[16] It does not follow, however, that the Akkadian
versions of the Gilgamesh Epic are translations of the Sumerian,
any more than that the Akkadian creation myths are translations of
a Sumerian original. Indeed, in the case of the creation myths,
the striking difference between the Sumerian and Akkadian views
of creation [17] points to the independent production of creation
stories on the part of the Semitic settlers of the Euphrates Valley,
though no doubt these were worked out in part under Sumerian literary
influences. The same is probably true of Deluge tales, which would
be given a distinctly Akkadian coloring in being reproduced and
steadily elaborated by the Babylonian _literati_ attached to the
temples. The presumption is, therefore, in favor of an independent
_literary_ origin for the Semitic versions of the Gilgamesh Epic,
though naturally with a duplication of the episodes, or at least of
some of them, in the Sumerian narrative. Nor does the existence of a
Sumerian form of the Epic necessarily prove that it originated with
the Sumerians in their earliest home before they came to the Euphrates
Valley. They may have adopted it after their conquest of southern
Babylonia from the Semites who, there are now substantial grounds for
believing, were the earlier settlers in the Euphrates Valley.
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