version of the Flood, with Kronos in place of Enki.

Rabbit holes in this passage

PersonBerossusBefore the Flood, ten kings ruled for 432,000 years, according to a Babylonian priest who wrote in Greek around 290 BCE. His flood hero was also ordered to bury written records of all things at Sippar and dig them up afterward; the book itself is lost. So how do we know any of this?GodEnki (Ea)Enki saves humanity from the Flood without technically breaking his oath: bound to secrecy, he tells the plan to a wall while the hero listens on the other side. The Sumerian god of fresh water also designs the first humans, and in another story gives away civilization while drunk. Who walked off with it?

Sources

  1. I. P. Cory, Ancient Fragments (1832; 1876 ed.)Primary text
  2. Berossus, fragments via Alexander Polyhistor, in I. P. Cory, Ancient Fragments (1832)Primary text
  3. Enki and the World Order, ETCSL t.1.1.3, University of OxfordPrimary text

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

Updated