wave is a sufficient base for any of the forms of the Legend now known.

A comparison of the contents of the various Sumerian and Babylonian
versions of the Deluge that have come down to us shows us that they
are incomplete. And as none of them tells so connected and full a
narrative of the prehistoric shipbuilder as Berosus, a priest of Bêl,
the great god of Babylon, it seems that the Mesopotamian scribes
were content to copy the Legend in an abbreviated form. Berosus, it
is true, is not a very ancient authority, for he was not born until
the reign of Alexander the Great, but he was a learned man and was
well acquainted with the Babylonian language, and with the ancient
literature of his country, and he wrote a history of Babylonia, some
fragments of which have been preserved to us in the works of Alexander
Polyhistor, Eusebius, and others. The following is a version of the
fragment which describes the flood that took place in the days of
Xisuthrus, the tenth King of the Chaldeans, and is of importance for
comparison with the rendering of the Legend of the Deluge, as found
on the Ninevite tablets, which follows immediately after.


The Legend of the Deluge According to Berosus.

"After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen
sari. In his time happened a great Deluge; the history of which is
thus described. The Deity, Cronus, appeared to him in a vision, and
warned him that upon the 15th day of the month Daesius there would be
a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined
him to write a history of the beginning, procedure and conclusion of
all things; and to bury it in the city of the Sun at Sippara; and to
build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations;