Atrahasis Epic — Assyrian Fragment (historical source)

About this edition. This historical transcription follows an online presentation of early flood-text translations. It has not yet been collated against the original printed edition. Gaps and original line references are preserved; distinct translations and related accounts are catalogued separately.

Printed source: Albert T. Clay, A Hebrew Deluge Story in Cuneiform and Other Epic Fragments in the Pierpont Morgan Library (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922), Appendix C, pp. 68–69. This provisional online transcription has not yet been collated line by line against the printed text.

Surviving fragment

………………..
…. like the ends of heaven,
…. let it be strong above and below,
……… close ……….
[5] .... the time I will send thee.
….. enter and close the door of the ship.
…..  in it thy grain, thy possessions, and thy property,
…… Thy [wife], thy family, thy relatives and the craftsmen,
The cattle of the field, the beasts of the field, as many as dev[our] grass,
[10] I will send thee, and they will guard thy door.
Atra-hasis opened his mouth, and spoke.
He said to Ea, his lord:
How long! I have not built a ship.
Upon the earth draw a plan!
[15] The plan let me see, and I will build the ship.
……. upon the ground he drew.
……. which thou hast commanded.