“But Bel Enlil came also, and when he beheld the ship he paused.  His heart was filled with wrath against the gods and the spirits of heaven.  Angrily he spake and said:  ’Hath one escaped?  It was decreed that no human being should survive the deluge.’

“Ninip, son of Bel, spoke, saying:  ’Who hath done this save Ea alone?  He knoweth all things.’

“Ea, god of the deep, opened his mouth and said unto the warrior Bel:  ’Thou art the lord of the gods, O warrior.  But thou wouldst not hearken to my counsel and caused the deluge to be.  Now punish the sinner for his sins and the evil doer for his evil deed, but be merciful and do not destroy all mankind.  May there never again be a flood.  Let the lion come and men will decrease.  May there never again be a flood.  Let the leopard come and men will decrease.  May there never again be a flood.  Let famine come upon the land; let Ura, god of pestilence, come and snatch off mankind....  I did not reveal the secret purpose of the mighty gods, but I caused Atra-chasis (Pir-napishtim) to dream a dream in which he had knowledge of what the gods had decreed.’

“Having pondered a time over these words, Bel entered the ship alone.  He grasped my hand and led me forth, even me, and he led forth my wife also, and caused her to kneel down beside me.  Then he stood between us and gave his blessing.  He spoke, saying:  ’In time past Pir-napishtim was a man.  Henceforth Pir-napishtim and his wife will be like unto deities, even us.  Let them dwell apart beyond the river mouths.’

“Thereafter Bel carried me hither beyond the mouths of rivers.”

* * * * *

Flood myths are found in many mythologies both in the Old World and the New.

The violent and deceitful men of the mythical Bronze Age of Greece were destroyed by a flood.  It is related that Zeus said on one occasion to Hermes:  “I will send a great rain, such as hath not been since the making of the world, and the whole race of men shall perish.  I am weary of their iniquity.”

For receiving with hospitable warmth these two gods in human guise, Deucalion, an old man, and his wife Pyrrha were spared, however.  Zeus instructed his host to build an ark of oak, and store it well with food.  When this was done, the couple entered the vessel and shut the door.  Then Zeus “broke up all the fountains of the deep, and opened the well springs of heaven, and it rained for forty days and forty nights continually”.  The Bronze folk perished:  not even those who fled to the hilltops could escape.  The ark rested on Parnassus, and when the waters ebbed the old couple descended the mountain and took up their abode in a cave.[226]