Adad unleashed the storm of the Great Flood at the gods' decree, his thunderclouds turning day to darkness so absolute that even the gods cowered against the walls of heaven like dogs.
The Anunnaki sanctioned the Great Flood to destroy the humanity they had grown weary of, but when the deluge raged and the waters rose to heaven, the gods themselves cowered against the walls and wept at the devastation they had wrought.
The Sumerian King List records Dumuzi as a shepherd-king of Bad-tibira who reigned for 36,000 years before the Great Flood swept the earth, placing his reign in the antediluvian age of impossibly long-lived rulers.
Enki, bound by oath not to reveal the gods' plan, whispered the secret of the Great Flood to a reed wall while his servant Atrahasis listened on the other side — circumventing Enlil's decree and ensuring that one righteous man would survive to preserve the seed of mankind.
Enlil, enraged by humanity's noise disturbing his sleep, decreed the Great Flood to annihilate mankind — and when the waters receded and he discovered survivors aboard a boat, he raged at the other gods until Enki persuaded him to relent.
Ninhursag, the mother goddess who had shaped humanity from clay, wept bitterly as the Great Flood destroyed her creation — crying out that she had borne mankind only to fill the sea like dragonfly larvae, and afterward she swore the gods would never forget the devastation.
Utnapishtim, warned by Enki through a reed wall, built the great boat that carried his family, craftsmen, and the seed of all living creatures through seven days of the Great Flood — and when the waters receded and the gods smelled his sacrifice, Enlil granted him immortality among the gods.
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