Babylonian Story of the Deluge | Page 7

or

flood in Lower Babylonia, which was accompanied by great loss of life
and destruction of property. The Babylonian versions state that this
inundation or flood was caused by rain, but passages in some of them
suggest that the effects of the rainstorm were intensified by other
physical happenings connected with the earth, of a most destructive
character. The Hebrews also, as we may see from the Bible, had
alternative views as to the cause of the Deluge. According to one, rain
fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights (Gen. vii, 12), and
according to the other the Deluge came because "all the fountains of the
"great deep" were broken up, and "the flood-gates of heaven were
opened" (Gen. vii, 11). The latter view suggests that the rain flood was
joined by the waters of the sea. Later tradition, based partly on
Babylonian and partly on Hebrew sources, asserts in the "Cave of
Treasures" [9] that when Noah had entered the Ark and the door was
shut, "the sluices of heaven were opened, and the deeps were rent
asunder," and "that the Ocean, that great sea that surroundeth the whole
world, vomited its waters, and the sluices of heaven being opened, and
the deeps of the earth being rent asunder, the storehouses of the winds
were opened, and the whirlwinds broke loose, and the Ocean roared
and poured out its waters in floods." The ark was steered over the
waters by an angel who acted as pilot, and when that had come to rest
on the mountains of Kardô (Armenia) "God commanded the waters and
they separated from each other. The waters that had been above
ascended to their place above the heavens, whence they had come; and
the waters that had come up from under the earth returned to the lower
deep; and the waters that were from the Ocean returned into it" (Brit.
Mus. MS. Orient. No. 25,875, fol. 17b, col. 1 and fol. 18a, cols. 1 and
2). Many authorities seeking to find a foundation of fact for the Legend
of the Deluge in Mesopotamia have assumed that the rain flood was
accompanied either by an earthquake or a tidal wave, or by both. There
is no doubt that the cities of Lower Babylonia were nearer the sea in the
Sumerian Period than they are at the present time, and it is a generally
accepted view that the head of the Persian Gulf lay further to the north
at that time. A cyclone coupled with a tidal wave is a sufficient base for
any of the forms of the Legend now known.
A comparison of the contents of the various Sumerian and Babylonian
versions of the Deluge that have come down to us shows us that they

are incomplete. And as none of them tells so connected and full a
narrative of the prehistoric shipbuilder as Berosus, a priest of Bêl, the
great god of Babylon, it seems that the Mesopotamian scribes were
content to copy the Legend in an abbreviated form. Berosus, it is true,
is not a very ancient authority, for he was not born until the reign of
Alexander the Great, but he was a learned man and was well acquainted
with the Babylonian language, and with the ancient literature of his
country, and he wrote a history of Babylonia, some fragments of which
have been preserved to us in the works of Alexander Polyhistor,
Eusebius, and others. The following is a version of the fragment which
describes the flood that took place in the days of Xisuthrus, the tenth
King of the Chaldeans, and is of importance for comparison with the
rendering of the Legend of the Deluge, as found on the Ninevite tablets,
which follows immediately after.
The Legend of the Deluge According to Berosus.
"After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen sari. In
his time happened a great Deluge; the history of which is thus
described. The Deity, Cronus, appeared to him in a vision, and warned
him that upon the 15th day of the month Daesius there would be a flood,
by which mankind would be destroyed. 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; and to build a vessel,
and take with him into it his friends and relations; and to convey on
board everything necessary to sustain life, together with all the different
animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the
deep. Having asked the Deity, whither he was to sail? he was answered,
'To the Gods': upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of
mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition; and built a vessel 5