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Sl Adapa, according to the ancient text, was a protege of Enki. Allowed to live in Enki's city Eridu (the very first settlement of the Anunnaki on Earth), "daily he attended the sanctuary of Eridu." Choosing him to become "as a model of men," Enki (in this text called by his initial epithet-name, E.A) "gave him wisdom, but did not give him eternal life." It is not just the similarity between the names Adapa and Adam, but also this statement, that led various scholars to see in the ancient tale of Adapa the forerunner (or inspiration for) the tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, who were allowed to eat of the Tree of Knowing but not of the Tree of Life. The text then describes Adapa as a busybody, in charge of the services for which the Primitive Workers were brought over to the Edin: he supervises the bakers, assures water supplies, oversees the fishing for Eridu, and as an "ointment priest, clean of hands," tends to the offerings and prescribed rites. One day "at the holy quay, the Quay of the New Moon" (the Moon was then the celestial body associated with Ea/ Enki) "he boarded the sailboat," perhaps intending to just sail to catch fish. But then calamity struck: Then a wind blew thither, and without a rudder his boat drifted. With the oar he steered his boat; (he drifted] into the broad sea. The following lines in the clay tablet were damaged, so that we are missing some details of what happened once Adapa had found himself adrift in the "broad sea" (the Per- sian Gulf). As the lines become legible again we read that a major storm, the South Wind, began to blow. It apparently unexpectedly changed direction, and instead of blowing from the sea toward land it blew toward the open ocean. For seven days the storm blew, carrying Adapa to an unknown distant region. There, stranded, "at the place which is the home of the fishes, he took up a residence." We are not told how long he was stranded at that southern location, nor how he was finally rescued. In his heavenly abode, according to the tale, Anu wondered The Three Who to Heaven Ascended