Adapa

First of the seven mythical sages (apkallū) of Eridu in Sumerian tradition. Fisherman and priest of the temple of Enki/Ea, he is said to have offended the south wind and was summoned to heaven by the god Anu. Refusing to accept the bread and water of life that Anu offered him—on the deceptive counsel of Enki—he narrowly missed immortality. Often compared to the figure of Adam from Genesis: an antediluvian hero, at once glorious and guilty, who misses immortality through excess of obedience. Hellenized as « Oannès » by Berossus in the third century BCE, he becomes the mythic teacher of the arts and of writing.