lonian story written? Does it, itself, afford any
evidence of date? It occurs in the eleventh tablet of the _Epic of
Gilgamesh_, and the theory has been started that as Aquarius, a watery
constellation, is now the eleventh sign of the zodiac, therefore we have
in this epic of twelve tablets a series of solar myths founded upon the
twelve signs of the zodiac, the eleventh giving us a legend of a flood
to correspond to the stream of water which the man in Aquarius pours
from his pitcher.

If this theory be accepted we can date the _Epic of Gilgamesh_ with much
certainty: it must be later, probably much later, than 700 B.C. For it
cannot have been till about that time that the present arrangement of
the zodiacal signs--that is to say with Aries as the first and Aquarius
as the eleventh--can have been adopted. We have then to allow for the
growth of a mythology with the twelve signs as its _motif_. Had this
supposed series of zodiacal myths originated before 700 B.C., before
Aries was adopted as the leading sign, then the Bull, Taurus, would have
given rise to the myth of the first tablet and Aquarius to the tenth,
not to the eleventh where we find the story of the flood.

Assyriologists do not assign so late a date to this poem, and it must be
noted that the theory supposes, not merely that the tablet itself, but
that the poem and the series of myths upon which it was based, were all
later in conception than 700 B.C. One conclusive indication of its early
date is given by the position in the pantheon of Ae and Bel. Ae has not
receded into comparative insignificance, nor has Bel attained to that
full supremacy which, as Merodach, he possesses in the Babylonian
Creation story. We may therefore put on one side as an unsupported and
unfortunate guess the suggestion that the _Epic of Gilgamesh_ is the
setting forth of a series of zodiacal myths.

Any legends, any mythology, any pantheon based upon the zodiac must
necessarily be more recent than the zodiac; any system involving Aries
as the first sign of the zodiac must be later than the adoption of Aries
as the first sign, that is to say, later than 700 B.C. Systems arising
before that date would inevitably be based upon Taurus as first
constellation.

We cannot then, from astronomical relationships, fix the date of the
Babylonian story of the Flood. Is it possible, however, to form any
estimate of the comparative ages of the Babylonian legend and of the two
narratives give