Atrahasis is the flood hero who builds a boat in the Atrahasis Epic. This Akkadian composition tells how the god Enki warns Atrahasis about a coming flood and instructs him to construct a vessel to preserve life.
The Atrahasis Epic predates the surviving written form of the Epic of Gilgamesh’s flood episode and is frequently compared with the Genesis account of Noah. In both traditions, a chosen survivor receives divine warning, builds a boat, preserves living creatures, and survives a world-threatening flood. The differences are equally important: the gods, motivations, vessel descriptions, and aftermath are not identical.
Atrahasis is sometimes confused with Utnapishtim because the two figures occupy similar roles in Mesopotamian flood traditions. Utnapishtim is the survivor in the Epic of Gilgamesh, while Atrahasis is the central figure of the work named for him. Keeping the epics separate prevents a common attribution error.