Eridu Genesis
Also known as: Sumerian Flood Story, Sumerian Creation Myth, Ziusudra Flood Narrative
A Sumerian narrative recounting creation, the descent of kingship, the founding of the first cities, and a great flood survived by Ziusudra after Enki’s warning. The gods relent, grant Ziusudra life in Dilmun, and restore order and kingship after the deluge.
Description
Eridu Genesis is a Sumerian narrative that opens with the gods establishing cosmic order, fashioning humankind to bear labor, and sending kingship from heaven. The text catalogs the first cities and the antediluvian age. Disturbed by human activity, the divine assembly—led by Enlil—decides on a flood to reset creation. Enki, bound by oath yet sympathetic to humans, circumvents the decree by warning the pious Ziusudra of Shuruppak to build a great boat. Ziusudra survives the deluge, offers sacrifice, and secures divine favor. The gods confer life and breath upon him in Dilmun, signaling reconciliation and the renewal of just governance. Although fragmentary, the poem articulates early Mesopotamian ideas of cosmic kingship, divine justice, and the fragile covenant between gods and humanity.
Historiography
Known primarily from a single fragmentary Old Babylonian tablet discovered at Nippur, the poem is often called the Sumerian Flood Story. Scholars infer an earlier composition date from linguistic and thematic parallels with Ur III materials. The text was later echoed in Akkadian traditions such as Atra-Hasis and in the Gilgamesh Flood episode. Modern reconstructions rely on philological joins and comparison with related Mesopotamian flood narratives.
Date Notes
Preserved on a fragmentary Old Babylonian tablet from Nippur; composition likely earlier, possibly Ur III period.
Themes
Archetypes
Symbols
Major Characters
- Ziusudra
- Enki
- Enlil
- An
- Nintur
Myths
- Creation and the First Cities
- The Antediluvian Kings
- Ziusudra and the Great Flood
Facts
- The narrative is preserved on a fragmentary Old Babylonian tablet from Nippur.
- Ziusudra is the Sumerian counterpart of Akkadian Atrahasis and Utnapishtim.
- Enlil leads the divine decision to send the flood; Enki subverts it to save humanity.
- The story links cosmic order to kingship and the founding of the first cities.
- Ziusudra resides in Dilmun after the flood, granted life by the gods.
- The poem frames humans as made to relieve the gods of labor.
- Its antediluvian setting includes Shuruppak, Ziusudra’s city.
- Later Akkadian works adapt and expand the flood episode.
- Scholarly reconstructions rely on parallels due to tablet lacunae.
- The work is central to Mesopotamian flood-myth tradition.