Adapa, the Sage of Eridu
1 [...] understanding [...] His command was like Anu’s [...]
2 Ea gave him great understanding
3 so he could explain the order of the land.
4 He gave him wisdom, but did not give him eternal life.
5 In those days and years, he was the sage of Eridu.
6 Ea had made him his follower among human beings,
7 a sage whose command no one could oppose,
8 skilled and very wise among the Anunnaki,
9 blameless, with clean hands, anointed, attentive to the divine rites.
Adapa Serves Ea
10 With the bakers he made bread,
11 With the bakers of Eridu he made bread,
12 He prepared Eridu’s food and water every day,
13 With his clean hands he prepared the table,
14 And without him the table was not cleared.
15 He steered the boat and caught fish for Eridu.
16 At that time, Adapa of Eridu,
17 while Ea lay resting in bed,
18 attended to Eridu’s gate-bolt every day.
19 At the sacred harbor, the Crescent Harbor, he boarded the boat,
20 [Without a rudder] his boat drifted,
21 [without a punting pole] he steered the boat
22 [...] on the broad sea. [...]
Adapa Breaks the South Wind’s Wing
23 “South Wind [...]
24 “South Wind, [...] your brothers, however many there are,
25 I will break your wing!”
26 As soon as he said this,
27 the South Wind’s wing broke. For seven days
Anu Summons Adapa
28 the South Wind did not blow over the land. Anu
29 said to his messenger Ilabrat:
30 “Why has the South Wind not blown over the land for seven days?”
31 His messenger Ilabrat answered him, “My lord,
32 Adapa, Ea’s son, has broken the South Wind’s
33 wing.” When Anu heard this,
34 he cried, “Help!” He rose from his throne: “Send someone to bring him to me!”
Ea Prepares Adapa for Heaven
35 Ea, who knew heaven’s ways,
36 left Adapa’s hair uncombed and dressed him in mourning clothes.
37 He gave him instructions,
38 saying, “Adapa, you are going into King Anu’s presence;
39 you will go up to heaven.
40 When you reach Anu’s gate,
41 Tammuz and Gishzida
42 will be standing there.
43 They will see you and ask, ‘Young man,
44 for whom are you dressed this way, Adapa? For whom
45 are you wearing mourning clothes?’
46 ‘Two gods have vanished from our land, so
47 I have dressed this way.’ ‘Who are the two gods who have vanished
48 from the land?’ ‘Tammuz and Gishzida.’ They will look at each other and
49 smile. They will speak in your favor
50 to Anu and show you
51 Anu’s friendly face. When you stand in Anu’s presence,
Ea’s Instructions about Food and Drink
52 they will offer you the food of death;
53 do not eat it. They will offer you the water of death;
54 do not drink it. They will offer you a garment;
55 put it on. They will offer you oil; rub it on yourself.
56 Do not forget the instructions I have given you. Hold on to the words
57 I have spoken.” The messenger
58 of Anu arrived: “Adapa has broken the South Wind’s
59 wing. Bring him to me.”
Adapa Enters Heaven
60 He sent him on the road to heaven, and he went up to heaven.
61 When he reached heaven and approached Anu’s gate,
62 Tammuz and Gishzida were standing there.
63 When they saw him, they cried, “Help! Adapa,
64 young man, for whom are you dressed this way?
65 For whom are you wearing mourning clothes?”
66 “Two gods have vanished from the land, so I am dressed
67 in mourning clothes.” “Who are the two gods who have vanished from the land?”
68 “Tammuz and Gishzida.” They looked at each other and
Adapa Answers Anu
69 smiled. When Adapa came into King Anu’s presence, Anu saw him and said:
70 “Come, Adapa, why did you break the South Wind’s
71 wing?” Adapa answered Anu, “My lord, I was fishing for my lord’s household
72 in the middle of the sea. Halfway through the crossing,
73 the South Wind blew and capsized me;
74 I sank into my lord’s house. In my anger
75 I cursed [the South Wind].” Tammuz spoke beside him,
76 and Gishzida spoke in his favor to Anu.
77 Anu calmed down and became quiet.
The Food and Water of Life
78 “Why has Ea revealed to imperfect humankind
79 the secrets of heaven and earth?
80 He has given him a bold heart. He himself has done this.
81 What can we do for him? Bring him the food of life
82 so he can eat.” They brought him the food of life;
83 he did not eat it. They brought him the water of life;
84 he did not drink it. They brought him a garment;
85 he put it on. They brought him oil;
86 he rubbed it on himself.
87 Anu looked at him and laughed.
88 “Come, Adapa, why did you not eat or drink?
89 Now you will not live! What a loss for humankind!” “Ea, my lord,
90 told me: ‘Do not eat, do not drink.’”
91 “Take him and send him back to earth.”
Anu’s Decision about Adapa
92 [...] “Among all the gods of heaven and earth, who could do this?
93 Who could make his command stronger than Anu’s?”
94 [...] Adapa looked from the horizon to the heights of heaven
95 and saw the terrifying splendor of [...].
96 [...] Anu assigned Adapa a duty.
97 [...] Ea [...] he released him.
98 [...] Anu decreed that his authority would be known for all time.
99 [...] Adapa, a descendant of humankind,
100 [...] who boldly broke the South Wind’s wing
101 and went up to heaven. “Let it be so!”
An Incantation for Healing
102 [The South Wind, whose] gusts harmed the people,
103 [...] the disease it brought upon their bodies,
104 [...] Ninkarrak relieved.
