Adapa and the Food of Life · 1 of 2 · tr. Robert William Rogers
Section 1a
ADAPA AND THE FOOD OF LIFE .
TABLET NO.1 He possessed intelligence .
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, His command like the command of Anu ...
He (Ea) granted him a wide ear to reveal the destiny of the land, He granted him wisdom, but he did not grant him eternal life.
In those davs, in those years the wise man of Eridu, Ea had created him as chief among men, A wise man whose command none should oppose, The prudent, the most wise among the Anunnaki was he, Blameless, of clean hands, anointed, observer of the divine statutes, With the bakers he made bread With the bakers of Eridu, he made bread, The food and the water for Eridu he made daily, With his clean hands he prepared the table, And without him the table was not cleared.
The ship he steered, fishing and hunting for Eridu he did.
Then Adapa of Eridu While Ea, ...
in the chamber, upon the bed.
Daily the closing of Eridu he attended to.
Upon the pure dam, the new moon dam) he embarked upon the ship, The wind blew and his ship departed, With the oar, be steered his ship Upon the broad sea .
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TABLET NO.
2 .................
The south wind ....
when He had driven me to the house of my lord, I said, O South wind, on the way I shall to thee ...
everything that, Thy wing, will I break." As be spoke with his mouth, The wing of the South wind was broken, seven davs The South wind blew not upon the land.
Anu Called to his messenger Ilabrat: Why has the South wind not blown upon the land for seven davs?
His messenger Ilabrat answered him: "My lord, Adapa, the son of Ea, the wing of the South wind Has broken." When Anu heard these words He cried, Help!" He ascended his throne, "Let some one bring him," Likewise Ea, who knows the heaven.
He roused him ...
he caused him to wear.
With a mourning garment He garbed him, and gave him counsel Saying: " Adapa, before the face of Anu the King thou art to go ...
to heaven When thou comest up, and when thou approachest the door of Anu, At the door of Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida are standing, "they will see thee, they will ask thee; 'Sir,' For whose sake dost thou so appear, Adapa?
For whom Art thou clad in a mourning garment?' 'In our country two gods have vanished, therefore Am I so.' 'Who are the two gods, who in the land Have vanished?' 'Tammuz and Gishzida.' They will look at one another and Be astonished.
Good words They will speak to Anu.
A good countenance of Anu They will show thee.
When thou standest before Anu Food of death they will set before thee, Eat not.
Water of death they will set before thee, Drink not.
Garments they will set before thee, Put them on.
Oil they will set before thee, anoint thyself.
The counsel that I have given thee, forget not.
The words Which I have spoken, hold fast." The messenger Of Anu came: "Adapa has broken The wing of the South wind.
Bring him before me." The road to Heaven he made him take, and to Heaven he ascended.
When he came to Heaven, when he approached the door of Anu, At the door of Ann, Tammuz and Gisbzida are standing.
When they saw him, Adapa, they cried: " Help, Sir, for whom dost thou so appear?
Themes
◆Animismcosmology
The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.
The South Wind is personified as a being with a wing that can be broken, reflecting spirits in natural phenomena.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
Ea actively orders Adapa's destiny and guides his actions to ensure a favorable outcome before the King of Gods.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
Adapa is explicitly denied eternal life, highlighting the separation between mortal humans and divine immortality.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
Adapa's spoken curse directly causes the wing of the South Wind to break, demonstrating the causal-magical force of speech.