'My lord! For the house of my lord[1106] I
was fishing in the midst of the sea. The waters lay still around
me, when the south wind began to blow and forced me underneath.
Into the dwelling of the fish it drove me. In the anger of my
heart [I broke the wings of the south wind].'

Tammuz and Gishzida thereupon intercede with Anu on behalf of Adapa, and
succeed in appeasing the god's wrath. If the story ended here, we would
have a pure nature-myth--the same myth in a different form that we
encountered in the Creation epic, in the Deluge story, and in the Zu
legend. Adapa would be merely a designation of Marduk and nothing more.
The sun triumphs over the storms, and the only objectionable feature in
the tale--to a Babylonian--would be the degradation involved in obliging
Marduk to secure the intercession of other gods. But this feature of
itself suggests that the nature-myth has been embodied in the legend,
but does not constitute the whole of it. A second element and one
entirely independent in its character has been added to the myth.

Anu is appeased, but he is astonished at Ea's patronage of Adapa, as a
result of which a mortal has actually appeared in a place set aside for
the gods.

Why did Ea permit an impure mortal to see the interior of heaven
and earth? He made him great and gave him fame.[1107]

The privilege accorded to Adapa appears to alarm the gods. As among the
Greeks and other nations, so also the Babylonian deities were not free
from jealousy at the power and achievements of humanity. Adapa, having
viewed the secrets of heaven and earth, there was nothing left for the
gods but to admit him into their circle. The narrative accordingly
continues:

'Now what shall we grant him? Offer him food of life, that he
may eat of it.' They brought it to him, but he did not eat.
Waters of life they brought him, but he did not drink. A garment
they brought him. He put it on. Oil they brought him. He
anointed himself.

Adapa follows the instructions of Ea, but the latter, it will be
recalled, tells Adapa that food and water of _death_ will be offered
him. It is Ea, therefore, who, although the god of humanity, and who,
moreover, according to the tradition involved in the Adapa legend, is
the creator of mankind, who prevents his creatures from gaining
immortality. The situation is very much the same that we find in the
third chapter of Genesis, when God, who creates man,