There are many strange similarities between ancient texts of different cultures. Within these narratives, there are different trappings, but many of the stories remain eerily similar across cultural boundaries; within The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament of the Bible, for instance, there are a number of different stories that are remarkably similar. The story of Gilgamesh and the plant of eternal life are very similar to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. However, perhaps the most similar of the stories contained within the Gilgamesh epic and the Old Testament of the Bible is the shared stories of a Flood. Even the Qu’ran, another ancient text from the same region shares a great flood story with Gilgamesh and the Old Testament, however, this discussion will focus on Gilgamesh and the Old Testament, and the various similarities and subtle differences between the texts. To discuss the similarities and differences between the Old Testament (sometimes called the Hebrew Bible) and The Epic of Gilgamesh, it is important to first understand the separate stories as they are written in their respective texts. For the purposes of discussion here, the King James Version of the Bible has been used. However, the text and translation is relatively similar across all the major translations of the Bible. When discussing the Flood, God says to Noah: “And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch...And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is... ... middle of paper ... ...i). There are very real similarities between the stories of the flood and the Great Deluge in The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament book of Genesis. Although there are differences, these differences can be attributed to different cultural interpretations of events, or even changes that occurred as the stories were passed down from generation to generation, before they were written down. It seems likely that the Abrahamic stories of the Great Flood were derived from the stories contained within The Epic of Gilgamesh, although definitive proof is certainly difficult to come by in the case of these ancient texts. There could well have been a very large flood that happened in Mesopotamia many, many centuries ago; a flood so large that it remained embedded into cultural memory and was passed down as a legend in a variety of different cultural traditions (Njozi).
It contains useful comparisons and historical data to help support his analysis. The author considers the story to hold very value for Christians. It concerns the typical myths that were tied to pagan people. Despite that theory, there have been many Christians who have studied the afterlife and creation in the epic. He suggests an interesting thought when he starts to explain the story. The author hints that maybe the main character, Gilgamesh, was a historical figure. The base analysis for his line of thought is the story of the flood found in the bible. After looking at the lengths of time of each story, he considers it to not be a problem. To provide some evidence, the author shows a chart of a series of questions about each flood and compares the two. The most striking comparison in the chart was the command to build a boat; "O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu, tear down thy house, build a ship; abandon wealth, seek after life; scorn possessions, save thy life. Bring up the seed of all kinds of living things into the ship which thou shalt build. Let its dimensions be well measured."17 The text from the quote can almost match what the bible said. In both stories the person was commanded to build a boat because a flood is coming due to man’s sins or man’s wickedness. In the conclusion of the article, the author says a bold statement; “the widespread nature of flood traditions throughout the entire human race is exce...
True love and immortality in life would be a dream come true to many people. To spend time with a special someone; the person one feels closest to; the so-called soul mate and to never have that high feeling of emotion end mentally and physically would greatly appeal to most people. But when death steps into the picture, even with all the pain and devastation, one starts to re-evaluate themselves and realizes the important things in life and puts it all into perspective. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the main character, Gilgamesh, is a powerful, arrogant king and part god. Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s partner, is animal-like but later takes on more humanistic traits such as his contemplation’s of death. The friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is a very powerful, loving friendship. Enkidu is Gilgamesh’s soul mate, not only acting as his friend but as a lover too. Enkidu’s presence in Gilgamesh’s life allows Gilgamesh to see what is truly good in life and to accept his mortality much easier.
The Gilgamesh Epic is an ancient Mesopotamian story about life and the suffering one must endure while alive. Included in the story, is a tale of a great flood that covered the earth, killing all but a select few of it’s inhabitants. This story of a great flood is common to most people, and has affected history in several ways. It’s presence in the Gilgamesh Epic has caused many people to search for evidence that a great flood actually happened. It has also caused several other religions and cultures to take the same basic story, claiming it for their own.
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.
¨Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the devisings of man´s mind are evil from his youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done,¨ (Genesis, 48) There is a similar story about the flooding of the earth in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but the story in The Bible is really different from the one in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both The Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh have flood stories about destruction through the flooding of the earth and in both stories they tell about a rebirth of mankind; but they had completely different reasons why the flood happened.
