[1] Apart from the first few lines of the prologue containing common cosmological sayings, GEN is a unique text from the corpus of Sumerian and Akkadian literature with few serious parallels known from other works.
[2] Historians typically subdivide GEN into three substories:[1] These three episodes are not entirely chronologically coherent adjacent to one another, and they appear to have originally circulated as independent tales which coalesced at some point into GEN.[3] The following is a more detailed synopsis of the story:[4] GENs prologue consists of a cosmogony and an anthropogeny in the first half, and a trip taken by Enki into the Netherworld in the second half.
This prologue may have also opened a larger, earlier Gilgamesh epic that GEN was once a component of, as is partially evinced by its consisting of a cosmogony.
Others think, however, that no Sumerian prologue, that of GEN included, is meant to provide a cosmogony in the sense attempted by a text like the Enuma elish.
It could also be used as a device to demonstrate the ability for someone to travel to the Netherworld at the outset and foreshadow Enki's later role in helping Enkidu escape when he becomes stuck in that region.
A number of Mesopotamian texts record belief in rivers that route to the Netherworld (similar to the Styx from Greek cosmology), and this likely forms the context to understand why such a journey could take Enki there.
This included a critical edition of the complete text, alongside a general introduction, a transliteration and apparatus, a translation and commentary.