Ziusudra

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Ziusudra (also Ziudsura ; Sumerian zi.u 4 .sud 4 .ra 2 , zi.ud.su 3 .ra 2 ; life of long days ; Greek Ξίσουθρος, Xisuthros ) was the name of the last divine king of Šuruppak in the Sumerian king list . His reign was ten divine SAR (36,000  divine years ) according to WB 62 . In other listings, other government lengths are sometimes given. For Ziusudra, Berossos calls “Xisuthros” a ruling period of 64,800 divine years. In the Atraḫasis epic , Ziusudra saved humanity from destruction during the great flood .

Atraḫasis epic

The Atraḫasis epic was probably first written around 2000 BC. Written, at the latest 1800 BC. One version could be dated to the twelfth year of reign (1635 BC) of King Ammi-saduqa . In the Atra-Ḫasis epic, among other things, Ziusudra's possible later whereabouts are mentioned:

"Original:  9  ud-ba zi-ud-su 3 -ra 2 lugal-am 3 10  mu niĝ 2 -gilim-ma numun nam-lu 2 -ulu 3 uru 3 ak 11  kur-bal kur dilmun-na ki d utu e 3 -še 3 mu-un-til 3 -eš ... Translation:  9  In those days when Ziudsura, the king, 10 kept  the seed of mankind and animals, 11  they ( An and Enlil ) let him live in an " overseas country ", in the land of Dilmun , in the place where the god Utu ascends. "

- CBS 10673, origin Nippur

Ziusudra's deeds are the forerunners and basis of the story of the hero and later god Uta-napišti , which were taken into account in a slightly modified version as the eleventh panel of the Gilgamesh epic . Around 1200 BC The Gilgamesh epic was revised for the last time by Sin-leqe-unninni . The later version of the biblical story of Noah shows remarkable parallels in the description of the flood disaster.

See also

literature

  • Andrew E. Hill, John H. Walton: A Survey of the Old Testament . Zondervan, Grand Rapids 2009, ISBN 0-310-28095-8 .
  • Wayne Horowitz: Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (= Mesopotamian civilizations. Vol. 8). Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 1998, ISBN 0-931464-99-4 .
  • Thorkild Jacobsen : The Harps that Once .. Sumerian Poetry in Translation . Yale University Press, New Haven et al. 1987, ISBN 0-300-03906-9 , pp. 145-150.
  • Wilfred George Lambert : A New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis. In: Journal of Theological Studies. No. 16, 1965, pp. 287-300.
  • Wilfred George Lambert, Alan Ralph Millard, Miguel Civil: Atra-Ḫasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood (Oxford 1969) . Reprint, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 1999, ISBN 1-57506-039-6 .
  • Stefan Maul : The Gilgamesh Epic . Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52870-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b WB 62 and Berossos, p. 366 (PDF; 92 kB).
  2. ↑ The mythological numbers refer to cosmic years that were subject to a special conversion. The conversion system has not yet been deciphered, but it shows great similarity to the “Platonic number”, which refers to the Babylonian-cosmic sexagesimal system. According to the Platonic system, an earthly day corresponds to a “cosmic world year”; the duration of a human life of 100 years is equated with "36,000 cosmic days" (36,000 "cosmic world years"); see: Rudolf Rufener: Plato: Der Staat . Artemis, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-423-30136-8 , pp. 502–503, note 346.
  3. ↑ Andrew E. Hill, John H. Walton: A Survey of the Old Testament . Grand Rapids 2009, p. 64.
  4. ↑ The translation follows ETCSL (English). See there for further literature and arrangements.


predecessor Office successor
??? King of Šuruppak
around 2800 BC Chr. 		Etana