Berosus in Eusebius (English) in: Near East – Berosus [reconstruction]
From Alexandros Polyhistor about the flood, in the same book of which was spoken.
He says that upon the death of Otiartēs, his son Xisouthros reigned for 18 sares and that in his time there was the great flood. And setting out [events] one after another in his book he tells [about it].
He says that Kronos, whom they call the father of Aramazd and others call Time, revealed to him in sleep, that on the 15th of the month of De(s)ios, which is Mareri, mankind was to be destroyed by the flood; [he says] that he ordered him to dig and bury all the first and middle and last of the books in the sun city Siparac’i. [Kronos also commanded him] to build a ship and to go inside it together with kinsmen and close companions, to gather supplies and potables in it, also to bring in wild animals and beasts and birds and quadrupeds, and to be prepared to sail with all these goods. [Xisouthros] asked whither indeed he should sail; [Kronos] gave an answer, that he should sail to the gods, in order to pray that the good of men might be [granted]. And he did not fail to attend to the task of shipbuilding; its length was five stadia and its width 2 stadia.
Having prepared and built things according to all that was commanded, [Polyhistor says] that he led his wife and sons and close companions inside. When the flood came, and quickly subsided, he says that Xisouthros released some birds, and that they found nothing to eat and nowhere to descend and rest; when they returned again he took them into the ship; and that after a few days again he released other birds; and they still came again once more to the ship, bearing talons soaked with clay. [He says] that he then released [them] a third time, and they did not come to the ship again. [He says] that at that point Xisouthros knew that the land was uncovered and open, that he took apart one side of the ship’s deck, and that he saw that the ship had come to ground and was leaned against a mountain. [He says] that he went out together with his wife and one of his daughters, and with the ship’s architect, and that they prostrated themselves upon the earth; that they raised an altar, and offered a sacrifice to the gods; and from that time he was not to be seen together with those who went out from the ship with him. And those who remained there in the ship, and did not go out with Xisouthros and his companions, looked for him after they went out, and they roamed and cried out and called out his name. Xisouthros did not thereafter appear to them; but the sound of his voice coming from the winds, gave a command [to them], that they must begin to worship the gods, and that, because he himself had turned to worship of the gods, he would dwell in the dwelling-place of the gods; and that his wife and daughter and ship-captain would possess this honor. And [he says] that he gave them the order to go once more to Babylon; and that it was the command of the gods that they should go and dig in Siparac’i city and draw out the books which were hidden there, and should give [them] to men; and the place to which they came is the land of the Armenians.
And when they heard all this, they offered a sacrifice to the gods; and [he says] that they went on foot to Babylon. And they say of the ship where (or that) it came to rest in Armenia, that a small part remains until now on Kordowats’i mountain in the Armenian land; and that some people scrape off and carry naphtha mortar from the ship for a cure and as a talisman for remedy of pain. And [he says] that they went and reached Babylon; that they dug in Siparac’i city, and drew out the book; and that they built many cities and constructed temples to the gods, and once more repaired Babylon.
(d.i) Classical Armenian — (d.ii) De Breucker (2010) — (d.iii) Finkel (2014) — (d.iv) Bedrosian (2008) — (d.v) Jacoby (1958) (German) — (d.vi) Karst (1911) (German) — (d.vii) Secondary sources
– De Breucker, G., “Berossos of Babylon (680)”, in: Worthington, Ian (gen.ed.), Brill’s New Jacoby, (Online: Brill, 2010).
Flood Stories 