Before the Church · c. 1400 BC
The Myth of Adapa
Anonymous
What it is
Adapa, the first of the seven sages, breaks the wing of the south wind and is summoned before Anu. His god Ea warns him not to eat the food offered in heaven, since it will be the food of death. It is the food of life, and by obeying he loses immortality for himself and for humankind.
Why it lasted
The nearest Mesopotamian analogue to Genesis 3: a first man, a divine prohibition about eating, and immortality lost. The reversal is the point — Adapa dies for obeying, Adam for disobeying.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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