Sargon of Akkad (the birth-legend)

Beyond the documented record of Sargon's reign stands a famous later legend of his birth: the Sargon Birth Legend, in which his mother, a priestess, secretly bears him, sets him adrift in a reed basket sealed with bitumen on the river, and he is drawn out and raised by a gardener before rising to kingship. The motif of the exposed-and-rescued royal infant is a widespread ancient literary pattern; this birth-tale is legend, distinct from the secure historical evidence for Sargon's reign and conquests.