Adapa. In Babylonian tradition, Adapa was known as a wise man or sage from the early Sumerian city of Eridu. The myth of Adapa, a Babylonian composition, explores the topic of humankind's mortality, explaining mankind's limited life span as well as commenting on human anger and rage. The myth opens with a description of Adapa as a wise, ritually observant servant of the god Ea. One day while Adapa is out fishing, a south wind comes up and capsizes his boat. He is thrown overboard and spends the day "in the home of the fish." Wet and angry, he curses the wind, and the power of his spell breaks its wings. The wind is incapacitated; for seven days there is no wind over the land. Annoyed, the supreme god Anu summons Adapa to appear before him. When he arrives for his audience...