The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish

The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish by E. A. Wallis Budge was first published in 1929. This book includes both the earliest known telling of the great flood, which pre-dates any Christian reference to the flood story with Noah by thousands of years, and the story of the ancient Mesopotamian hero, Gilgamish.

The epic poem tells how Gilgamish mourns the loss of his friend Enkidu and, after realising that he too is mortal, undertakes a journey to discover the secret of eternal life. He eventually learns that “Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands.”

The tablets these stories come from date from as early as the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BC). The Old Babylonian tablets (c. 1800 BC) are the earliest surviving tablets for a single Epic of Gilgamesh narrative.