Utnapishtim

Ut-napishtim is a legendary king of Shuruppak in southern Iraq, who survived the Flood by making a boat.

He is called by different names in different traditions: Ziusudra ("Life of long days", rendered Xisuthros, Ξίσουθρος in Berossus) in the earliest, Sumerian versions, later Shuruppak (after his city), Atra-Hasis ("exceeding wise") in the earliest Akkadian sources, and Uta-napishtim ("he has found life" Akkadian: 𒌓𒍣) in later Akkadian sources such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. His father is the king Ubar-Tutu ("Friend of the god Tutu").

Uta-napishtim is the eighth of the antediluvian kings in Mesopotamian legend, just as Noah is the eighth from Enoch in Genesis. He would have lived around 2900 BC, corresponding to the flood deposit at Shuruppak between the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic levels.

In the Mesopotamian stories he is tasked by the god Enki (Akkadian: Ea) to create a giant ship to be called Preserver of Life in preparation of a giant flood that would wipe out all life. The character appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story of Utnapishtim has drawn scholarly comparisons due to the similarities between it and the storylines about Noah in the Bible.