Gilgamesh Utnapishtim Flood

myth:gilgamesh_utnapishtim_flood

At the edge of the world Utnapishtim tells how the gods resolved to drown mankind, and how Ea warned him to pull down his house and build a boat and take aboard the seed of all living things. The flood raged until even the gods cowered; the boat grounded on a mountain; he sent out a dove, a swallow, and a raven, and made sacrifice — and was granted eternal life. It is the oldest telling of the Flood, the source beneath the later ones. — Epic of Gilgamesh