Liber ab Exodus (Book of Departure)^73
‘The olden days are alas turned to clay,
Because I bespoke evil in the Assembly of the Gods,
How could I bespeak evil in the Assembly of the Gods,
Ordering battle for the destruction of my people,
When it is I myself who give birth to my people!
Like the spawn of the fishes they fill the sea’—Ishtar speaking of the Great Flood
From the Gilgamesh Epic^2As humanity migrated along the coastline, we left behind settlements that later
became the great cultures we see today. The community that formed in the Middle
East, in the area of Saudi Arabia, might have migrated north prior to the Great Flood,
but the Lebanon and North Saudi Arabian deserts prevented that migration. The first
Great Flood changed that, opening up the Fertile Crescent and making the northern
deserts passable.
Although this event took place about 50 thousand years ago (48,000 B.C.E.), the
oldest surviving stories are only about four thousand years old. The oldest is probably
the Sumerian story (2000 B.C.E.). This does not mean the story was not told much ear-
lier, it just means that we have not yet found earlier record of the story. We have,
however, found archeological and anthropological evidence that places the event about
50 thousand years ago (48,000 B.C.E.). With this evidence of Earth and man, we can
speculate that the Earth event that allowed migration into Europe was also the event
on which humanity based its many stories of the first Great Flood. Many European
cultures attribute the entrance of humanity into Europe to this event.
The earliest known reference to the first Great Flood can be found in the Sumerian
story of an elder citizen named Utnapishtim. Having received knowledge of the pend-
ing flood from Ea (Sumero-Babylonian god), Utnapishtim built a great ship and stocked
it in preparation. After seven days of flood, he sent out a dove; it returned, indicating
that it found no other place to land. He then sent out a swallow, and it too returned.
Finally, he sent a raven, which did not return. Believing it must have found another
place to land, he knew the flood was over
After finding dry land, he made sacrifice for his deliverance. So humbled were the
gods by this mortal’s act of sacrifice even after witnessing the utter destruction of his
world, that they felt great remorse for having killed so many with the flood, and they
granted Utnapishtim immortality, promising never again to cause such an event.Babylonian—Ishtar, a Sumero-Babylonian evolution of the Babylonian Nuah, became
concerned about the conduct of humanity and spoke her concerns to the Assembly of
the Gods. In response, the gods brought forth the flood. After witnessing the destruc-
tion of humanity, Ishtar swears on her lapis that it will never again take place. In the
Babylonian story, Utnapishtim’s name is Ziusudra and he is warned by Anunna (the
Assembly of Gods) rather than an individual, but other than those variances the story
is essentially the same.j WB Chap 03.p65 73 7/11/2003, 5:48 PM