Abstract:
The legend of Adapa is one of the most fascinating stories of Mesopotamian literature; its interpretation has been disputed for more than a century.It was known until recently from four Akkadian fragments, the oldest and longest of which (the Amarna version) goes back to the Middle Babylonian period. The Old Babylonian library discovered by the Iraqi expedition in Tell Haddad/Meturan around 1980 contained two unhoped-for copies of the story in the Sumerian language. This Sumerian version, which has much in common with the Akkadian, but also much that is new and unexpected, is edited here, a literary evaluation and a first comparison with the other versions are sketched.
© De Gruyter