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Utnapishtim

The Faraway · Ziusudra · Atrahasis

minorattestedc. 2100–1200 BCE (Epic of Gilgamesh, tablet XI)Mesopotamian religion

The Faraway: the man who survived the Flood in a boat sealed with pitch and was granted immortality by the repentant gods — once, as a one-time settlement, never to be repeated. At the edge of the world he receives Gilgamesh, tells him the whole story of the deluge, and sets the sleep test that ends the quest: the man who cannot stay awake six nights has no business asking to be awake forever.

Light73
Wisdom71
Grace64
Influence57
✦Signature powerThe UnknownA power not yet set down in the record.
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Its universe

The mythic order Utnapishtim belongs to, who comes before and after in the story of this world.

Voices & connections

Figures bound to Utnapishtim, family and rivals within the myth, and the thinkers and writers who shaped how we know them.

Epic of Gilgameshappears in

Read the story

Illustrated chapters where Utnapishtim appears. Start reading in a click.

Illustrated storyGilgamesh, Who Saw the DeepThe oldest epic on earth: a tyrant king is given a wild man for a friend, loses him to the one enemy no king can fight, and walks off the edge of the world to un-learn death. The Flood survivor tells him the truth, a snake steals the consolation prize, and he comes home to the wall of Uruk with empty hands and the story itself — which turned out to be the immortality.Begin reading →Illustrated storyThe Descent of InannaThe oldest descent story ever written, four thousand years old: Inanna, Queen of Heaven, turns her ear to the Great Below and walks through the seven gates of the dead. At each gate a garment of her power is stripped away, until she stands naked before her sister Ereshkigal — and is hung on a hook. Her rescue costs a head for a head, and her eye falls on the consort who did not mourn her.Begin reading →