Babylonian
Three times (every 1200 years), the Gods became distressed by
the disturbance from human overpopulation. The Gods dealt with
the problem first by plague, then by famine. Both times, the God
Enki advised humans to bribe the God causing the problem. The
third time, Enlil advised the Gods to destroy all humans with
a flood, but Enki had Atrahasis build an ark and so escape. Also
on the boat were cattle, wild animals and birds, and the family
of Atrahasis. After seeing the suffering caused by the flood,
the Gods regretted their action, and Enki established barren women
and stillbirth to avoid the problem in the future.
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