THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Tablet V : The story of the flood
You know the city of Shurrupak, it stands on the banks of Euphrates? That city grew old and the gods that were in it were old. There was Anu, lord of the firmament, their father, and warrior Enlil their counsellor, Ninurta the helper, and Ennugi watcher over canals; and with them was also Ea. In those days the world teemed and the peoples multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the clamour. Enlil heard the clamour and said to the gods on counsil:" The uproar of man id intolerable and sleep in no longer possible by reason of the babel." So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind. Enlil did this, but Ea because of his oath warned me in a dream. He wispered their words to my house of reeds,"Reed-house, reed-house! Wall, O wall, heaken Ubara-Tutu; tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possesions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save you soul alive. Tear down your house and build a boat. these are the measurments of the barque as you shall build her: let her beam equal her lenth, let her deck be roofed like the vault that covers the abyss; then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures."