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For they smelt the sweet savour of the sacrifice, and "gathered like flies over the sacrificer". Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 162.
Hence Ziusudu was not priest of Enki, and his city was probably not Eridu, the seat of his divine friend and counsellor, and the first of the Antediluvian cities. Sufficient reason for Enki's intervention on Ziusudu's behalf is furnished by the fact that, as God of the Deep, he was concerned in the proposed method of man's destruction. Gilg. Epic.
It is unfortunate that the ends of all the lines in this column are wanting, but enough remains to show a close correspondence of the first two lines quoted with a passage in the Gilgamesh Epic where Ishtar is described as lamenting the destruction of mankind. This will be seen more clearly by printing the two couplets in parallel columns: SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 117 f.
This section of the Semitic narrative closes with the picture of the gods weeping with her, sitting bowed down with their lips pressed together. Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 90 ff. In the Atrakhasis version, dated in the reign of Ammizaduga, Col. I, l. 5, contains a reference to the "cry" of men when Adad the Storm-god, slays them with his flood.
The close parallelism between this portion of the text and the end of the myth in the Gilgamesh Epic will be seen from the following extracts, the magical portions being omitted from the Sumerian Version: It will also be noted that with this line the text again falls naturally into couplets. Col. VI, ll. 6-9 and 12 are there compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 198-205.
The Sun-god came forth shedding Then the sea rested and was light over heaven and earth. still, and the wind-storm, the flood, ceased. Col. V, ll. 3-6 are here compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 128-32.
This description has been taken to imply a square box-like structure, which, in order to be seaworthy, must be placed on a conjectured hull. Cf., e.g., Jastrow, Hebr. and Bab. Trad., p. 329. Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 28-30. L. 58 f. The gar contained twelve cubits, so that the vessel would have measured 120 cubits each way; taking the Babylonian cubit, on the basis of Gudea's scale, at 495 mm.
The necessity for the substitution of her name in the later version is thus obvious, and we have already noted how simply this was effected. Cf. also Jastrow, Hebr. and Bab. Trad., p. 336. Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 123.
Moreover, the Gilgamesh Epic still retains traces of the Sumerian Version, as will be seen from a comparison of their narratives, the Semitic Version being quoted from the point where the hurricane ceased and the sea became still. Col. V, ll. 7-11 are here compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 133-9.
The references to "the ground", or "the earth", also tend to connect it peculiarly with Enlil. Gilg. Epic. Suggested reflections of this idea have long been traced in the Hebrew Versions; cf. With the sixth line of the column it is clear that the original narrative of the myth is resumed.
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