Utnapishtim is the Mesopotamian flood hero who resembles Noah in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh how the god Ea warned him to build a large boat and preserve life from a devastating flood. He loads his family, craftsmen, animals, and possessions, then survives the storm before releasing birds to find land.
The account shares several motifs with Genesis, including divine warning, a constructed vessel, a flood, survivors, birds, and a sacrifice afterward. Utnapishtim is not Noah, however; he belongs to Mesopotamian literature, while Noah is the central human survivor in the Hebrew Bible’s Genesis narrative.
The flood episode appears in Tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Earlier Mesopotamian flood traditions also feature Ziusudra and Atrahasis, which are related figures but different names and literary traditions.