The Eridu Genesis myth comes from Old Babylonian empire and is usually dated to about 1600 BCE. It was written on clay tablets which are quite fragmented. It is often refereed to as the Sumerian Flood Myth. This is because it’s recorded in Sumerian cuneiform. However, paleographers would refer to it as Old Babylonian or Akkadian cuneiform script. The cuneiform script was widely used among most cultures in the ancient near east, however, it evolved quite a bit throughout history.<\/p>\n Despite being recorded in the late Old Babylonian period, the story it quite ancient. It has some parallels with the Epic of Gilgamesh but the Gilgamesh epic tablets are some 500-600 years later than the Eridu Genesis tablets. Like the Eridu Genesis story, the Epic of Gilgamesh is also much older than the tablets that contain the story.<\/p>\n The tale of Gilgamesh is really about the meaning of life and human mortality which has it’s stage set by the flood. Gilgamesh is searching for an answer to human immortality but in the end resides himself to the fact that all humans are mortal and that we must use our time here wisely. Eridu Genesis on the other hand is an explanation of creation and the order of things.\u00a0Ziusudra, the main character survives 7 days and nights of flooding, not 40, and he is rewarded at the end with the eternal life and breath of the gods. The story is not as much an epic, like that of Gilgamesh, as it is a theological description of creation. This is why it’s often compared to the biblical Genesis, rather than the Epic of Gilgamesh.<\/p>\n In the Eridu Genesis, mankind is destroyed because of the behavior of human beings which appear to be a bother to the gods who created them. The original intention was to create humans that could work and toil in place of the gods but these humans were just annoying them. This is all-together different than the explanation of the biblical story as well as the Epic of Gilgamesh; both describing the flood as a result of humanities sinfulness.<\/p>\n The main differences between the biblical Genesis and the Eridu Genesis was the purpose of mankind. Anyone reading the biblical Genesis cannot help but to notice the elevation of mankind as a special creation who was meant to be in companionship with the creator. In the Eridu Genesis, as well as other ancient Near Eastern mythologies, mankind is created specifically to serve the gods or to provide some form of benefit to them.<\/p>\n Setting of the Myth in Eridu<\/strong><\/p>\n Eridu is one of the oldest cities in Mesopotamia. Sumerian culture believed that Eridu was the very first civilization and that it was the location where the gods decided to create mankind. It is not hard to understand why the city was so successful over history, as they lay at the edge of the Persian gulf, surrounded by rivers and tributaries. No doubt the land was hospitable and plenty. Like the Egyptians, they benefited from yearly river flooding that left the area rich with new soil and deposits for which to plant.<\/p>\n The biblical garden of Eden is said to have also been located between these two great rivers. In fact, according to the description in Genesis, one would be led to believe that Eden was directly located in Babylon, just north of Ur and Eridu.<\/p>\n A river\u00a0watering the garden flowed from Eden;\u00a0from there it was separated into four headwaters.<\/span>\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup>The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah,\u00a0where there is gold.<\/span>\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin\u00a0and onyx are also there.)<\/span>13\u00a0<\/sup>The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.<\/span>\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>The name of the third river is the Tigris;\u00a0it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.![\"The](\"http:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/The-simplification-of-cuneiform-signs.jpg\")
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\n(Genesis 2:10-14)<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a><\/a>