storm he makes to descend.
The Anunaki lifted up their torches,
With their brightness they light up the land.
Adad's storm reached unto heaven,
All light was turned into darkness,
It [flooded] the land like ...
........ the storm
Raged high, [the water climbed over] the mountains,
Like a besom of destruction they brought it upon men.[36]

(5) In both instances the structure rests upon a mountain in the north.
Gen. 8. 4 reads, "And the ark rested ... upon the mountains of Ararat,"
that is, Armenia. The Babylonian story reads:

To the land of Nisir the ship made its way,
The mount of Nisir held it fast that it moved not.[37]

Mount Nisir is east of the upper Tigris. (6) In both cases birds are
sent out to ascertain the condition of the land. Compare Gen. 8. 6-12
with these lines:

When the seventh day approached
I sent forth a dove and let her go.
The dove flew to and fro,
But there was no resting place and she returned.
I sent forth a swallow and let her go;
The swallow flew to and fro,
But there was no resting place, and she returned.
I sent forth a raven and let her go;
The raven flew away, she saw the abatement of the waters,

{211}

She drew near, she waded (?), she croaked, and came not back.
Then I sent everything forth to the four quarters of heaven.[38]

(7) Sacrifice is offered by Noah and Ut-napishtim, acceptable to the
God of Noah and to the gods of the Babylonian hero, in both cases
resulting in a promise not to repeat the Flood. Compare Gen. 8. 20-22
with:

I offered sacrifice,
I made a libation upon the mountain's peak.
By sevens I set out the sacrificial vessels,
Beneath them I heaped up reed and cedar wood and myrtle.
The gods smelt the savor,
The gods smelt the sweet savor,
The gods gathered like flies over the sacrificer.[39]

Other similarities might be noted, such as the use of bitumen, the
arrangement of the ship in stories, and, what seems more striking, the
fact that the hero of the Babylonian story is the tenth antediluvian
king, while Noah is the tenth antediluvian patriarch.

As in the stories of creation, marked differences may also be noted
between the two representations of the Flood; and these differences
appear where they are most significant, namely, in the spirit and
purity of conception permeating the entire Hebrew account. For
example, the book of Genesis introduces the divine displeasure with
sin, t