The flood account of Berossus (2)

Text
Xisouthros = Ziusudra.

Berossus, Babyloniaca F4b:
(On the third day) after the flood had come and swiftly receded, Xisouthros released some of the birds. But finding neither food nor a place on which to alight, the birds returned to the ship. After a few days Xisouthros again released the birds and these again returned to the ship but with their feet covered with mud. On being released a third time, they did not again return to the ship. Xisouthros understood that land had reappeared. Tearing apart a portion of the seams and seeing that the boat had landed on a mountain, he disembarked with his wife and his daughter and the pilot. After performing obeisance to the earth and setting up an altar and sacrificing to the gods, he and those who had disembarked from the ship with him disappeared. When Xisouthros and the others did not come back in, those remaining in the boat disembarked and searched for him calling out his name. Xisouthros was no longer visible to them, but a voice from the sky ordered them to be reverent. Because of his piety, he had gone to live with the gods; and his wife and the pilot were to share the same honor. The voice also told them that they were to return to Babylon and that it was decreed that they were to dig up the writings from (the city) of Sipparians and distribute them to mankind. It also said that the land in which they found themselves was Armenia. After hearing these things, they sacrificed to the gods and proceeded to Babylon on foot.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Berossus, Babyloniaca F4b

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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