Atrahasis: An Ancient Hebrew Deluge Story

by Ipiq-Aya, Paul Tice, Albert Tobias Clay

The word Atrahasis means "extra wise" and refers to the earliest known version of Noah, who built an ark and saved mankind from destruction. This is that story, from ancient Sumeria, which many scholars believe was the original from which all known flood stories came from. This was the most popular story in the ancient world and has survived for over five thousand years. It is the only one that all cultures, worldwide, seem to share. Why? Was there really a great flood? And why do we not explore the oldest known version carefully for clues? That is the purpose of this book, which also includes a number of other interesting flood story fragments and documents.

Genres: Classics

108 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[giulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Atra Hasis flood story explores themes of flawed divinity, chaos, and survival. Unlike the monotheistic and all-powerful God of Genesis, the gods in Atra Hasis are many, and they’re portrayed with human flaws-selfishness, arrogance, and conflict. Humanity is created not out of love or a grand plan, but because the lesser gods are tired of doing hard labour and need workers. When humans become too noisy and disruptive, the gods decide to destroy them-not because of evil, but simply because they’re annoying. A final theme is control over humanity-rather than blessing life like in Genesis, the gods impose limits on fertility to avoid overpopulation again. The whole story presents a chaotic world ruled by unstable gods, where survival depends on cleverness and divine favour from one merciful god among many.

[Valentin Ilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

O alta poveste a marelui potop.