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Epic of Atrahasis

1	When the gods instead of man
2	Did the work, bore the loads,
3	The gods' load was too great,
4	The work too hard, the punishment too much,
5	The great Anunnaki made the Igigi (“evil minded ones ”)
6	Carry the workload sevenfold.
7	Anu their father was king,
8	Their counselor warrior Ellil,
9	Their Chamberlain was Ninurta,
10	Their canal-controller Ennugi.
11	They took the box of lots
12	Cast the lots; the gods made the division.
13	Anu went up to the sky,
14	And Ellil took the earth for his people.
15	The bolt which bars the sea
16	Was assigned to far-sighted Enki.
17	When Anu had gone up to the sky,
18	And the gods of the Apsu had gone below,
19	The Annunaki of the sky
20	Made the Igigi ("evil minded ones " ) bear the workload.
21	The gods had to dig out canals,
22	Had to clear channels, the lifelines of the land.
23	The gods dug out the Tigris river
24	And then dug out the Euphrates.
25	...in the deep
26	they set up
27	...the Apsu
28	...of the land
29	...inside it
30	...raised its top
31	...of all the mountains
32	They were counting the years of loads
33	...the great marsh,
34	They were counting the years of loads.
35	For 3,600 years they bore the excess,
36	Hard work, night and day.
37	They groaned and blamed each other,
38	Grumbled over the masses of excavated soil:
39	Let us confront our Warden
40	And get him to relieve us of our hard work!
41	Come, let us carry the Lord
42	The guard of the [prisoner] gods, the warrior from his dwelling.

Chapter - 1