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Flood representing life in genesis and epic of gilgamesh
The Flood of Noah and the Flood of Gilgamesh
Flood representing life in genesis and epic of gilgamesh
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The three tyrannical tides of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Noah and the Flood, and The Great Flood end with humanity in a watery grave, yet they share more than that and differ just as much. Each includes, obviously, a flood, a reason for the flood, gods, survivors, and how the survivors persevered through the ordeal. While these elements are the same, the details are widely varied and give each story its own personality. There is a motivation behind all the floods and each was delivered on the whim of the gods. In Gilgamesh, the world had become overpopulated and the clamor grew too loud for the gods to bear. Sleep deprived and furious with the humans, Enlil brought up the idea to exterminate humanity and so it was done. Both The Great Flood …show more content…
The flood in Gilgamesh and The Great Flood happens almost instantaneously. The god of the storm broke the dams and ripped apart the land causing an abundance of water to cover the land and encompass the Earth for six days and night. The Great Flood occurs when Poseidon strikes the Earth with his trident and the seas rip the land asunder, covering it for nine days and nights. The longest flood transpires in Noah and Flood. God allows it to rain 40 days and nights to flood the world, yet leaves the survivors for over 150 days to float aimlessly in the flood …show more content…
All of the stories had varying number of survivors and they all endured the floods in a different way. In Gilgamesh, the god Ea warned Utnapishtim of the upcoming flood and told him to build a colossal boat to carry with him the seed of each living thing, his family, and possessions. Noah and The Flood and Gilgamesh are similar because the ones cautioned of the flood were allowed to bring their families, animals (seed of animal), and possessions on a vessel that the Gods specified the dimensions of. God warned Noah in Noah and the Flood, thus allowing him to build an arc and sail atop the carnage. Unlike Noah and The Flood, The Great Flood only had two survivors, an old couple named Deucalion and Pyrrha, whom been notified of the flood by Prometheus. Upon their ship they floated for 9 days before landing on Mt. Parnassus. Since they could not bear any more children due to their age, the goddess Themis gave them the hint of throwing the bones of their mother behind them. They interpreted the statement as mother being the Earth and the bone as rocks, thus throwing rocks over their shoulders was their solution. Astonishingly it worked, Deucalion’s rock became a man and Pyrrha’s a
Lorey, F. 1997. The Flood of Noah and the Flood of Gilgamesh. Acts & Facts. 26 (3) Web. 4 Feb. 2014. When reading the story, someone can take many different viewpoints. In the article above, the author is analyzing the Epic of Gilgamesh through a creationists view point.
Most of us have probably heard the famous bible story about Noah’s Ark and The Flood. What most may not know, is that this story is just one of a great many. A variety of ancient cultures, from the Greeks and the Middle East, to Asia and the Americas, have in their mythologies a story of a Great Flood that drowns the earth. These stories mostly contain the same themes: a god or group of gods becomes angry; they flood the earth but save a small group of people. These people build a boat to survive. After the flood they repopulate the earth.
...ly compares to the building of the Ark in Genesis (Reider and Bergstrom 12). Both floods are associated with bringing back life and preserving the life of the lands.
After reading the two stories I concluded that forty days and forty nights was too long for it to rain without stopping; that is why the flood in Gilgamesh is more realistic. The length of the rains in the flood story in The Epic of Gilgamesh is easier for someone to believe than the length of the rains in Genesis. Even though the stories were different there was many similarities in the stories.
. According to Reading Selections: Reading 1, in The Flood, it says that when a black storm that was ridden by Adad who is God of storm and led by Shullat and Hanish who are minor gods in Babylonian came from the horizon, the gods of abyss destroyed the city. For example, Annunaki burned city with livid flame. As a result, daylight changed to darkness, people were separated from each family member and the place where people live became like the tides of battle, and even gods escaped to heaven. Ishtar, Queen of Heaven laments for her inability to command evil, wars, and people.
The Sumero-Babylonian version of the epic of Gilgamesh, after two and a half millennia of dormancy, was resurrected by British archaeologists in the nineteenth century. Amid the rubble of an Assyrian palace, the twelve clay tablets inscribed the adventures of the first hero of world literature – King Gilgamesh, whose oral folk tales go back to at least 3000 years before Christ (Harris 1). Tablet XI contains the story of the Flood. In this essay let us compare this flood account to the more recent Noah’s Flood account in Genesis of the Old Testament.
