// A
thief-noder strikes again: from
megatherion.com, which got the information from
Menelaos Megariotis.
Adapa
In
Babylonian mythology, the son of the god
Ae (the god of
wisdom).He didn't get
immortality 'cause of a bad deed he conducted.
Adapa was one of the seven wise men, one of seven
Apkalli.
"Adapa was the first of seven sages who lived before the flood. Despite his wisdom, he was unable to avoid being tricked by the god
Ea. And in the process he missed an oportunity of becoming immortal himself and releasing the human race from inevitable death.
Adapa was a priest and a fisherman. One day he was caught in a violent storm and his boat was sunk by the south wind, so he cursed the wind and "broke his wing". After seven days the god
Anu noticed that the south wind had ceased to blow, so he asked his minister to tell him why. The minister replied that Adapa had cursed it. Anu immediately sent for Adapa so he could explain himself.
Before setting off, Adapa received two pieces of so-called advise from Ea, the god of water, whose real intent was to decieve him. First, he told Adapa how to pass through the gates of Heaven into Anu's presence and make Anu well disposed towards him. "You must dress in mourning. When you meet the gods
Dumuzi and
Gizzida who guard the gates, you must tell them that you are mourning the deaths of none other than Dumuzi and Gizzida themselves. This will set the two gods laughing and in their merriment they will appeal on your behalf to Anu. You can accept the oil and the robe he will offer, you but you must on no account accept the bread and water.
On arrival at the gates of Heaven, everything happened just as Ea had predicted. Adapa gained the favor of the two guards so that when Anu berated him for damaging the south wind with his curse, Dumuzi and Gizzida put in a good word on his behalf and Anu was appeased.
The next stage of Ea's deceitful plan then came into play. The god of water had warned Adapa off the bread, using a subtle pun so that his words could be understood as the "bread of death" when acctually they meant the "bread of Heaven". Similarly he had allowed Adapa to interpret the offer of robe and oil as hospitable, rather than as a part of a funeral rite.
Now that the gatekeepers had made Anu well disposed towards Adapa, the god regretted the sorrows that Ea had forced upon humanity and offered Adapa the bread and water of life, along with the robe and oil so that he could throw them away. But Adapa remembered Ea's warning and without understanding their meaning, he put on the robe and anointed himself with the oil of death, as if preparing himself for the end, while refusing the bread and water of eternal life.
Than Anu laughed in amazement at Adapa and asked him, "Why didn't you eat? Why didn't you drink? Didn't you want to be immortal? What a pity for suffering humanity!" Adapa realized his mistake but it was too late. Ea had tricked Adapa into unwittingly rejecting eternal life."