Atra-Hasis
Atra-Hasis is an 18th-century BC Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets and named for one of its protagonists, the priest Atra-Hasis. The narrative has four focal points: An organisation of allied upper and lower gods shaping Mesopotamia agriculturally; a political conflict between them, pacified by creating the first human couples; the mass reproduction of these; and a great deluge linked to the intention of the upper gods to destroy their imperfect artificial creatures, as handed down in a remarkably similar manner in various other flood myths of mankind.
Many modern scientists assume that these stories are based on real catastrophic events triggered by the relatively sudden rise in sea levels at the end of the last ice age. Large areas were flooded, the climate became warmer. This epoch also marks the beginning of agriculture and the associated increase in population density – two additional themes pertaining not just to the epic itself but also to the Neolithic Revolution more broadly.
The name "Atra-Hasis" first appears on the Sumerian King List as a ruler of Shuruppak in the times before that flood. The oldest known copy of the epic tradition concerning Atrahasis can be dated by colophon to the reign of Hammurabi’s great-grandson, Ammi-Saduqa. However, various Old Babylonian dialect fragments exist, one more one was recovered in Ugarit, and the epic continued to be copied into the first millennium BC.
The story of Atrahasis also exists in Assyrian dialect versions, rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal, though its translations have been uncertain due to the artifact being in fragmentary condition and containing ambiguous words. Nonetheless, its fragments were first assembled and translated by George Smith as The Chaldean Account of Genesis, the hero of which had his name corrected to Atra-Hasis by Heinrich Zimmern in 1899. In 1965, Wilfred G. Lambert and Alan Millard published many additional texts belonging to the epic, including an Old Babylonian copy which is the most complete recension of the tale to have survived. These new texts greatly increased knowledge of the epic and were the basis for Lambert and Millard’s first English translation of the Atrahasis epic in something approaching entirety.
Myths and facts
The epic of Atra-Hasis contains the myth of the creation of mankind by Enlil, Anu and Enki, also known as Anunnaki and Igigi, the superior and the inferior gods. They seem to have been united in an organization similar to that which existed in Greece between Zeus – as ‘pure spirit or air’ the leading party – and the groups round Poseidon and Hades.The Eridu Genesis resembles Atrahasis in some central aspects. It recounts the dawn of civilisation—how the gods brought their various inventions down from a sacred Mount to earth, even hinting that the groups of prehistoric man previously roamed Mesopotamia as free nomads.
Archaeologist and prehistorian Klaus Schmidt, among others, researched the founding of Mesopotamian civilisation by ancient nomadic communities. According to his interdisciplinary view, the cultivation of large agricultural areas and the erection of monumental structures such as those at mount Göbekli Tepe could hardly have been accomplished by single groups of hunter-gatherers, but rather presupposes the formation of first cross-group organisations. Small communities, which had previously lived self-sufficiently and in competition with one another, must have decided to settle their conflicts in order to cooperate in what would henceforth be a shared territory. This achievement may be described quite well by the alliance between the three god parties in Atrahasis – an cross-group organisation that's founding has been dated to 9,700 BP and thus "much earlier than previously believed."
Overview
In the main, the epic reports on a conflict between some of the first Sumerian gods and draws on the earlier myth of the separation of air and earth in the midst of the cosmic freshwater primordial ocean to clarify their hierarchical relationship. Enlil – "Lord Wind" – represents the leading party in the council of gods; the party of Anunnaki around Anu belongs more to the upper heaven, and that of Igigi around Enki more to that below the earth sphere.All three parties are bound by the Tablet of Destinies, which Enlil is the only one to possess. In the Sumerian myths, its bestowed on him by the earth mother goddess Ninḫursag herself. His aptitude as the greatest warrior and chief strategist of the divine tribal alliance gives him power over the other parties of gods; only he has the ability to transform present circumstances back into their original state – redefining the course of fate.
As a permanent legal document the tablet was provided with a seal, a sign mechanically applied by means of a special technique, which in ancient Mesopotamia was regarded as a symbol of a contract. Contracts have been directly related to tribute payments to be made: often to shares of the food produced, but generally to assistance in battle or labour, such as the construction of mighty irrigation channels as described in the epic discussed here. As far as the male groups of gods were concerned, the separate task of reproduction fell to the seven divine wombs, the shassuratu presided over by Ninḫursag.
