Uta-napishtim or Utnapishtim (Akkadian: “he has found life”) was a legendary king of the ancient city of Shuruppak in southern Iraq, who, according to the Gilgamesh flood myth, one of several similar narratives, survived the Flood by making and occupying a boat. Uta-napishtim is the eighth of the antediluvian kings in Mesopotamian legend, just as Noah is the third from Enoch in Genesis. He would have lived around 2900 BC, corresponding to the flood deposit at Shuruppak between the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic levels. In Mesopotamian narratives he is the Flood Hero, tasked by the god Enki (Akkadian Ea) to create a giant ship to be called Preserver of Life in preparation for a giant flood that will wipe out all life. The character appears in Tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, at the culmination of Gilgamesh’s search for immortality. The story of Uta-napishtim has drawn scholarly comparisons due to the similarities between it and the storylines about Noah in the Bible.
Alias Utnapishtim
Real Names/Alt Names Ziusudra (“Life of long days”), Xisuthros, Shuruppak (after his city), Atra-hasis (“exceeding wise”), and Uta-napishtim (“he has found life”)
Appearance List Epic of Gilgamesh (poem, Akkadian, late 2nd millennium BC), 5 extant Gilgamesh stories (poems in Sumerian), Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria by Lewis Spence (1916) [Internet Archive]
Description Uta-napishtim or Utnapishtim (Akkadian: “he has found life”) was a legendary king of the ancient city of Shuruppak in southern Iraq, who, according to the Gilgamesh flood myth, one of several similar narratives, survived the Flood by making and occupying a boat. Uta-napishtim is the eighth of the antediluvian kings in Mesopotamian legend, just as Noah is the third from Enoch in Genesis. He would have lived around 2900 BC, corresponding to the flood deposit at Shuruppak between the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic levels. In Mesopotamian narratives he is the Flood Hero, tasked by the god Enki (Akkadian Ea) to create a giant ship to be called Preserver of Life in preparation for a giant flood that will wipe out all life. The character appears in Tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, at the culmination of Gilgamesh’s search for immortality. The story of Uta-napishtim has drawn scholarly comparisons due to the similarities between it and the storylines about Noah in the Bible.
