FOOTNOTES: (continued 1)
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Jastrow, Morris
With living creatures of all kinds I loaded it.
I brought on board my whole family and household,
Cattle of the field, beasts of the field, workmen,—all this I took on board.
Parnapishtim is ready to enter the ship, but he waits until the time fixed for the storm arrives.
When the time came
For the lord of the whirlstorm to rain down destruction,
I gazed at the earth,
I was terrified at its sight,
I entered the ship, and closed the door.
To the captain of the ship, to Puzur-Shadurabu,[960] the sailor,
I entrusted the structure[961] with all its contents.
The description of the storm follows, in diction at once impressive and forcible.
Upon the first appearance of dawn,
There arose from the horizon dark clouds,
Within which Ramman caused his thunder to resound.
Nabu and Sharru[962] marched at the front,
The destroyers passed across mountains and land,
Dibbarra[963] lets loose the....[964]
Ninib advances in furious hostility.
The Anunnaki raise torches,
Whose sheen illumines the universe,
As Ramman's whirlwind sweeps the heavens,
And all light is changed to darkness.
The destructive elements, thunder, lightning, storm, rain, are thus let loose. The dreadful storm lasts for seven days. The terror of men and gods is splendidly portrayed.
Brother does not look after brother,
Men care not for another. In the heavens,
Even the gods are terrified at the storm.
They take refuge in the heaven of Anu.[965]
The gods cowered like dogs at the edge of the heavens.
With this description the climax in the narrative is reached. The reaction begins. Ishtar is the first to bewail the destruction that has been brought about, and her example is followed by others of the gods.
Ishtar groans like a woman in throes,
The lofty goddess cries with loud voice,
The world of old has become a mass of clay.[966]
Ishtar appears here in the rôle of the mother of mankind. She feels that she has none but herself to blame for the catastrophe, for, as one of the great gods, she must have been present at the council when the storm was decided on, and must have countenanced it. She therefore reproaches herself:
That I should have assented[967] to this evil among the gods!
That when I assented to this evil,
I was for the destruction of my own creatures![968]
What I created, where is it?
Like so many fish, it[969] fills the sea.
From the words of Ishtar it would appear that the storm had assumed larger dimensions than the gods, or at least than some of them, had anticipated. At the beginning of the episode, Shurippak alone is mentioned, and Ishtar apparently wishes to say that when she agreed to the bringing on of the storm, she was not aware that she was decreeing the destruction of all mankind. It is evident that two distinct traditions have been welded together in the present form of the Babylonian document, one recalling the destruction of a single city, the other embodying in mythological form the destructive rains of Babylonia that were wont to annually flood the entire country before the canal system was perfected.