epic, where the hero is told of
the plant of life, succeeds in finding it, but as he is about to eat the
'food' loses his grasp upon it. The exertions of man are in vain. True,
there is Parnapishtim, a mortal who with his wife has obtained immortal
life. He is the exception that proves the rule. Moreover, it is Bel, and
not Ea, who places Parnapishtim 'at the confluence of streams,' there to
live forever, and Bel does this as a proof of his pacification, a kind
of indemnity offered to Ea for having destroyed the offspring of the god
of humanity. The Adapa legend attacks the problem more seriously. Ea,
the same god who has created man, endowed him with wisdom, bestowed all
manner of benefits upon him, Ea, who protects humanity against Anu,
against Bel, and other gods, Ea himself deceives man. Evidently the
lesson that the Babylonian theologians intended to teach through the
Adapa legend was, that it was not good for man to 'live forever.' Ea
himself prevents it. That is the point of the story. Anu and the other
gods are satisfied, but Ea does not desire it, and Ea's decision cannot
be to the disadvantage of mankind, so dearly beloved by him. With this
conclusion humanity must be content--and be resigned to the inevitable.

Of the various legends that we have been considering, the story of Adapa
is perhaps the most significant, and none the less so for the manner in
which a philosophical problem has been grafted on to a nature-myth.
Adapa is made to play the role of Marduk, and it is nothing short of
remarkable that at so early a period as the one to which the existence
of the story can be traced back, a nature-myth should have been diverted
from its original purpose and adapted to the end that the Adapa story
serves in its present form. The process involved in this adaptation is a
complicated one. The story serves as an evidence of the intellectual
activity displayed in the schools of theological thought that must have
flourished for many centuries before a story like that of Adapa could
have been produced out of a nature-myth. Hardly less remarkable is it
that the theologians and scribes of later times no longer understood the
story, for otherwise they would not have identified Adapa with Marduk
through the superficial circumstance that he is introduced into the
story instead of Marduk, or some other solar deity allied to Marduk.

The Adapa legend takes us back to the beginning of man's career--to the
time when, as in