(1) Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 162.

It is possible in our text that Ziusudu's sacrifice in the boat was also
the means by which the gods became acquainted with his survival; and
it seems obvious that the Sun-god, to whom it was offered, should have
continued to play some part in the narrative, perhaps by assisting
Ziusudu in propitiating Anu and Enlil. In the Semitic-Babylonian
Version, the first deity to approach the sacrifice is Belit-ili or
Ishtar, who is indignant with Enlil for what he has done. When Enlil
himself approaches and sees the ship he is filled with anger against the
gods, and, asking who has escaped, exclaims that no man must live in the
destruction. Thereupon Ninib accuses Ea, who by his pleading succeeds in
turning Enlil's purpose. He bids Enlil visit the sinner with his sin and
lay his transgression on the transgressor; Enlil should not again send a
deluge to destroy the whole of mankind, but should be content with less
wholesale destruction, such as that wrought by wild beasts, famine, and
plague. Finally he confesses that it was he who warned Ziusudu of the
gods' decision by sending him a dream. Enlil thereupon changes his
intention, and going up into the ship, leads Ut-napishtim forth.
Though Ea's intervention finds, of course, no parallel in either Hebrew
version, the subject-matter of his speech is reflected in both. In the
earlier Hebrew Version Yahweh smells the sweet savour of Noah's burnt
offering and says in his heart he will no more destroy every living
creature as he had done; while in the later Hebrew Version Elohim,
after remembering Noah and causing the waters to abate, establishes his
covenant to the same effect, and, as a sign of the covenant, sets his
bow in the clouds.

In its treatment of the climax of the story we shall see that the
Sumerian Version, at any rate in the form it has reached us, is on
a lower ethical level than the Babylonian and Hebrew Versions. Ea's
argument that the sinner should bear his own sin and the transgressor
his own transgression in some measure forestalls that of Ezekiel;(1)
and both the Hebrew Versions represent the saving of Noah as part of the
divine intention from the beginning. But the Sumerian Version introduces
the element of magic as the means by which man can bend the will of the
gods to his own ends. How far the details of the Sumerian myth at this
point resembled that of the Gilgamesh Epic it is impossible to say, but
the general course of the