and these to whom I myself have given birth, where are they?  Like the spawn of fish they encumber the sea!  ’The gods wept with her over the affair of the Anunnaki;’ the gods, in the place where they sat weeping, their lips were closed.”  It was not pity only which made their tears to flow:  there were mixed up with it feelings of regret and fears for the future.  Mankind once destroyed, who would then make the accustomed offerings?  The inconsiderate anger of Bel, while punishing the impiety of their creatures, had inflicted injury upon themselves.  “Six days and nights the wind continued, the deluge and the tempest raged.  The seventh day at daybreak the storm abated; the deluge, which had carried on warfare like an army, ceased, the sea became calm and the hurricane disappeared, the deluge ceased.  I surveyed the sea with my eyes, raising my voice; but all mankind had returned to clay, neither fields nor woods could be distinguished.*** I opened the hatchway and the light fell upon my face; I sank down, I cowered, I wept, and my tears ran down my cheeks when I beheld the world all terror and all sea.  At the end of twelve days, a point of land stood up from the waters, the ship touched the land of Nisir:**** the mountain of Nisir stopped the ship and permitted it to float no longer.  One day, two days, the mountain of Nisir stopped the ship and permitted it to float no longer.

* The gods enumerated above alone took part in the drama of the Deluge:  they were the confederates and emissaries of Bel.  The others were present as spectators of the disaster, and were terrified.

** The upper part of the mountain wall is here referred to, upon which the heaven is supported.  There was a narrow space between the escarpment and the place upon which the vault of the firmament rested:  the Babylonian poet represented the gods as crowded like a pack of hounds upon this parapet, and beholding from it the outburst of the tempest and the waters.

     ***The translation is uncertain:  the text refers to a legend
     which has not come down to us, in which Ishtar is related to
     have counselled the destruction of men.

**** The Anunnaki represent here the evil genii whom the gods that produced the deluge had let loose, and whom Ramman, Nebo, Merodach, Nergal, and Ninib, all the followers of Bel, had led to the attack upon men:  the other deities shared the fears and grief of Ishtar in regard to the ravages which these Anunnaki had brought about (cf. below, pp. 141-143 of this History).

Three days, four days, the mountain of Nisir* stopped the ship and permitted it to float no longer.  Five days, six days, the mountain of Nisir stopped the ship and permitted it to float no longer.  The seventh day, at dawn, I took out a dove and let it go:  the dove went, turned about, and as there was no place to alight upon, came back.  I took out a swallow and let it go:  the swallow went,