Cuneiform tablet with the Atra-Hasis epic in the British Museum
Uta-napishtim ("he has found life" Akkadian: ππ£), was a legendary king of the ancient city of Shuruppak in southern Iraq, who, according to several surviving narratives, survived the Flood by making a boat.
He is called by different names in different traditions: Ziusudra ("Life of long days", rendered Xisuthros, ΞΞ―ΟΞΏΟ ΞΈΟΞΏΟ in Berossus) in the earliest, Sumerian versions, later Shuruppak (after his city), Atra-hasis ("exceeding wise") in the earliest Akkadian sources, and Uta-napishtim ("he has found life") in later Akkadian sources such as the Epic of Gilgamesh.[1] His father was the king Ubar-Tutu ("Friend of the god Tutu").
Uta-napishtim is the eighth of the antediluvian kings in Mesopotamian legend, just as Noah is the eighth from Enoch in Genesis.[1] He would have lived around 2900 BC, corresponding to the flood deposit at Shuruppak between the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic levels.[1]
In Mesopotamian narratives he is the Flood Hero, tasked by the god Enki (Akkadian Ea) to create a giant ship to be called Preserver of Life in preparation for a giant flood that will wipe out all life. The character appears in Tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, at the culmination of Gilgamesh's search for immortality.[2] The story of Uta-napishtim has drawn scholarly comparisons due to the similarities between it and the storylines about Noah in the Bible.[2]
^ abcWilliam W. Hallo and William Kelly Simpson (1971). The Ancient Near East: A History.
^ abGeorge, Andrew (2003). The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. pp. 70, 152β155. ISBN 9780199278411.
Gilgamesh sets out on a series of journeys to search for his ancestor Utnapishtim (Xisouthros) who lives at the mouth of the rivers and has been given...
hero Utnapishtim is granted immortality by the gods and that fits the immortality theme of the epic. The main point seems to be that Utnapishtim was granted...
decides to seek Utnapishtim ("the Faraway"), and learn the secret of eternal life. Among the few survivors of the Great Flood, Utnapishtim and his wife are...
who takes Gilgamesh across the sea to Utnapishtim. When Gilgamesh finally arrives at Utnapishtim's home, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that, to become immortal...
destruction of humanity, promises Utnapishtim that Enlil will never cause a flood again. When Enlil sees that Utnapishtim and his family have survived, he...
who are protagonists of Near Eastern flood myths, including Atrahasis, Utnapishtim and the biblical Noah. Although each story displays its own distinctive...
talk to Utnapishtim to find the secret of immortality. Starting with the Old Babylonian Period, there were attempts to syncretize Utnapishtim with Ziusudra...
ancient Babylon. In the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 1200 BC) Utnapishtim, the immortal survivor of the Great Flood, describes the Anunnaki as...
story, the man who survives the flood, whether Atrahasis, Zi-ud-sura, or Utnapishtim, is granted immortality by the gods. This character then makes a reappearance...
XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, where he is identified as the father of Utnapishtim, a character who is instructed by the god Ea to build a boat in order...
Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim releases a dove and a raven to find land; the dove merely circles and returns. Only then does Utnapishtim send forth the raven...
boatman in the service of the flood hero Utnapishtim, and is responsible for taking Gilgamesh to Utnapishtim's domain. In the Standard Babylonian version...
years following the death of his beloved companion Enkidu. He seeks out Utnapishtim, a Noah-like figure in Mesopotamian mythology in which he was a servant...
(or family) spared from general destruction, following the mytheme of Utnapishtim, Baucis and Philemon, Noah, and Lot. Pseudo-Apollodorus in his Bibliotheca...
created humans out of clay and divine blood, secretly warns the hero Utnapishtim of the impending flood and gives him detailed instructions for building...
some others point to a possible reference to the Mesopotamian figure Utnapishtim from the Epic of Gilgamesh through the Arabization of his nickname, "Hasisatra"...
of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim releases a dove and raven to find land; however, the dove merely circles and returns. Only then does Utnapishtim send forth the...
one of the gods, a man named Utnapishtim builds a boat and takes his family and animals inside. After the flood, Utnapishtim sends a dove, then a swallow...
flies. Later, the gods are said to swarm "like flies" around the hero Utnapishtim's offering. Flies appear on Old Babylonian seals as symbols of Nergal...
leaving one principal 'chosen' survivor. In the first example, it is Utnapishtim, in the Hindu Vedas it is Manu and in the last example Noah. References...
Anunnaki. Later, after the flood subsides, Utnapishtim makes an offering to the gods. Ishtar appears to Utnapishtim wearing a lapis lazuli necklace with beads...
after seven days (similarly to Genesis), and the Noah-like character of Utnapishtim leaves the ark seven days after it reaches the firm ground. Counting...
associated with "the Waters of Death" that Gilgamesh had to cross to reach Utnapishtim in search of the secret of eternal life. The corresponding location in...
building a chest. Like the biblical Noah and the Mesopotamian counterpart Utnapishtim, he used this device to survive the great flood with his wife, Pyrrha...
(Tablet IX 51). Rivkah Harris saw the scorpion-women, like the wife of Utnapishtim in Tablet XI, as traditional and passive wives, whose position was "relational...
Global Information