What is the name of the Babylonian flood hero in the Atrahasis Epic?
Answer
Atrahasis
Answer
Atrahasis
The Babylonian flood hero in the Atrahasis Epic is Atrahasis.
Atrahasis is the central human figure in an Akkadian poem preserved on clay tablets from ancient Mesopotamia. In the story, the god Enki warns him about a catastrophic flood and instructs him to build a boat. Atrahasis saves himself, his family, and living creatures, making the work an important early flood narrative.
The Atrahasis Epic is distinct from the Epic of Gilgamesh, although the two works share Mesopotamian traditions. In Gilgamesh, the flood survivor is called Utnapishtim, and he tells Gilgamesh about the disaster. In Atrahasis, the hero's name gives the poem its modern title.
The best-known surviving copies date to the second millennium BCE, though the story draws on older traditions. Comparing Atrahasis with Genesis helps scholars study how flood motifs circulated and changed across the ancient Near East without treating the texts as identical accounts.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026