Which ancient Mesopotamian epic contains the flood story of Utnapishtim?

The flood story of Utnapishtim appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

In Tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian version, Utnapishtim recounts how he was warned of a coming flood and built a boat to preserve life. Gilgamesh hears the story while seeking an answer to human mortality. Utnapishtim’s survival and subsequent immortality form part of the epic’s wider meditation on death and fame.

The account belongs to the literary culture of ancient Mesopotamia and was written in cuneiform on clay tablets. It is related to the earlier Atrahasis tradition, which also contains a major flood narrative. The two stories share themes but have different structures, characters, and purposes.

Readers sometimes call the work simply Gilgamesh, but “The Epic of Gilgamesh” is the standard English title. It is not the same text as the Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation epic, or Homer’s Greek epics.