Atra-Hasis

Atra-ḫasīs (also known by its incipit When Gods Men) is an Akkadian epic, which was named after one of its protagonists, the priest Atra-ḫasīs (meaning "exceedingly wise").^[1] The story also exists in a later Assyrian dialect version, first rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal, though it contains several lacunae. It was first translated by English Assyriologist George Smith;^[2] though decades later, an older Babylonian copy written in the 17th century BCE was rediscovered and published by Wilfred G. Lambert and Alan Millard.^[3] The narrative is mostly focused on anthropogony, and has four focal points:

An organisation of allied gods shapes Mesopotamia agriculturally;
A political conflict between them, which is pacified by creating the first humans;
The mass reproduction of these humans;
A great flood, a common mytheme, which has been linked to possible historical events.

References

↑ Helle, Sophus (2021-10-26). Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-26259-9.
↑ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Chaldean Account of Genesis by George Smith". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
↑ Atra-ḫasīs : the Babylonian story of the flood. Internet Archive. Winona Lake, Ind. : Eisenbrauns. 1999. ISBN 978-1-57506-039-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

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[1] Helle, Sophus (2021-10-26). Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-26259-9.

[2] "The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Chaldean Account of Genesis by George Smith". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2025-06-12.

[3] Atra-ḫasīs : the Babylonian story of the flood. Internet Archive. Winona Lake, Ind. : Eisenbrauns. 1999. ISBN 978-1-57506-039-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

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Atra-Hasis

References

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