A major flood was a significant event in both The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis in the Bible. Both floods occurred with the intention of wiping out the human race which gives this flood a symbolic meaning of the rebirth of the human race and establishes the mighty power of God. The flood that occurred in both stories have plenty of similarities but also share differences in the stories intentions of the flood. Both the flood in Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis’s outcome was to wipe out the human race under similar conditions which was due to the observation of a higher power seeing mankind to be a sinful race.
The stories of Noah’s Ark in Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh are contrasted with how long each flood last. In The Epic of Gilgamesh the rain of the flood only last six days and six nights. Said in The Epic of Gilgamesh, “For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts.” (Sanders 240). Enlil, one of the gods in The Epic of Gilgamesh, sends the flood and harsh winds for only six days and six nights. In
Other similarities closely tie these two Flood Myths almost mirroring the symbolic ideas within both stories. The number seven is very significant in both of these stories. In the story of Utnapishtim, the Boat he built was finished on the seventh day. Also the rain that flooded the earth, stopped on the seventh day. In the Hebrew story of Noah, the waters of the flood were upon the earth seven days after Noah constructed the arc. After the earth was flooded and the rain subsided, during two seven day instances, Noah sent forth a dove to determine if dry land existed nearby. The two stories also showed that the Gods gave specific instructions down to the dimension regarding the construction of the two boats and both men were ordered to keep the blood line of animals alive by sparing the lives of a male a female being of each species.
The Epic of Gilgamesh records a story of a world-wide flood and pre-dates Genesis. So some claim that this invalidates the Genesis record. But P.J. Wiseman presents an interesting theory in this regard in his book Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1985).
The flood story that is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh has the same principle as the story of Noah told in the book of Genesis in the Bible, but there are some major differences. In the epic, Utnapishtim is immortal and, although Noah was extremely old when he died, he wasn’t immortal. Utnapishtim was a human, but because he saved mankind, Enlil said, “Hitherto Utnapishtim has been a human, now Utnapishtim and his wife shall become like us gods.” (Gilgamesh 11.206-207) In the Biblical story, God told Noah that he was going to send a flood and asked him specifically to make the ark in order to save mankind. In Genesis 6:13-22, God tells Noah why he’s flooding the earth and exact instructions to build the ark. “13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[b] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[c] high all arou...
A good number of people know the famous story of the Genesis flood, but do they know how it resembles to the Gilgamesh flood story? It is mind bending how the main stories are so alike. The main theme is the biggest similarity between the two. They also differ greatly in the smaller details in the events that take place. In both stories the number of days for events are different, but the same basic event takes place. Along with many other similarities and differences. The stories are very much the same, but when comparing the details within they are very different.
Some of the simpler similarities are that the extent of the flood reaches every part of the earth, the flood is intended to destroy mankind, aside from the heros and their families, Utnapishtim and Noah are found righteous by their God or gods, and they build an ark to certain qualifications. An example of a less obvious similarity is the location of where the arks first touche land. In the general sense, they both landed on a mountain: Noah’s “ ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventh day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 75) and Utnapishtim's “boat stuck fast beside Mt. Nimush” (Gilgamesh 57). Taking this information a Step deeper reveals that Mt. Ararat and Mt. Nimush are about 300 miles apart. Both boats land in a relatively close proximity. Further proving the idea that the Sumerians and Hebrews experience the same event. Utnapishtim’s and Noah’s lives are dramatically changed by the flood. They sacrifice all that is familiar to them in order to receive the blessings of God or the gods. The heroes are both examples of a term I will call the archetypal path of blessing. Utnapishtim and Noah are both comfortable with what they have before the flood, but as Christopher Columbus States “One can never cross the ocean until one has the courage to leave the shore.” Utnapishtim and Noah give up what is ordinary to receive what is great. The blessings of both characters exceed
The focus of this analysis is on Genesis (chapter 7) and Gilgamesh (lines 1 - 25). These two different passages will be analyzed to relate each document and how the author's worldview shapes his account of the flood.
The famous literary works of Gilgamesh, Ramayana, and The Odyssey have been studied, written about, and heralded in the literary world many times over. Each of the literary pieces has been held in the highest esteem for varying different reasons. Some of them have been because of the literary influences that they have produced over the subsequent years and the religious influences they had. The purpose of this writing assignment is to compare and contrast the religious influences found in each of the literary works.