Comparison between the flood of Gilgamesh and that of Genesis The version of the world-historic flood recorded in the Genesis of the Old Testament is similar to the account reported Sumerian tablet 11 - Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh epic, discovered in 1800 by British archaeologists in Assyria. Let's compare the two in this essay. Alexander Heidel in his book, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels, provides a background for the survivor of the Sumerian-Babylonian flood, Utnapishtim: Utnapishtim was the son of Ubara-Tutu, the Otiartes, or, rather, Opartes of Berossus. According to Berossus, the flood hero was the tenth pre-Flood king of Babylon. Even in the Sumerian inscription he is referred to as king; there he also occupies a priestly office, that is, that of administrator of the provisions of the temple of a certain god. In the Gilgamesh epic, Utnapishtim is not invested with any real power nor given any priestly duties; from it we simply learn that he was a citizen of Shurippak (plate XI:23) and a man of considerable wealth (XI:70ff). (227)NK Sandars in the introduction to his book, The Epic of Gilgamesh, summarizes the involvement of the pagan gods in the Sumerian-Babylonian flood narrative:In the flood of Gilgamesh Ishtar and Enlil are as usual the advocates of destruction. Ishtar speaks, perhaps in her guise as goddess of war, but Enlil prevails with his storm weapon. Only Ea, with superior wisdom, was either not present, or being present was silent, and with his usual cunning made sure that at least one member of the human race survived. (41)Column 1 of Tablet 11 begins the account of the Sumerian-Babylonian Flood (Gardner 226). The sage Utnap... in the center of the paper ......found that his family "would be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth". God promises that “there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.” The offering of sacrifice and its acceptance by God: these are repeated in both accounts of the Flood. WORKS CITED Gardner, John and John Maier. Gilgamesh: Translated from the Sin-leqi-unninni version. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. Harris, Stephen L. “Gilgamesh.” The humanist tradition in world literature. Ed. Stefano Harris. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1970.Heidel, Alexander. The Epic of Gilgamesh and the parallels of the Old Testament. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949. Ignatius' Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1966. Sandars. NK The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York: Penguin Books, 1972.