More Than Human

       Much like the “Epic of Creation”, “The Flood” personifies gods, and portrays humans as minor plot point. Throughout the story, the gods express strong emotions and act in clever ways, while humans simply exist to reproduce and work. Enlil feels anger at humans for making noise, Enki sympathizes with the humans, and helps save them, and all of the gods rejoice at the end of the story when humans are saved. In contrast, the humans are not shown to have any emotions or actions other than to reproduce, work, and make noise. Humans are expressed as inferior to gods, and hence, they should work for and follow the gods. 

      This story seems to have been written to instruct, rather than inform. Its purpose appears to be to explain how if humans want to survive and reproduce, they should follow the instructions of the gods. In the story, Enki informs to Atrahasis how he must save people and animals from Enlil’s flood. Because humans are at the mercy of gods in the story, if Atrahasis had not heeded Enki’s warning, humanity would have ceased to exist. This reinforces the story’s message of how humans are inferior to gods, and to survive, they must heed the gods’ warnings.

      "The Flood” story, like “The Epic of Creation” gives valuable insight into Mesopotamian culture. Both stories show that Mesopotamians view gods as human like creatures that show more human behavior than humans themselves. The stories also help explain Mesopotamian culture, in that they instruct humans how to act and to obey the gods.