Atra-ḫasīs (the Babylonian Flood & Creation Epic)
Humanity grew so loud the gods could not sleep — so they sent plague, famine, and a flood to thin the noise.
Atra-hasis is the fullest Mesopotamian account of the human story from creation to the Flood. At first the lesser gods do the back-breaking labor of digging the rivers; when they rebel, the gods create humankind — fashioned by the mother-goddess from clay mixed with the flesh and blood of a slain god — to take over the work. But humans multiply and their 'noise' grows so great that the chief god Enlil, unable to sleep, sends first plague, then drought and famine, to reduce them; each time the wise god Enki/Ea helps humanity survive. At last Enlil decrees a Flood to wipe them out, but Enki warns his devotee Atra-hasis to build a boat. Atra-hasis survives, and afterward the gods institute death, miscarriage, and other checks so humankind will never again overrun the earth.
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