Atrahasis Sparknotes

The story of Atrahasis begins with three upper echelons of god: Anu, the god of the sun and heaven; Enlil, the god of land; and Enki, the god of wisdom and water. The three upper gods, before the appearance of human beings, created younger gods and commanded to reshape the world through hard laboring. Eventually, the younger gods could not carry out the work anymore because the work was overwhelming and consumed a lot of time. Under the burden of endless work, the younger gods decided to wage a war against the upper gods. Moreover, the younger gods demanded freedom and a new resolution. In order to end their anger and misery, Enki, the god of wisdom, suggested creating mortals to replace the younger gods. The upper gods agreed and sacrificed one of the gods to grant the demand. Ninurta, the mother goodness, created human beings with the flesh and the blood of the sacrificed god. As a result, humans were born and they carried out the work instead of the gods.
The life of gods was back to its paradise; they rested and celebrated each and every day. However, their creation became a problem. Humans multiplied fast and earth was getting over populated. Enlil, the god of land, was irked by the
overpopulation so he decided to cut it down by killing them. On the other hand, Enki, the god of wisdom, was ashamed by his decision. So, Enki decided to help restore the mankind.
There was a wise man on Earth named, Atrahasis. He was able to communicate with the gods and he communicated with Enki on a daily basis. In order to save mankind from extinction, Enki told Atrahasis to pray to certain gods to stop their destruction.
Enlil was furious by his victory so he planned to drown humans by casting a catastrophic flood. Enki secretly communicated through the walls of Atrahasis’s house and told Atrahasis to build a boat large enough for himself, his family, and animals. The entire Earth was flooded for seven days and nights and only those who boarded the boat survived. Even though Enlil was able to cut down the population, the gods were starving in pain because there was no one alive to worship or sacrifice to the gods.
When Atrahasis got off the boat, he resumed worshiping and sacrificing to the gods. The gods resolved to let humanity remain on Earth. However, the gods demanded that several types of female and female worshipers were not allowed to have children so the earth does not overpopulate again.
Atrahasis:“An Account of the Great Flood” is an epic narrative from ancient Mesopotamia.
It was written in the mid-17th century BCE. The original author is unknown but it was a mankind who wrote the story and it dates back to the reign of the Babylonian King Hammurabi. Saving and reconstructing mankind was the main content of the story. This story was written to paint why and how humans came into being. It also talks about the origins of the gods. This story is somewhat biased because it talks about gods and goddesses. It is biased to whoever believes in the scientific evolution and science itself. This story has a deep message about sexual knowledge. It teaches the society that if sex is used wisely, it can be constructive. Yet if used foolishly, it can be very
destructive.
After finishing the story, I was able to connect it to today’s world. Just like how people were populating fast in the story, our population is growing fast like an unstopping train. When human population grows, our natural resources deplete. This is a huge problem because people will eventually kill each other for food and shelters. In order to survive the flood of death, one must work harder and stay on top of the food chain. Once your position is established, you have the ticket to the boat and you will be able to continue your destiny.