The plot of the epic follows a simple pattern:
- The creation of earth and all creatures that inhabit it is already complete.
- An organisation of at least three male parties of gods exist; they seem to specialise in ‘thinkers and workers’.
- The gods doing the hardest farm labour are dissatisfied and rise up against Enlil.
- With help of divine women, the victorious party arranges the production of a first pair of humans who, with all their descendants, are to serve all the gods as labour slaves for eternity.
- As a result of their unrestrained multiplication, an overpopulation crisis breaks out. The upper gods try to get this under control in various ways, one last time by triggering a global flood to wipe out humanity.
- A single fertile human couple survives – thanks to an act of sabotage by one of the lower gods. In the end, the quarrelling rulers of Mesopotamia agree on a utopian method to reduce the reproduction of their creatures to a tolerable level.
The principle of divine creativity is common to all three narratives. However, while the Sumerian originals attribute this gift—which shaped the universe and earth, humanity, and even the blueprint for Noah’s Ark—to a multitude of strongly anthropomorphic gods similar to those of ancient Greece, the authors of the biblical version chose to reduce the politically organised pantheon of their antediluvian ancestors to the singular God of monotheistic religion. This abstract principle of good, dwelling 'up' in heaven, embodies the superlatives of human physical and mental power: omnipotence and infallible omniscience, but it's not consistently “mono”. Like Enlil once, Jehova too has an adversary who resides 'below' within the earth, partially thwarting God’s inscrutable plans but mostly serving as His instrument to punish the sinners.
Synopsis
Tablet I
The epos taking place according to its incipit, "When the gods had to work like humans ", there was a quarrel between the upper Anunnaki and the Igigu, the lower gods. While the latter had the task of ensuring the supply of the land through construction of irrigation canals by digging out the beds of big rivers, the Anunnaki ruled from above, presumably watching over the implementation of their plans and dividing the fruits of this great civilising project as they saw fit. After 40 years, however, the lesser gods rebelled and refused to do strenuous labor. At night, they surrounded the dwelling place of Enlil, who was considered the main god of Sumerian civilisation, the separator of air and earth in the midst of the cosmic ocean.Enlil was surprised and called for Anu and Enki. Nusku, one of the sons and Enlil's ambassador here, tried to negotiate with the rebellious party, but had no success. Enlil, who also was the benevolent, wise leader of all the gods, didn't want a battle with the risk of serious injuries and deaths, and to avoid this he devised the plan to create easily controllable humans to do the hard labour in place of the rebellious gods. He asked Mami – leader of the 7 goddess wombs – if she could help. Mami declared that she could only fulfil this request with Enki's assistance. Enki, agreeing, advised the assembly of all gods that they should first cleanse themselves for everything else. They do. On the fifteenth day of this project, he cut up Geshtu-E – 'ear', a partie of lesser gods who listened to the higher ones wisdom – into pieces and began to create the first human being to the sound of drums. He took clay from the soil of the steppe, mixed it with the spilt blood and added a touch of cosmic water, bringing it to its living form. When the creature awoke, Mami approached, handed it a carrying basket and taught it to work for the gods from then on.Image:bm-epic-g.jpg|thumb|One of the damaged tablets that preserve the epic in cuneiform script, exhibited here in the British Museum. The reconstruction of the narrative was carried out by comparing of documents, which contain the same epic - at the very least parts influenced by it - in more or less varied forms.|354x354px
To complete the construction of humans in the optimal way, Mami encouraged the young couple to celebrate a seven-day feast in honour of Isthar, the goddess of war and sexuality.* Both obeyed. After 9 months, the land of the gods gave birth to its first human child, whose purpose in life was to be the same as that of his parents.
File:British Museum Queen of the Night.jpg|thumb|upright|Ishtar or her older sister Ereshkigal
1200 years later, humans had multiplied to such an extent that they disturbed the gods with their noise. Enlil was annoyed and decided that Namtar, his god of the dead's realm, should carry off most of humans with frost fever, so a great extinction began. Enki, probably worried that he would end up having to work again himself, approached his faithful priest Atraḫasis and advised him to do the following: The other gods should no longer be worshipped, but only Namtar. This flattered the god of deadly diseases so much that as soon as he had begun his pandemic work, he ceased to eliminate people.