172 



T. G. PINCHES, LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON 



which means that Ziugiddu, the hero of the Dehige story, is to 

 become a god." 



As you all know, Babylonian stories of the Flood had already 

 come to light, the first being that translated many years ago by 

 George Smith, and forming the main portion of the contents of 

 the 11th tablet of the Gilgames-legend. Besides this, a fragment 

 was found by Smith and now forms part of the Daily Telegraph 

 collection ; another, discovered by Father V. Scheil, has been 

 acquired ibr the Pierpont Morgan collection; and a small 

 fragment of a fourth version was discovered and translated by 

 Prof. Hilprecht in 1910 — a version bearing, perhaps, a greater 

 resemblance to the Biblical account of the Flood than the others 

 in the portion which has been preserved.* 



The new text at Philadelphia, however, is, according to 

 Poebel, an entirely different account, " as will be seen from the 

 fact that the hero bears a name different irom that 

 found in the other Deluge stories."f This new version, 

 moreover (unlike those translated by Smith), is not written in 

 Semitic Babylonian, but in Sumerian. Like many other 

 legendary compositions of the Sumerians and Semitic Baby- 

 lonians, it is couched in poetical form, and as such, Puebel 

 suggests, served some practical purpose, ritualistic or otherwise. 

 For various reasons he thinks that the tablet was written about 

 the time of Hammurabi, and is therefore older than the versions 

 already known (though that discovered l)y Scheil runs it very 

 •close). It is probable, however, that all the versions of the 

 Flood and the leoends in treneral are much older than the time 

 Avhen they were written — in other words, they antedate the 

 tablets upon which they have been preserved to us. 



For further details of the new version of the Flood-story, we 

 must of course wait until the text itself is published, but 

 just two notes may be made upon Poebel's abstract. The name 

 of the patriarch, Ziugiddu, is new and unexpected, and its 

 terminal u seems to suggest Semitic influence ; though, as 

 Poebel makes no comment upon this, no argument can be 

 based thereon. The giving to Ziugiddu of an eternal soul raises 

 the (juestinn, whether the Babylonians believed men to have 

 possessed immortal souls before the time of Ziugiddu, or only 

 afterwards. 



* For a description of this, see tlie Journal of the Victoria Institute for 

 1911, pp. 135 ff. 



t His other names are Ut-mipi^ti'" (or Uta-naistl'") and Atra-hasis 

 ("the exceedingly Avise ■'), repro(hiced in Greek as Xisuthrus (= Jlasis- 

 <itra). 



