Atrahasis

In Akkadian mythology, the Anunnaki, the greater gods, made humans because the Igigi, the lesser gods, had gone on strike and refused to continue working to provide the gods with food.

To make the humans, one of the Anunnaki was slaughtered; his flesh and blood was mixed with clay, and souls came forth in memory of the god. The humans were put to work tilling the ground to provide food for the gods (the food, of course, was collected by the gods from temples).

But the humans increased in numbers, and they were so noisy on earth. The gods were losing sleep over it. The god Ellil convinced the Anunnaki that a cull was needed. First they sent disease, then a drought. The people starved; they resorted to cannibalism.

But the god Ea was fond of humanity, and felt pity for them. He gave them fish to eat. This infuriated Ellil, who called for a great flood to wipe out humanity. Ea wanted some humans saved; he sneaked down to earth and told Atrahasis, his good and loyal servant who prayed regularly, to build a big boat to contain pairs of every animal.

Then the flood happened. Darkness covered the earth. Everyone not on Atrahasis' boat died. And the gods looked on the earth; they looked upon the floating corpses of men, women, children, and animals, and they wept for seven days.

The goddess Ninhursaga roused from her despair to shout at the divine assembly, asking why everyone had gone along with Ellil's crazy genocidal plan without properly thinking it through, why the assembly didn't discuss it properly, why they acted rashly not rationally. And the gods were ashamed of committing genocide just because the charismatic Ellil suggested it.

Then they spotted Atrahasis' boat, and Ea confessed to defying the will of the council to ensure that life survived. Then Ea and Ninhursaga thought of an alternative way to keep the human population down to a level which wouldn't interrupt the gods' sleep: they made it so that human babies would sometimes be stillborn, or unable to live long after birth.

This myth is from the 1600s B.C.