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Ziusudra

A reference page linking a name, group, or concept to the materials that discuss it.

King and priest in the fragmentary Sumerian Flood Story, preserved in an Old Babylonian copy. Survives, sacrifices and receives divine life in Dilmun; historicity is unproven.

Modern guide to the surviving Sumerian text: decision and warning, lost preparations, seven days and nights, sacrifice and divine life in Dilmun. Cause and warning speaker are not clearly preserved. Not a tablet image or hero portrait
Modern guide to the surviving Sumerian text: decision and warning, lost preparations, seven days and nights, sacrifice and divine life in Dilmun. Cause and warning speaker are not clearly preserved. Not a tablet image or hero portraitModern explanatory diagram by IL Archive · CC BY 4.0 · CC BYLicense · Image source

Text

Character and text

Sumerian literary king and priest in ETCSL 1.7.4: destruction decreed, wall warning, seven days and nights, sacrifice and divine life in DilmunDilmun: Ancient Gulf Land and Literary SettingAn ancient Gulf trading region linked archaeologically to Bahrain and also a Sumerian literary setting whose mythical scenes are not all historical descriptions.Glossary · Click to read the explanation.[1]

Limits

Flood motive and boat instructions are lost; warning speaker is not explicitly preserved. AtrahasisAtrahasis: Epic and HeroAkkadian epic: humans created for divine labor, multiplication, noise and flood. Atrahasis, “exceedingly wise,” survives through Enki’s warning; human reproduction is regulated afterward.Glossary · Click to read the explanation cannot automatically fill the gaps. The copy is Old Babylonian; its Sumerian language establishes no absolute priority.[2] Image: modern guide to preserved and missing material, not a portrait.

References and notes

  1. ETCSL, The Flood Story, 1.7.4, University of Oxford. Complete published translation, segments A–E. Gaps are marked; warning speaker and motive are not clearly preserved. Return to the text ↑
  2. Mehmet-Ali Ataç, The Flood Myth as Paradigm, 2018. Chapter 3, pp. 81–101; opening paragraphs on Old Babylonian and standard witnesses read, not the entire chapter or Mari painting analysis. Return to the text ↑

Research history

Substantive changes are retained here. Minor copy edits remain in the internal operational log.

  1. Edition 2 · 11 October 2026 · editor:aladmin

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

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Cite this record

IL Archive, «Ziusudra», Edition 2, https://ilarchive.com/en/entities/ziusudra