Utnapishtim

One figure, four names. The Sumerian flood story calls him Ziusudra, the Akkadian flood epic calls him Atra-hasis, the Epic of Gilgamesh calls him Utnapishtim, and Berossus, writing in Greek, calls him Xisouthros. Making four records of that would be exactly the duplicate-transliteration error this registry forbids, so there is one record and the names are aliases. The story is constant: a god tips him off against the assembly's decision, he builds a boat, the flood comes, birds are sent out, he sacrifices, and the gods — who had not thought through what a world with no people would be like — settle the matter by making him and his wife deathless and putting them somewhere far away. Gilgamesh reaches him and learns that the precedent is useless, then fails to stay awake for seven nights, which rather settles the question of whether he could manage eternity.

Variant accounts

• Ziusudra, Atra-hasis and Utnapishtim are one figure in three languages.The reference literature states the identity plainly: the Sumerian Ziusudra becomes Atra-hasis in the Akkadian flood epic and Uta-napishti in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the names meaning 'life of long days', 'exceedingly wise' and 'he found life'. Berossus' Xisouthros is the Greek rendering of Ziusudra. The versions differ in detail — which god warns him, where he is settled, how many days the flood lasts — but they are recensions of one story about one man.Reference treatment of the Mesopotamian flood hero, giving Ziusudra, Atra-hasis, Utnapishtim and Xisouthros as names of the same figure in different traditions. (secondary)

Domains

• flood

Relations

• guide of: GilgameshThe last teacher in the epic, and the one whose lesson is that his own case cannot be repeated: the immortality Gilgamesh wants was a one-off grant made in the aftermath of a flood that will not happen again.Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI: Utnapishtim's account of the flood, the test of sleep and the disclosure of the plant. (primary)

Sources

• Utnapishtim is the Mesopotamian flood hero, warned by Ea, granted eternal life after the flood and settled at the mouth of the rivers, who receives Gilgamesh and tells him the flood story; the Sumerian Ziusudra, the Atra-hasis of the flood epic and the Greek Xisouthros are the same figure under other names.: Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI; the Atra-hasis epic; the Sumerian flood story. (primary); Reference treatment of Utnapishtim, Atra-hasis and Ziusudra as one flood hero named differently across the Sumerian, Akkadian and later traditions. (secondary)