The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-08-11

found something Of great historic I'm
portance. but which he does not want
to announce until he has verified his
translation.
Nintu Creates Man.
In the story, 1t appears that Nintu
q goddess, created mankind, and she
| Is found lamenting the fact that the
gods are bent upon the destruction
of man. She speaks of the human
beings as my creations"
| Anu and Emil were the chief gods.
the frst being the god of heaven and
the last being the god OF earth. Nintu
not only was the creator OF mankind.
marriage. Then comes the story of
but properly the patron goddess of
the creation.
"Nintu tthe black -headed) created
the human race the fields OF
the ground produced abundance, the
cattle and the four-legged beasts of
the fields, they tthe gods) called into
existence
The Seven Cities.
The beginning ofthe second column
Is missing. but apparently the poem
deals with the early history of man
kind and especially of the activity
OF the gods. since the part that re-
IA
satisfied with things and created seven
cities. over each OF which was II
god.
The first two cities are named after
Anu and Emil and the rest are called
after the Ave other gods. These were
Hammidad, BadNigar, L.arak. who
gave his power to Pabiinaraeg; then
Shippar, who in turn gave power to
samas. the sun god. and the last to
Shurrupak.
Priests were assigned to the cities,
and thereafter, that the people might
live. the canals, the rivers and the
streams were created and the country
was watered so that the grain might
grow aud the people could cultivate
their lands.
At the top Of the third column are
these scattered words: THE place"
the people" "rainstorm, their"
they made" These seem to indicate
that the wrath of the gods was kindled
against man for some impiousness.
Enki, the god of wisdom, whom
the two great regent gods consulted
on all occasions. held counsel with
Anu. Entil and Nintu over the pro.
posed destruction OF mankind.
Describes the Flood.
Next comes a complicated piece of
poetry full OF parallelisms like that
on the Hebrew Psalms. The mean
ing OF II all is that Enki desired TO
save her human creatures and ordered
Ziugidda to stand by q wall and lis
ten. and she told him. by our COM
mand rainstorm will be sent to de-
stroy the seed of mankind. This Is
the decision OF the assembly of the
gods"
Much OF the rest is lost. because it
appears on the reverse side OF the
tablet Then comes description of
the "windstorms, which possess great
power. the transforms. which were
terrible: and after seven days Ziugid-
da was saved in great boat. and then
the sun god came forth and told him
that he was safe"
AS in all Oriental tales, when an
erring one is forgiven he Is loaded
with new honors and presents So in
this case the gods forgave the hui
mans that existed at that time and
gave them immortality, which they
did not possess before.
AS for Ziugidda tNoahl. he was
honored by being taken to an island
in the Persian gulf, where he lived
in a sort Of paradise. and many epics
tell of how he was visited by heroes
of later years.
Antedatcs the Morgan Tablet.
There Is in the library OF the late
~ . %ucfhdit tIdAHCiA VI u
similar tablet, for which he paid $27,-
0oo This was older thap the Smith
tablet and told a story of the creation
which was believed TO be the oldest In
existence.
The deciphering of the unversity's
Sumerian relic, therefore. antedates
the Morgan relic by several centuries.
and is believed TO be the oldest that
has been found. as we'll as one OF the
first that was ever written of the Gre |
alton and the food.