Eridu Genesis
The Sumerian flood story, in which the gods send a deluge and king Ziusudra survives in a boat. Its composers are unknown.
- Original byline
- Anonymous
- Published
- Date not recorded
- Form
- Other works
- Authorship
- Still unknown
- Reason for anonymity
- Unrecorded
- Copyright
- Public domain
- Reference
- Wikipedia · Wikidata
The authorship story
Eridu Genesis is the modern name for the Sumerian account of creation, the founding of the first cities, and the flood the gods send to destroy mankind, survived by the pious king Ziusudra in a great boat. It is preserved incompletely on tablets of the early second millennium BCE and stands behind the later flood narratives of Atrahasis, Gilgamesh, and Genesis. Like all Sumerian literature it names no author. The scribes who composed and copied it worked in a tradition that did not record individual creators, and the oldest flood story in world literature is anonymous.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote Eridu Genesis?
Nobody knows. No author for Eridu Genesis has been identified in the documented record.
Can I read Eridu Genesis for free?
Eridu Genesis is in the public domain, though this site has not yet verified a free full-text source for it.
Related works
- Still unknown
Amduat
An ancient Egyptian netherworld book describing the sun god's journey through the twelve hours of night. Like all Egyptian funerary literature, it names no author.
- Still unknown
Book of Caverns
An ancient Egyptian netherworld book depicting the sun god's passage over six caverns of the underworld. No author is recorded in the tradition.
- Still unknown
Book of the Dead
The ancient Egyptian collection of funerary spells guiding the dead through the afterlife. Tradition associates such texts with the god Thoth; no historical author exists in the record.
- Still unknown
Book of the Earth
An ancient Egyptian funerary composition showing the sun's night journey through the earth god Aker. Anonymous, like all Egyptian netherworld books.