{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "kind": "Translation",
  "metadata": {
    "generated": "2026-08-22T14:14:13Z",
    "language": "en",
    "schemaUrl": "/v1/schema/translation/"
  },
  "data": {
  "schemaVersion": 2,
  "chapterCount": 3,
  "chapterFiles": [
    {
      "file": "chapter-1.json",
      "n": 1,
      "lines": 111,
      "segments": 9,
      "title": "When the gods, like man: the labor of the Igigi and the creation of humankind from clay and a slain god's flesh"
    },
    {
      "file": "chapter-2.json",
      "n": 2,
      "lines": 72,
      "segments": 8,
      "title": "The clamor of humankind and the gods' population-control: plague, drought, and famine, and Enlil's resolve upon the Flood"
    },
    {
      "file": "chapter-3.json",
      "n": 3,
      "lines": 113,
      "segments": 8,
      "title": "The Flood and the remaking of the human order: Enki's warning through the reed wall, the boat, the deluge, and the permanent limits on humankind"
    }
  ],
  "code": "ATRA-WOH",
  "lineCount": 296,
  "segmentCount": 25,
  "primaryLang": "akk",
  "originalLang": "akk",
  "publicationYear": 2026,
  "refId": "ATRA-WOH",
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  "slug": "atrahasis-woh",
  "titles": {
    "en": "Atra-ḫasīs (The Babylonian Flood Epic)",
    "de": "Atra-chasis (Das babylonische Sintflut-Epos)",
    "es": "Atra-ḫasis (La epopeya babilónica del diluvio)",
    "fr": "Atra-ḫasîs (L'épopée babylonienne du déluge)",
    "ja": "アトラ・ハシース",
    "ko": "아트라하시스",
    "ru": "Атрахасис",
    "zh": "阿特拉哈西斯",
    "zh-Hant": "阿特拉哈西斯",
    "akk": "Atra-ḫasīs"
  },
  "versionTitles": {
    "en": "Wheel of Heaven Translation",
    "de": "Wheel-of-Heaven-Übersetzung",
    "es": "Traducción Wheel of Heaven",
    "fr": "Traduction Wheel of Heaven",
    "ja": "ホイール・オブ・ヘブン訳",
    "ko": "휠 오브 헤븐 번역",
    "ru": "Перевод Wheel of Heaven",
    "zh": "Wheel of Heaven 译本",
    "zh-Hant": "Wheel of Heaven 譯本"
  },
  "shortVersionTitles": {
    "en": "WoH, 2026",
    "de": "WoH, 2026",
    "es": "WoH, 2026",
    "fr": "WoH, 2026",
    "ja": "WoH, 2026",
    "ko": "WoH, 2026",
    "ru": "WoH, 2026",
    "zh": "WoH, 2026",
    "zh-Hant": "WoH, 2026"
  },
  "versionSource": "Best-effort reconstruction from named scholarly editions (Lambert & Millard 1969, the critical edition; George & Al-Rawi 1996 for the OB Sippar witnesses; Foster 2005 Before the Muses 3rd ed.). eBL L.1.1 consulted as collation aid only.",
  "sourceCitation": "Lambert, W. G., & Millard, A. R., Atra-ḫasīs: The Babylonian Story of the Flood (Oxford 1969) — the standard critical edition and line-numbering authority; George, A. R., & Al-Rawi, F. N. H., 'Tablets from the Sippar Library VI: Atra-ḫasīs,' Iraq 58 (1996), pp. 147–190; Foster, B. R., Before the Muses, 3rd ed. (Bethesda 2005), pp. 227–280.",
  "versionLicense": "CC0-1.0",
  "priority": 5,
  "wohCurated": true,
  "verificationStatus": "best-effort-reconstruction-pending-verification",
  "subtitles": {
    "en": "The Old Babylonian anthropogony-and-flood epic — the Igigi-gods bear the corvée-labor (dullu) of the senior gods, digging the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Apsû; after years of toil they rebel by night and burn their labor-baskets; the council of Anu, Enlil, and Enki resolves the crisis by creating humankind — a lullû fashioned by the birth-goddess Nintu / Bēlet-ilī / Mami from clay (ṭiṭṭu) mixed with the flesh (šīru) and blood (damu) of the slaughtered god Wê-ila 'who had intelligence' (ṭēmu); from the god's flesh a spirit (eṭemmu) remains in humankind; fourteen pieces of clay become seven male and seven female, made to carry the yoke of the gods."
  },
  "descriptions": {
    "en": "An English translation of Tablet I of the Old Babylonian epic Atra-ḫasīs, produced from a best-effort reconstruction of the Akkadian transliteration based on named scholarly editions (verification pending against Lambert–Millard 1969 and eBL L.1.1). **A moat text: no usable public-domain English translation of Atra-ḫasīs exists, so the Wheel of Heaven program renders its own from the Akkadian.** Tablet I opens with the celebrated line *inūma ilū awīlum* ('When the gods, like man …') and recounts how the junior Igigi-gods bore the labor-basket (šupšikku) and corvée-toil (dullu) of the senior Anunnaki — digging the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Apsû — until, after years of toil, they rebelled by night, burned their tools, and surrounded Enlil's temple. The divine council of Anu, Enlil, and Enki resolves the deadlock by Enki's plan to create a substitute labor-force: a *lullû* (primeval human) fashioned by the birth-goddess (Nintu / Bēlet-ilī / Mami, with the assisting womb-goddesses) from clay (ṭiṭṭu) kneaded with the flesh (šīru) and blood (damu) of a slaughtered god — Wê-ila, 'who had *ṭēmu*' (intelligence/reason). From the god's flesh a *spirit* (*eṭemmu*) remains within humankind, the enduring divine element, in a passage built on the pun *ṭēmu → eṭemmu* and *Wê + ila → awīlu* ('man'). The birth-goddess nips off fourteen pieces of clay — seven set on the right, seven on the left, a brick between them — and the womb-goddesses fashion seven male and seven female: the first humans, made expressly to carry the yoke and bear the toil of the gods. This is the single most on-thesis Mesopotamian text for the Wheel of Heaven program: humankind fashioned from clay and a god's flesh and blood, explicitly to bear the labor (dullu) of the gods.",
    "verificationNote": "This translation is produced from a best-effort reconstruction of the Akkadian transliteration following the line-numbering of Lambert–Millard 1969. The sense of each line is well-attested across the cited editions (Lambert–Millard 1969; George & Al-Rawi 1996; Foster 2005) and should match the downstream English faithfully. Verification of the precise sign-by-sign transliteration against Lambert–Millard 1969 and eBL L.1.1 is pending; corrections welcome. This draft curates the labor-frame (I:1–71) and the creation core (I:189–276); many intervening Tablet I lines are not reconstructed and are flagged with editorial-selection gap notes. The creation-of-humanity vocabulary — lullû, awīlum, eṭemmu, ṭēmu, Wê-ila, and the ṭiddu/šīru/damu triad — is surfaced in the chapter's editorial_questions for the Editor's lexical rulings; none of these has yet been committed to the central glossary."
  },
  "revision": 1,
  "updated": "2026-07-02T00:00:00+00:00"
},
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    "self": "/v1/translations/atrahasis-woh/",
    "library": "/v1/library/books/atrahasis-woh/",
    "canonical_html": "https://www.wheelofheaven.world/library/atrahasis-woh/",
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}