In the oldest version, the hero is King Ziusudra and this version was inscribed around 1. BCE in the Sumerian city of Nippur. It is known as the Sumerian Flood Story, and probably derives from an earlier version. The Ziusudra version tells how he builds a boat and rescues life, when the gods decide to destroy it. This remains the basic plot for several subsequent flood stories and heroes, including Noah. Ziusudras Sumerian name means He of long life. In Babylonian versions his name is Atrahasis, but the meaning is the same. In the Atrahasis version, the flood is a river flood lines 69 Atrahasis III,ivProbably the most famous version is contained in a longer work called the Epic of Gilgamesh, now known only from a 1st millennium Assyrian copy in which the flood hero is named Utnapishtim, He found life. Gilgamesh is the hero of the complete epic, not the flood story hero. The last known version of the Mesopotamian flood story was written in Greek in the 3rd century BCE by a Babylonian priest named Berossus. From the fragments that survive, it seems little changed from the versions of two thousand years before. The version closest to the Biblical story of Noah, as well as its most likely source, is that of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The most complete text of Utnapishtims story is a clay tablet dating from the 7th century BCE, but fragments of the story have been found from as far back as the 1. BCE. The parallels both similarities and differences between Noahs Ark and the boat of the Babylonian flood hero Atrahasis have often been noted. Noahs ark is rectangular, while Atrahasis was instructed to build his in the form of a cube Atrahasiss ark has seven decks with nine compartments on each level, while Noahs has three decks, but he is not given any instructions on the number of compartments to build. The word used for pitch sealing tar or resin is not the normal Hebrew word, but is closely related to the word used in the Babylonian story. The causes for Godgods having sent the flood also differ. In the Hebrew narrative the flood comes as Gods judgment on a wicked humanity. In the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh the reasons are not given and the flood appears to be the result of the caprice of the gods. In the Atrahasis version of the Babylonian flood story, the flood was sent by the gods to reduce human over population, and after the flood, other measures were introduced to prevent the problem recurring. Religious viewseditRabbinic Judaismedit. The Building of Noahs Ark painting by a French master of 1. Talmudictractates. Sanhedrin, Avodah Zarah and Zevahim relate that, while Noah was building the ark, he attempted to warn his neighbors of the coming deluge, but was ignored or mocked. In order to protect Noah and his family, God placed lions and other ferocious animals to guard them from the wicked who tried to stop them from entering the ark. According to one Midrash, it was God, or the angels, who gathered the animals to the ark, together with their food. As there had been no need to distinguish between clean and unclean animals before this time, the clean animals made themselves known by kneeling before Noah as they entered the ark.