Abstract
The Mesopotamian account of the Flood has long been understood to be the source of the Indic Flood myth. But no scholarly treatment gives thorough consideration to the most obvious evidence of borrowing at the heart of the tale: the "seeds" (bijani) of the Indian story indicate a misunderstanding of the Mesopotamian idiom zēr napšāti. The misinterpretation resulted in the over-literal adoption of "seeds" as a component of the Indian narrative. India was not the only culture which wrestled with the Mesopotamian phrase: the Iranian and classical reflexes of the tale are also widely considered to have been borrowed from the ancient Near East. Closer examination of related in those tales supports this hypothesis and suggests that familiarity was required to understand the Mesopotamian figure of speech. Flood