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Adapa's mourning is thus an indication of the season of the year when his encounter with the south wind took place. Since Adapa succeeds in overcoming the destructive wind, the wintry season has passed by. Summer is approaching. The time for celebrating both the fast and the festival of the two solar deities has arrived.
He denounces Adapa in solemn assembly, and demands his presence of Ea, in whose domain Adapa has taken refuge. The text at this point is defective, but one can gather that Ea, who constitutes himself Adapa's protector, warns the latter, as he warned Parnapishtim.
Adapa is designated as the son of Ea. The story, like most legends, assumes a period of close intercourse between gods and men, a time when the relationship involved in being 'a son of a god' had a literal force which was lost to a more advanced generation. Adapa, accordingly, is portrayed as fishing for the 'house of his lord, i.e., for Ea.
See above, p. 63. My rendering is given in continuous lines. The legend is in narrative, not in poetic form. Adapa. Lit., 'house. Neither Delitzsch's suggestion 'god of dwellings' nor Harper's 'god thou art strong' is acceptable. See p. 99. See p. 462. See the following chapter. See pp. 139 seq. First suggested by Zimmern. Of the eighth century. See Harper, ib. p. 424. To Ea.
Since the disappearance of Gishzida embodies precisely the same idea as that of Tammuz, it was natural that the story should in time have been told only of the one. The annual mourning for Tammuz was maintained in Babylonia to a very late period. The Adapa legend shows us that at one time the festival was celebrated in honor of the two related deities.
The real purport of the legend in its present form is foreshadowed by the further advice that Ea offers to Adapa: When thou comest before Anu they will offer thee food of death. Do not eat. They will offer thee waters of death. Do not drink. They will offer thee a garment. Put it on. They will offer thee oil. Anoint thyself. The order that I give thee do not neglect.
The privilege accorded to Adapa appears to alarm the gods. As among the Greeks and other nations, so also the Babylonian deities were not free from jealousy at the power and achievements of humanity. Adapa, having viewed the secrets of heaven and earth, there was nothing left for the gods but to admit him into their circle. The narrative accordingly continues: 'Now what shall we grant him?
Moreover, it is Bel, and not Ea, who places Parnapishtim 'at the confluence of streams, there to live forever, and Bel does this as a proof of his pacification, a kind of indemnity offered to Ea for having destroyed the offspring of the god of humanity. The Adapa legend attacks the problem more seriously.
Anu looked at him and lamented over him. 'Come, Adapa, why didst thou not eat and not drink? Now thou canst not live. Adapa replies, unconscious of the deception practised on him: 'Ea, my lord, commanded me not to eat and not to drink. Adapa returns to the earth. What his subsequent fate is we do not know, for the tablet here comes to an end.
Offer him food of life, that he may eat of it. They brought it to him, but he did not eat. Waters of life they brought him, but he did not drink. A garment they brought him. He put it on. Oil they brought him. He anointed himself. Adapa follows the instructions of Ea, but the latter, it will be recalled, tells Adapa that food and water of death will be offered him.
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