Which ancient Mesopotamian poem features Atrahasis, a flood survivor before the Gilgamesh tradition?

The Epic of Atrahasis features Atrahasis, a Mesopotamian flood survivor whose story predates the Gilgamesh tradition.

The poem is preserved in Akkadian and is named after its main human hero, Atrahasis. In the surviving narrative, the gods send a devastating flood, and the god Enki warns Atrahasis to build a boat and preserve life. The episode is one of the most important ancient parallels to the flood story in Genesis.

The poem is not a simple duplicate of Noah’s Ark. Its theology, characters, motivation for the flood, and details of survival belong to Mesopotamian culture. The flood account was later incorporated into the broader literary tradition that includes the Epic of Gilgamesh, where Utnapishtim fills the role of the survivor.

The oldest surviving copies date to the second millennium BCE, although the tradition may draw on earlier Mesopotamian material. The title is sometimes written Atra-Hasis or Atrahasis, reflecting different conventions for representing the name.