advisable to
attempt a somewhat detailed discussion of its contents, column by
column;(1) and the analysis may be most conveniently divided into
numbered sections, each of which refers to one of the six columns of the
tablet. The description of the First Column will serve to establish
the general character of the text. Through the analysis of the tablet
parallels and contrasts will be noted with the Babylonian and Hebrew
Versions. It will then be possible to summarise, on a surer foundation,
the literary history of the traditions, and finally to estimate the
effect of our new evidence upon current theories as to the origin and
wide dispersion of Deluge stories.

(1) In the lecture as delivered the contents of each column
were necessarily summarized rather briefly, and conclusions
were given without discussion of the evidence.

The following headings, under which the six numbered sections may be
arranged, indicate the contents of each column and show at a glance the
main features of the Sumerian Version:

I. Introduction to the Myth, and account of Creation.

II. The Antediluvian Cities.

III. The Council of the Gods, and Ziusudu's piety.

IV. The Dream-Warning.

V. The Deluge, the Escape of the Great Boat, and the Sacrifice to the
Sun-god.

VI. The Propitiation of the Angry Gods, and Ziusudu's Immortality.

I. INTRODUCTION TO THE MYTH, AND ACCOUNT OF CREATION

The beginning of the text is wanting, and the earliest lines preserved
of the First Column open with the closing sentences of a speech,
probably by the chief of the four creating deities, who are later on
referred to by name. In it there is a reference to a future destruction
of mankind, but the context is broken; the lines in question begin:

"As for my human race, from (_or_ in) its destruction will I
cause it to be (. . .),

For Nintu my creatures (. . .) will I (. . .)."

From the reference to "my human race" it is clear that the speaker is a
creating deity; and since the expression is exactly parallel to the term
"my people" used by Ishtar, or Belit-ili, "the Lady of the gods", in the
Babylonian Version of the Deluge story when she bewails the destruction
of mankind, Dr. Poebel assigns the speech to Ninkharsagga, or Nintu,(1)
the goddess who later in the column is associated with Anu, Enlil, and
Enki in man's creation. But the mention of Nintu in her own speech
is hardly consistent with that supposition,(2