The episode of the Flood has been introduced into the Izdubar Epic in accordance with the principle upon which it has been formed. The eleventh tablet or book answers to the sign of Aquarius and the month called “the rainy” by the Accadians, and it was therefore rightly occupied by the story of the Flood. The compiler of the Epic seems to have used for this purpose two independent poems relating to the event; at least it is otherwise difficult to account for the repetitions observable in certain lines which sometimes differ slightly from one another, as well as for certain inconsistencies which the skill of the compiler has not been able entirely to remove. Thus according to I. 13, the Deluge was caused by all “the great gods;” according to II. 30, by Samas only; according to IV. 4, 5, by Bel. There is little doubt that many independent versions of the history of the Deluge were current in a poetical form; indeed, a fragment of one of these, containing the original Accadian text along with the Assyrian translation has been preserved, and the version found in Berosus differs in several notable points from the version embodied in the great Chaldean Epic. The fragment of the variant version of which the Accadian text has been preserved is as follows:— 1. .... then like a bowl of sacrificial wine the mountain .... 2. .... country to country ran together. 3. The female-slave to her mother (?) it had caused to ascend. 4. The freeman from the house of his fecundity it had caused to go forth. 5. The son from the house of his father it had caused to go forth 6. The doves from their cotes had fled away. 7. The raven on its wing it had caused to ascend. 8. The swallow from his nest it had caused to depart. 9. The oxen it had scattered, the lambs it had scattered. 10. (It was) the great days when the evil spirits hunt. 11. The universe they subjected unto themselves. 12. Among the bricks of the foundations (they dealt destruction). 13. The earth like a potsherd (they shattered). 14. Bel and Beltis the supreme ones the mighty tablets (of destiny consulted). 15. The foot to the earth they did not (put). 16. The highways of the earth they did not (tread).