ited by their Semitic guardians,
was in great measure unaffected by political occurrences elsewhere.
Hence it was that Ashur-bani-pal, when forming his library at Nineveh,
was able to draw upon so rich a store of the more ancient literary texts
of Babylonia. The Sumerian Version of the Deluge and of Antediluvian
history may well have survived in a less epitomized form than that
in which we have recovered it; and, like other ancient texts, it was
probably provided with a Semitic translation. Indeed its literary study
and reproduction may have continued without interruption in Babylon
itself. But even if Sumerian tradition died out in the capital under
the influence of the Babylonian priesthood, its re-introduction may
well have taken place in Neo-Babylonian times. Perhaps the antiquarian
researches of Nabonidus were characteristic of his period; and in any
case the collection of his country's gods into the capital must have
been accompanied by a renewed interest in the more ancient versions
of the past with which their cults were peculiarly associated. In
the extant summary from Berossus we may possibly see evidence of a
subsequent attempt to combine with these more ancient traditions the
continued religious dominance of Marduk and of Babylon.

Our conclusion, that the Sumerian form of the tradition did not die out,
leaves the question as to the periods during which Babylonian influence
may have acted upon Hebrew tradition in great measure unaffected; and
we may therefore postpone its further consideration to the next lecture.
To-day the only question that remains to be considered concerns the
effect of our new evidence upon the wider problem of Deluge stories as
a whole. What light does it throw on the general character of Deluge
stories and their suggested Egyptian origin?

One thing that strikes me forcibly in reading this early text is the
complete absence of any trace or indication of astrological _motif_.
It is true that Ziusudu sacrifices to the Sun-god; but the episode
is inherent in the story, the appearance of the Sun after the storm
following the natural sequence of events and furnishing assurance to the
king of his eventual survival. To identify the worshipper with his
god and to transfer Ziusudu's material craft to the heavens is surely
without justification from the simple narrative. We have here no
prototype of Ra sailing the heavenly ocean. And the destructive flood
itself is not only of an equally mater