Berosus in Eusebius (English) in: Near East – Berosus [reconstruction]
[7] Alexander Polyhistor on the Flood, from the same book we just mentioned.
He says that upon the death of Otiartes, his son Xisuthrus ruled for 18 sars, during which time the great Flood occurred. His text relates the details as follows.
He says that Chronos–who is called the father of Aramazd [Jupiter] and, by others, Time–came [to Xisuthrus] in his sleep and revealed to him that on the 15th [g31] of the month of Desios, which is the [Armenian] month of Marer [December/January], humankind would perish in a flood. [Chronos] commanded that the entire book [of Oannes?]–the beginning, middle, and ending–be taken and buried [for safety] at Heliopolis (“the city of the sun”), in Sippar. [He also commanded him] to fashion a ship and to go inside it with his family [g32] and closest friends, and to put inside [the ship] provisions and drink, animals, birds, and quadrupeds, and to be completely ready to set sail. Then [Xisuthrus] inquired where he should sail the ship, and [Chronos] replied that he should [just] pray to the gods [and] that all would be well for humanity. And so [Xisuthrus] saw to building the ship which [measured] 15 stadia in length and two stadia in width [g33].
After doing all that he was bidden, [Xisuthrus] entered the vessel with his wife, children, and closest friends. Then the deluge came. As soon as it had receded, Xisuthrus released some birds. However, when they were unable to find anything to eat or any place to perch, he took them back on board. A few days later he again released some birds, and they too returned to the ship, [but this time] their claws were covered with mud. Finally he released them a third time, and this time they did not return to the ship. By this Xisuthrus realized that the ground had become visible. He opened a side of the ship’s deck and observed that the boat had landed on some mountain. He emerged with his wife, a daughter, and the [g34] navigator, and worshipped (“kissed the ground”). He fashioned an altar and made sacrifice to the gods. And thereafter he and those who descended with him from the ship did not appear to anyone. Those [people] who had remained on board and had not emerged with Xisuthrus subsequently descended and sought for him, circulating around shouting out his name. But Xisuthrus never again appeared to them. However [his] voice came to them from the air and commanded [g35] that they should worship the gods, and that he, because of his worship of the gods, had gone to dwell where the gods dwelled. His wife, daughter, and the ship’s pilot shared in this honor. He also ordered them to return to Babylon, for so the gods had commanded, and to excavate and remove the manuscripts buried at the city of Sippar and give them [back] to humanity. As for the place where they emerged [from the ship], it was the land of the Armenians.
Now when [the people] heard all this, they offered sacrifices to the gods, and then went to Babylon on foot. As for that ship which landed in Armenia, they say that to the present a small portion of it [g36] remains in the Korduats’ Mountains [RB: south of Lake Van] in the land of the Armenians. Some [folk] scrape off the naphtha which had been used as a sealant for the ship and make amulets from it to treat pain. Now [those who disembarked] went and arrived at Babylon, excavated in Sippar city and removed [manuscripts of] the book. Then they constructed numerous cities, erected temples to the gods and renewed Babylon once more.
(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
– Bedrosian, Robert, Eusebius’ Chronicle, (Long Branch, NJ, 2008), PDF pp. 9-10. [This source is in the public domain; download here].
Flood Stories 