Flood Myths Myths from many different cultures seem to tell the same story. Themes from Babylonian myth can be seen in Egyptian stories; elements of Christian theology are evident in some ancient Chinese texts, and so on. How is this possible? How can cultures that have had little physical contact present us with such analogous narratives? These questions grow more perplexing when time is considered. Many of these tales are not only from separate corners of the earth, but also seem to have been written in vastly disparate time periods. This being said, it is still a fact that these cultures do rely on a number of shared stories. The hero exists universally; and often shares a number of elements across cultural boundaries. All cultures have a creation story. Many also possess a mother goddess who relates to fertility. These seemingly universal tales all share one significant element: they answer a fundamental question. How did we get here? Why do our fields yield us a bountiful harvest one season and leave us to starve the next? However, there is one common tale that does not answer any such question- the flood myth. This tale is told around the world, but the reason for its commonality is not as clear. Both the Christian and the Babylonian cultures recount to us a story of a great flood. These stories possess many similar ideas, but also differ in numerous ways. The fundamental idea behind the flood myth is the extermination of man from the face of the planet. This comes as a result of the anger and disappointment of a deity. Both the Babylonian and Christian stories share this element. The Babylonian story states that mankind was becoming a nuisance to the gods. The increasing numbers of men on earth were making so much c... ... middle of paper ... ...gods, and that it is this man who then repopulated the earth. The survival of animals, and the use of birds to ascertain when it was safe to return to dry land, is yet another parallel. Both the Babylonian and Christian accounts also have the one preserved man offering a sacrifice to the gods upon his return to dry earth. All of these chief facets of the stories are analogous. It is only in the details, such as the length of the boat or the time necessary for the waters to recede, that they are dissimilar. These seemingly trivial differences, though, tell us much about the culture that each of these stories stems from. It is only through a thorough study of both stories that we are able to make these insights. This comparative approach allows us to deep into the beliefs of both the Babylonian and Christian cultures, and leaves us with a better appreciation of both.
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...
The rendition of the historic, worldwide Flood recorded in Genesis of the Old Testament is similar to the account recorded on Tablet 11of the Sumero-Babylonian version of the epic of Gilgamesh, discovered in the 1800’s by British archaeologists in Assyria. Let us compare the two in this essay.
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.
...milarities. Their single god creates a firmament, luminaries, dry land, and the people that inhabit that land. Chinese and Egyptian mythology also share an uncanny amount of coincidences, such as the presence of a dog-headed god, or the creation of Earth and the heavens from a cosmic egg. Norse, Japanese, and Greek mythologies, too, agree on a lot of ideals. They each contain a clash of gods and the death of certain gods in order to form life. The list of creation myths, and myths in general, that relate to each other could stretch out for miles. With these parallels, humanity can better understand earlier cultures and document the method to how mythologies change over time.
...d the Ark. It also is different in how the person was told about the flood. In the Biblical version, Noah is told by God so Noah and his family are not destroyed by the flood. In the Babylonian version, Atrahasis is informed of the flood through Enki who created mankind. In the Sumerian version, Zuisadra finds out through a deity. There is also a variation in the length of time of the flood. Another big difference is what happened as a result of the flood. The Sumerian version is destroyed at the end, but the Babylonian version end with the gods coming up with ways to control the size of the population in order to keep noise to a minimum. The Biblical version went in a different direction because God felt that mankind was too evil. He tells Noah that the survivors can grow the population and their offspring should not be evil, promising to never destroy mankind again.
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.
The beliefs that are present in each myth depict spiritual and cultural beliefs that shaped the cultural identities of each civilization.
1. Flood is sent by God to destroy his creation, which has become corrupt and evil The humans are so wicked and evil that "it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (Gen. 6:6). He says,"I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. . . " (Gen. 6:7)
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.
Comparing each record of the flood can reveal how different cultural and religious backgrounds explain events of the world, and despite the stories differences, their similarities prove
We often look at the Bible as one of humanity’s most important texts, where we gather most of our morals, information and logic. The Bible is over 1,500 years old and has influenced billions of people. However, many historians have looked at the Bible’s texts and found that some of its verses and stories are closely related to religious texts that existed far before the Bible was originally created. With this new study we must look closely at three key stories within the Bible to see how closely they relate to the previous religious texts. We must closely look at the stories of The Garden of Eden, The Great flood and The Ten Commandments in order to determine the similarities with other religious texts.
The roles of Noah and Utnapishtim in the Flood Myths are quite similar. There are several differences regarding the two flood myths, but the general idea behind the two remains consistent. In the Mesopotamian Flood Myth, the Gods were overwhelmed by the amount of humans that existed on Earth and were unable to sleep due to the noise of men. So they decided to "exterminate mankind." While in the Hebrew story of Noah and the Flood Myth, God grew tired of the evil that had plagued mankind and engulfed the earth. So God decided to start the world over to undue the mistakes of man. Both of these stories display an attempt by the Gods to start the world over to cleanse the earth. Both Utnapishtim and Noah were spoken to by Gods and asked to build large boats from which all who were to be spared would seek shelter during the storm. Both men were allowed to spare the lives of their family via the safety of the boats. Also, the method used by the Gods in these myths are the same, the skies would rain down upon the earth flooding the land and killing all who were not ordered onto the boats.
Throughout history many civilizations and cultures have had their own ways of explaining the world and its creation. Each of these civilizations has created unique descriptions and accounts of such events. However, when comparing them to each other, are they really different? Look at the ancient Greco - Roman creation myths as told by Hesiod in his Theogony and Works and Days and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, when compared to the creation myths as seen in the Old Testament’s book of Genesis they may not be as different as one would think. Taking a more in-depth look at both Genesis and Hesiod’s and Ovid’s work more closely, the reader can see that on multiple occasions the myths have almost identical similarities which reflect their views in society. The similarities in particular are the myths of the creation of man, women with their subsequent role of evil in ancient times, and the great floods. These similarities prove that even though these two scriptures were centuries apart, the concepts presented in each myth were almost identical to one another.
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 Biblical story of the flood and Utnapishtim’s version of the flood are similar and different in several ways. Similarities include a god warns an individual about a flood and orders the individual to build a boat to escape the flood, pairs of each species are loaded into the boat, the flood kills every living thing that did not get on the boat, the use of birds to see if the flood is receding, the god smelling the sacrifice offered by the individual, the individual getting a blessing from a god after the flood, and the promise that another flood will not happen. Differences include the reason why the flood happened, the amount of days the flood occurred, the type of birds to see if there is land, and what kind of blessing that the individual