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

  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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