Comparing the Great Flood in Epic of Gilgamesh and the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark
Many of the same ancient stories can be found in different cultures. Each story differs in a small way, but the general idea remains synonymous. One story that is paralleled in several cultures is the legend of a great flood. The epic of Gilgamesh resembles the Bible’s story of Noah’s Ark, but specific details differ in several aspects.
The story of Gilgamesh originates from twelve fire-hardened, mud tablets, written in cuneiform, in the Mesopotamian culture from around 2500 B.C.E. It has been passed down through generations for centuries, teaching obedience to gods. The story of Noah’s Ark, found in the Christian Bible, seems to do the same thing; teach obedience to God.
Many aspects of both stories are the same. Both sagas start with the earth being extremely populated, with no foreseen break in the continuation of a booming culture. The earth was too full. People were rowdy and reckless. Crime was widespread and grew day to day. The difference pertaining to this, is the reason the flood was sent.
Noah’s story rules that the flood was sent because the earth had become corrupt and filled with violence, (Genisis, 6). The only way to destroy this violence was to drown everyone but the chosen few. These chosen few were hand-picked by God as good people to start a new, more wholesome and obedient civilization. Gilgamesh’s story says the reason for the flood was the volume the people created. The noise was intolerable and the gods insisted on ending the racket at once, (Duiker, 20).
The singular reason Gilgamesh was spared is that he was informed of the flood by Ea, the water god, through a dream. Ea was one of many gods in this time. He told him to build a boat of equal width and length. He was to tear down his house for wood and tell the curious townspeople that he was instructed to leave the city and go out to sea so as to please the gods. Ea also instructed him to take the seeds of life onto the ship with him. Meaning two of each animal, enough food for them and his family to eat for some time, and whatever grain was left over would be planted once the water receded, (Duiker, 20) .
Noah was also instructed to do the same. Only his orders came from the one and only God. The Jewish culture believes in one supreme being. God told Noah ...
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...o, there is one known flood that occurred in ancient times. The Black Sea used to be smaller than it is now. Archeologists have proven this by finding remnants of structures below the present water level. The water also used to be fresh, not salt water. When the ice from the Ice Age melted, the lake started to dry out because the rivers began to flow backwards towards the sea. Then the ocean water rose very high and salt water rushed back into the empty sea, (Lecture, 9/7/1999).
With so many different cultures trying to explain a great flood, there are bound to be differences in each account. The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark are different in small details. The fact that the two stories are so close in account to each other, with regard to general storyline, is quite amazing when considering the fact that these two cultures are so very different.
Bibliography
1. Duiker, William J. and Spielvogel, Jackson J. World History, Comprehensive Volume, Second Edition. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1998.)
2. http://www.bibleontheweb.com/Bible.asp (Genesis 6-9.)
3. http://www-relg-studies.scu.edu/netcours/rs011/restrict/gilflood.htm
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...
Almost all myths around the world have the particular section on the “Great Flood.” It has been universal, indicating that at some point in their lifetime, all of the cultures experienced a flood that almost wiped their civilization out. However, many of the flood myths of different cultures take different features in time period, area that they happened, heroes, and the story itself. But, surprisingly, the flood myths in Bible and Gilgamesh are almost similar except for the slight differences for the names of the heroes, shapes of the arks, and story itself. Besides few small details of the story, though, everything else is very parallel to each other.
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.
Even though The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis: Noah and The Flood have similar details they both differ dramatically, because of the religious aspects, their different views of destroying mankind , and the importance of the arc.
The floods in The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis 6-9 are very similar. In both the flood were sent to wipe out all humankind. Both floods however could be seen as symbols as a rebirth or a new beginning to what was see by God and the gods as a crumbling world. Both heroes in the story were chosen to build a boat to save a select few. They were to stop their lives to construct a boat to save humankind. Both men were seen as righteous in comparison to the people around them. In the boats both housed the hero, his family, and several animals in many compartments. To bring back humankind after the flood was over. Neither Utnapishtim nor Noah left t the boats until they were...
Njozi, Hamza M. "The Flood Narrative in the Gilgamesh Epic, the Bible and the Qur'ān: The
The Epic of Gilgamesh also tells about a great flood that share many similarities as with “Noah and the Flood”. T...
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.
There is no reason given by Utnapishtim for the deluge. On the contrary, the Judaic version of the Flood in Genesis states in Genesis 6:5-8 a very clear, explicit reason for the Flood:
In both story's, a flood was sent by a God-like figure. In the Biblical story, Yahway and Ngowungu the Great father, from the Aboriginal Dream time punish the people who have done the wrong thing or sinned. This angered God/creator wanted to rid the land of all that displeased them. In the Aboriginal story, The Great Father sent the flood because the children harmed the owl. In the Biblical story, Yahway sent the flood to destroy the evil and wicked people. In both stories, the creator's motives in sending a flood were very similar. Water and rain are seen in most cultures as being cleansing. In both stories rain caused all the land to be covered in water and removing those who are
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.
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
Gilgamesh, a Sumerian epic, is one of the oldest recorded narratives, yet it still holds relevance today. The epic is composed of 12 stone tablets that were discovered in 1853, and the ancient text lives in a state of flux with many different translations existing today. The text first entered the world stage only once George Smith published the portion of the text that related to the flood from the Hebrew bible. (Mosley Para. 64) The central character, Gilgamesh king of Uruk, is two parts god and one part man. He is handsome, brave, and strong but he is also boastful and filled with pride. He cares very little for his people and “does not leave a girl to her mother” (I, 65). Although he is ultimately perceived as a hero, Gilgamesh has more