Utnapishtim

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Utnapishtim

the hero of a Babylonian myth about the flood. According to legend, Utnapishtim built an ark and was saved from the great flood, the story of which is partly related to actual floods that occurred in Mesopotamia before the building of a flood control system in the late third millennium B.C. Utnapishtim corresponds to Ziusudra in Sumerian mythology and to Noah in biblical mythology.

Utnapishtim

blessed by Enlil with everlasting life. [Babyl. Myth.: Gilgamesh]

See: Immortality

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References in periodicals archive ?

Gilgamesh initially contemplates attacking the god-like, immortal Utnapishtim. However, once they meet face to face and he realizes that this god was very much like him, just another human being, he could not fight him.

The foundation of existentialism in the oldest story ever told: The Epic of Gilgamesh

He ultimately encounters Utnapishtim, the Noah figure who tells the story of the Flood and informs Gilgamesh that mortals must perish.

The world's first story

Eventually, rafter numerous adventures, Gilgamesh finds Utnapishtim, a man who has survived the great flood--the model for Noah in the Hebrew Bible.

History is our responsibility

The heartbroken king seeks the advice of Utnapishtim and his wife, the only two mortals to whom the gods have granted eternal life.

Forever young: the new scientific search for immortality

The names of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Utnapishtim, Enlil, and E anna are virtually unknown outside the poem itself.

WORLD LITERATURE TODAY: FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE WHOLE WORLD

This is a far cry from the earlier accounts (in the Gilgamesh and Atrahasis epics) where the gods plan the destruction of the world for reasons that are unclear, and where the protagonist, Utnapishtim, is saved as the result of a god's favoritism without any moral judgments being passed."

THE DANGERS OF DE-FANGING GOD

FaceOff's work, which draws on ancient myths and legends, replaces Noah with Utnapishtim, who is granted immortality by the Gods for saving two of every animal.

An ancient epic; The Epic of Gilgamesh MAC, Cannon Hill Park

Utnapishtim, a mortal possessing the secret of life.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The most famous flood narrative, that of Noah, is based closely on the far older Babylonian story of Utnapishtim, told in the Epic of Gilgamesh.