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Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 1.8.1.1–4 (Eggeling)

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traditionVedic
cited by 1 connection
passages digitized: 1
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flood-3
  1. In the morning they brought to Manu water for washing, just as now also they (are wont to) bring (water) for washing the hands.
  2. When he was washing himself, a fish came into his hands.
  3. It spake to him the word, “Rear me, I will save thee!”
  4. “Wherefrom wilt thou save me?” “A flood will carry away all these creatures: from that I will save thee!”
  5. “How am I to rear thee?”
  6. It said, “As long as we are small, there is great destruction for us: fish devours fish.
  7. Thou wilt first keep me in a jar. When I outgrow that, thou wilt dig a pit and keep me in it.
  8. When I outgrow that, thou wilt take me down to the sea, for then I shall be beyond destruction.”
  9. It soon became a jhasha (a large fish); for that grows largest (of all fish).
  10. Thereupon it said, “In such and such a year that flood will come.
  11. Thou shalt then attend to me by preparing a ship; and when the flood has risen thou shalt enter into the ship, and I will save thee from it.”
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 1.8.1.1–4 · tr. Julius Eggeling, 1882 Diacritics of the printed transliteration are simplified. The parentheses are the translator’s supplied words.
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flood · flood-3

In both, heaven never announces the flood openly. The warning is smuggled to exactly one man through an absurdly humble intermediary · a reed partition, a minnow in wash-water · and its entire content is naval: build the vessel before the decree is public. The deniability of the channel is itself part of the story.

The warning arrives in Manu's morning hand-washing water as a tiny fish: 'Rear me, I will save thee!... A flood will carry away all these creatures: from that I will save thee' · with the same private instruction: 'Thou shalt then attend to me by preparing a ship; and when the flood has risen thou shalt enter into the ship.'

set against Atrahasis, Tablet III

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