Ironically, the god from Noah and the flood, who was much more hesitant to bring on the flood unless for a worthy reason, only spared one righteous man and his family. Whereas the god from the epic of Gilgamesh is willing to spare a lot more people. Including the heroes family along with all those who aided in the construction of the ark. Also, in a very interesting way the hero from “The epic of Gilgamesh” is shown to have humanlike weaknesses not commonly given to mythological heroes in historical civilizations. At one point when talking to a scorpion, Gilgamesh “...listened to his words and wept quick tears” (“Epic…” 142) But Noah was an almost super human who “...Lived to be 950 years old” (“Noah…” 172)
There are many similarities and differences between the Hebrew Bible and The Epic Gilgamesh. Firstly, the similarities were evident from the start when there is a chosen righteous man to build an ark because of an impending great flood. In both tails, two of all animals were taken on the ark. Also, again, in both cases, birds dispatched after the rains to determine if there was land and that the flood waters had subsided. Moreover, the flood had been started because of mankind’s wickedness and the need to cleanse the earth. I believe this says that humans view of a God is that they want their creation, the earth, and nature to be cleansed of corruption and keep the world to be pure. However, it also states the importance of mankind because a righteous man was chosen to start anew. After the flood, the righteous man would be bestowed with rewards. In the Epic Gilgamesh Utanapishtim is given immortality. In the Hebrew Bible Noah and his family is given the opportunity to repopulate the Earth being
Both the flood story from Gilgamesh and from the Bible have a common plot. A god floods the world due the the flaw of humans. Though this is a similarity, the flaw of the humans are different. In Gilgamesh, the god Enlil floods a city because the humans were too loud. In Noah, the flood story from the Bible, God floods the whole world because the humans were corrupt and lawless. In both stories, one man is chosen to survive the storm. In
One who has studied both the Bible and the “The Epic of Gilgamesh” can easily point out several common stories found in both of these works. Though these texts do not mirror each other in doctrine, culture, society, or even story line, there are correlations that exist between the two. Some of these commonalities include the flooding of the earth, battles with those sent from God, size and type of weapons, and an isolated life in the wild. The Bible and The “Epic Gilgamesh” have significant parallels, which included a common geographical area of origin, similar cultures, and the use literary likeness, all of which point toward Biblical liberties being taken from the Mesopotamian Epic.
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...
*The boat dimensions are quite different. The boat in the story of the Babylonian flood is a cube, equal on all sides. While in the Bible, Noah is told to build his Ark in a 450x75x45 ratio. This ratio is what is known to ship builders as the perfect ratio for stabilty for a boat but it was not known until the 15th century AD. The Gilgamesh boat, being equal on all sides, would have been wildly unstable and unseaworthy.
In both versions of the flood story something angers God (in Genesis) and the gods (in Gilgamesh). "The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reasons of the babel" (Gilgamesh 12). The Gilgamesh reason seems very illogical. The Gods decide to destroy mankind because they are making too much noise. It seems that the gods didn't think over their decision wisely. They are gods, wouldn't they have the power to block out the sound? One would think so, but obviously that was not the case. This is the first major difference between the two stories.
The closest parallel to the Biblical story of the flood occurs in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, our fullest version of which is furnished by an Akkadian recension prepared, in the seventh century B.C. for the great library of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. The story itself is far older. We have fragments of versions dating as much as a thousand years earlier, and we possess also portions of a Summerian archetype.
Justice is described as a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, fairness, or equity. The people of ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia also believed and relied on this concept. Rulers, if not fair and just, were often eliminated by their subjects or their enemies. There were many great kings and pharaohs of the ancient age that were just to their kingdoms, and these often went down in history. Yet, those kings and pharaohs who were blinded by their own selfishness often became just as famous. Two men, Akhenaten of ancient Egypt and Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, were such rulers. They were powerful and cunning individuals, yet they let their own selfish nature ruin the ability to be a great leader.
The amazing stories of the great flood that are described in The Epic of Gilgamesh which is translated by N.K. Sandars and “The Story of the Flood” which is the King James version, both stories similarly. Many of the events of each story are very similar in ways and very different in some of them. From reading both stories I concluded that there was a huge flood that took place in that area of the world. Even though the way both stories describe the flood; The Epic of Gilgamesh is more imaginable. I say that because it is more realistic to have rain for six days, six nights than for forty days, forty nights. Both flood stories have a major similarity and difference though. Both stories described the same flood but they did it in different ways.