g the impiety of their
creatures, had inflicted injury upon themselves. "Six days and nights
the wind continued, the deluge and the tempest raged. The seventh day at
daybreak the storm abated; the deluge, which had carried on warfare like
an army, ceased, the sea became calm and the hurricane disappeared, the
deluge ceased. I surveyed the sea with my eyes, raising my voice; but
all mankind had returned to clay, neither fields nor woods could be
distinguished.*** I opened the hatchway and the light fell upon my face;
I sank down, I cowered, I wept, and my tears ran down my cheeks when I
beheld the world all terror and all sea. At the end of twelve days, a
point of land stood up from the waters, the ship touched the land of
Nisir:**** the mountain of Nisir stopped the ship and permitted it to
float no longer. One day, two days, the mountain of Nisir stopped the
ship and permitted it to float no longer.

* The gods enumerated above alone took part in the drama of
the Deluge: they were the confederates and emissaries of
Bel. The others were present as spectators of the disaster,
and were terrified.

** The upper part of the mountain wall is here referred to,
upon which the heaven is supported. There was a narrow space
between the escarpment and the place upon which the vault of
the firmament rested: the Babylonian poet represented the
gods as crowded like a pack of hounds upon this parapet, and
beholding from it the outburst of the tempest and the
waters.

***The translation is uncertain: the text refers to a legend
which has not come down to us, in which Ishtar is related to
have counselled the destruction of men.

**** The Anunnaki represent here the evil genii whom the
gods that produced the deluge had let loose, and whom
Ramman, Nebo, Merodach, Nergal, and Ninib, all the followers
of Bel, had led to the attack upon men: the other deities
shared the fears and grief of Ishtar in regard to the
ravages which these Anunnaki had brought about (cf. below,
pp. 141-143 of this History).

Three days, four days, the mountain of Nisir* stopped the ship and
permitted it to float no longer. Five days, six days, the mountain of
Nisir stopped the ship and permitted it to float no longer. The seventh
day, at dawn, I took out a dove and let it go: the dove went, turned
about, and as there was no place to alight upon, came b