105 [...] if it rises and the disease returns,
106 [...] if shivering attacks him,
107 [...] he will not sleep soundly,
108 [...] the joy of people’s hearts. [The rest is lost.]
An Introduction to Adapa and the South Wind
5 min read
Adapa and the South Wind is an anonymous Mesopotamian story about a sage whose wisdom brings him before the gods but does not give him eternal life.1 Two copies from Tell Haddad preserve a version from the early second millennium BCE written in Sumerian, the language of ancient southern Mesopotamia.2 When the story was first composed and who wrote it remain unknown, although the surviving manuscripts establish stages in its transmission.3 Later copies in Akkadian, a language used in ancient Babylonia and Assyria, include a tablet from fourteenth-century BCE Egypt and fragments from seventh-century BCE Nineveh.4
The places where scribes preserved the story help explain its different uses, even though they cannot establish why it was first written. The copy from Amarna, an Egyptian royal capital, belonged to a collection of scholarly tablets associated with scribal education in Egypt, where scribes needed Akkadian for diplomatic correspondence.5 The earlier Sumerian copies were found among literary and magical texts at Tell Haddad, where the collection suggests an interest in healing, ritual knowledge, and questions about life and death.6 The later Assyrian introduction describes Adapa’s service at Ea’s sanctuary in Eridu and likely helped priests explain the divine authority behind their duties, although this later use cannot establish the purpose of the earliest story.7
Adapa’s relationship with Ea, the god of wisdom, begins with his daily service in the god’s household, where he prepares offerings and supplies fish. When the South Wind interrupts his fishing and plunges him into the sea, Adapa curses it and breaks its wing, and the wind ceases to blow until heaven’s ruler Anu summons him to explain what happened.8 Ea prepares him for the journey by explaining how to win the support of the gods at heaven’s gate and warning him to refuse food and water, which Ea describes as deadly. Adapa follows those instructions, but Anu offers him the food and water of life; his obedience leads him to refuse what would give him eternal life.910
The opening distinction between wisdom and eternal life governs Adapa’s encounter with the gods, where his extraordinary abilities leave him dependent on knowledge that Ea chooses to give him. He can disable a force of nature through speech, yet he cannot recognize the opportunity before him when Anu offers food and drink.11 His faithful service and privileged access to a god therefore do not remove the limits of human life, and even an exceptionally wise person remains vulnerable when dealing with the gods.12 The story connects mortality with the limits of wisdom through a servant who obeys his divine adviser and still fails to receive eternal life.13
The earlier Sumerian story places Adapa within a wider history of humanity after the flood, when the gods need food and human beings resume the work of supplying it. Its long introduction concerns humanity and the organization of the world, while its conclusion returns to the South Wind and the removal of illness.14 The Akkadian retellings concentrate more closely on Adapa’s own fate and his relationship with Ea and Anu, and the Assyrian introduction makes the gift of wisdom without eternal life explicit.15 The changes in emphasis show how scribes could preserve the journey to heaven while developing different concerns about divine service, human knowledge, and mortality.16
Ea gives similar warnings about hospitality in Nergal and Ereshkigal, where he tells Nergal to refuse what he is offered in the underworld. Accepting its hospitality would bind the visitor to that realm, making food and drink part of the boundary between the living and the dead.17 Adapa travels upward to heaven rather than downward to the underworld, and he is allowed to accept clothing and oil while refusing food and water. In his case, the warning prevents him from accepting life, and the shared pattern of divine advice and forbidden hospitality leads to a different result.18
Gilgamesh, the Mesopotamian epic about a king’s search for eternal life, offers another comparison through its journeys across dangerous waters. In Gilgamesh, Tablet X, the king crosses the waters of death to reach Utnapishtim, the flood survivor who possesses the eternal life that Adapa fails to receive.19 The comparison also extends to Gilgamesh’s companion Enkidu, whose entry into human society brings knowledge and friendship but leaves him confronting his own death. Like Adapa, Enkidu belongs to a tradition in which the benefits of human understanding coexist with mortality, rather than providing a way to escape it.20
In Genesis 2–3, Adam and Eve gain knowledge by eating forbidden fruit but lose access to the tree of life, while Adapa obeys Ea and refuses the food that would give him eternal life. Both stories bring human knowledge close to divine knowledge while withholding the eternal life that the gods possess, a concern made explicit in Genesis 3:22.21 The difference in the characters’ actions matters: Adam and Eve cross a boundary by eating, whereas Adapa remains within the instructions given to him by his god. The comparison concerns the separation of wisdom from immortality, even though the characters arrive at that separation through different choices.22
In the Hebrew Bible and derivative traditions, Enoch’s mysterious disappearance in Genesis 5:24 and his entrance into the heavenly sanctuary in 1 Enoch 14:9–18 connect Adapa’s journey with later traditions about humans who approach the divine presence.23 In 1 Enoch, the visionary passes through increasingly holy chambers before seeing the heavenly throne, and his progress resembles a priest’s approach to the innermost sanctuary of a temple. This priestly setting gives the comparison with Adapa greater substance than the shared journey upward, since both figures connect exceptional access to heaven with religious knowledge and service.24 Enoch also resembles other Mesopotamian figures, including Enmeduranki, a king who receives divine knowledge, and Utuabzu, a sage said to have ascended to heaven. The Enoch traditions likely developed from several traditions about ancient sages, heavenly journeys, and priestly authority, rather than through direct copying of a single identifiable Mesopotamian source.25
Notes