Atra-Hasis

Atra-ḫasīs (also known by its incipit When Gods Men) is an Akkadian epic, which was named after one of its protagonists, the priest Atra-ḫasīs (meaning "exceedingly wise"). The story also exists in a later Assyrian dialect version, first rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal, though it contains several lacunae. It was first translated by English Assyriologist George Smith; though decades later, an older Babylonian copy written in the 17th century BCE was rediscovered and published by Wilfred G. Lambert and Alan Millard. The narrative is mostly focused on anthropogony, and has four focal points:

 An organisation of allied gods shapes Mesopotamia agriculturally;
 A political conflict between them, which is pacified by creating the first humans;
 The mass reproduction of these humans;
 A great flood, a common mytheme, which has been linked to possible historical events.

 References

Category:18th-century BC works
Category:Literature
Category:Creation myths
Category:Epic poems
Category:Cosmology