Lecture VIII. The Myths And Epics. 403
Khammurabi.^334 Even the version contained in the Epic seems
to be a combination of two earlier ones, or rather to be based
upon at least two different versions of the legend. The story,
in fact, must have been of immemorial antiquity in Babylonia;
Xisuthros and his ship are depicted upon some of the earliest
seals, and Babylonian chronology drew a sharp line of division
between the kings who had reigned before and after the Flood. In
the Epic Xisuthros is a native of Surippak on the Euphrates, but
the story must originally have grown up at Eridu on the shores
of the Persian Gulf. Like the story of the struggle with Tiamât, it
typifies the contest between the anarchic elements of storm and
flood and that peaceful expanse of water in which the fishermen
of Eridu plied their trade, and out of which the culture-god had [439]
ascended. It is significant that up to the last it was En-lil of
Nippur who was represented as sending the Flood that destroyed
mankind, while Xisuthros was saved by Ea.
The Babylonian story of the Deluge has been so often
translated and is so well known, that there is no need for
me to repeat it here. It is sufficient to note that Xisuthros, like
Noah, owed his preservation to his piety. In the final scene, when
Bel (En-lil) is enraged that any one should have escaped from the
destruction he had brought upon mankind, Ea pacifies him with
the words:“Punish the sinner for his sins, punish the transgressor
for his transgressions; be merciful that he be not [utterly] cut off,
be long-suffering that he be not [rooted out].”The Deluge was
a punishment for sin, and it was only just, therefore, that the
righteous man should be saved.
The translation of Xisuthros with his wife to the paradise
beyond the grave is evidently regarded by the author of the Epic
as a further reward for his piety. But we may suspect that this
(^334) Zimmern, indeed, has suggested that this latter text belongs to the legend
of Atarpi, which, however, has unfortunately come down to us in so mutilated
a condition that no certain interpretation of it is possible. The discoverer of the
tablet is more probably right in connecting it with the story of the Flood.