This much we do know: Xiusudra (
Ziusudra) found favor with the gods.
This in turn was based on the Sumerian legend of
Ziusudra. In Hindu mythology, Vishnu appears to Manu, the first man, as a fish and warns him of the coming flood; the god himself leads Manu's ship to a safe mooring in the mountains of the North.
Where is Gilgame[section], who, like
Ziusudra, sought (eternal) life?
For much that has been learned of the Sumerian mythology, on which was based much of the mythology of Babylon and Assyria, see An; Enki; Enlil; Inanna; Nintu;
Ziusudra.
(16) A parallel enclosed place (echoing the Sumerian tradition of
Ziusudra's boat and, later, the biblical tradition of Noah's ark), not used for ritual purposes but one that served similar religious functions of separation, preservation, and triumph over the forces of confusion, was the vara- (cf.