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‘Various stories relating a catastrophic flood are told by classical authors.

These flood stories may derive from a single Mesopotamian original used in travellers tales for over two thousand years along the great Caravan Routes of Western Asia.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh the ‘Flood Story’ is used to mark the time in history after which it was no longer possible for a mortal to win immortality.

The Flood is also important in wider Mesopotamian Tradition as it marks the end of the period when the Seven Sages lived on earth and brought to mankind the arts of civilisation…

The various derivations of the Flood Hero’s name, or epithets, attest to this transition… ‘Extra-Wise’ ‘He Found Life’ ‘The Far-Distant’ ‘The Green One’.’

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