Utnapishtim
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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 It might be outdated or ideologically biased.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.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Utnapishtim
blessed by Enlil with everlasting life. [Babyl. Myth.: Gilgamesh]
See: Immortality
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.