Flood myth

For generic information on some great floods of historical times, see the article deluge.

The Great Flood, the Universal Deluge involving Noah in Genesis or Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh, is a widespread but not universal theme in myth— a meme. A large percentage of the world's cultures have stories of a "great flood", though the story of Noah and his ark in Genesis, the first book in the Bible, is probably the best known.

This article addresses only the mythological floods. The geological floods accuring during Earths prehistory, which may have inspired these myths, have been set apart as Deluge (prehistoric)..

Fertile Crescent Flood Myths

The fertile crescent seems to have been fertile ground for the developement of flood myths, which is where Genesis had also been written. Two surviving examples from Mesopotamia are the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh and the Akkadian Atrahasis Epic.

Similarities with these three stories include a favored man (Utnapishtim/Atrahasis/Noah), who is divinely chosen to build an ark. He places all the animals in the ark, the ark lands on a mountain after the flood dissipates, and birds are sent fourth to see whether the waters have receded. These similarities suggest that these epics, all written in the same part of the world, stem from a single source. Despite this, their aims were all entirely different. The Sumerians also referred to a great flood in the Sumerian king list.

Gilgamesh Epic

During Gilgamesh's search for immortality, he meets a man, Utnapishtim, who had succeeded in attaining such a goal. Utnapishtim goes on to explain how he attained it, that an assembly of gods resolved to destroy mankind by means of a flood. Though the decision was to be kept secret, the god Ea (in the Sumerian account, Enki) warned Utnapishtim about it and instructed him to build a survival vessel. After the flood, an assembly of gods was called and they make Utnapishtim immortal. After the Deluge, Utnapishtim lived on the island of Dilmun and had achieved a great age when Gilgamesh sought him out for the secret of immortality.

Unfortunately, since it is irrelevant to the subject of Utnapishtim's immortality, no cause is given in the Gilgamesh Epic on why the divine assembly resolved to destroy mankind.

Atrahasis Epic

The Babylonian Atrahasis Epic (written no later than 1700 BCE), gives human overpopulation as the cause for the great flood. After 1200 years of human fertility, the god Enlil felt disturbed in his sleep due to the noise and ruckus caused by the growing population of mankind. He turned for help to the divine assembly who then sent a plague, then a drought, then a famine, and then saline soil, all in an attempt to reduce the numbers of mankind. All these were temporary fixes. 1200 years after each solution, the original problem returned. When the gods decided on a final solution, to send a flood, the god Enki, who had a moral objection to this solution, disclosed the plan to Atrahasis, who then built a survival vessel according to divinely given measurements.

To prevent the other gods from bringing such another harsh calamity, Enki created new solutions in the form of social phenomena such as non-marrying women, barrenness, miscarriages and infant mortality, to help keep the population from growing out of control.

Genesis (from the Bible)

The ancient Israelites believed thst sins commited had physical consequence on the land they lived on, so physical solutions had to be made. For example, the land became polluted when murder was commited (spilling someone's blood and thus staining and cursing the ground). Several generations since mankind left Eden, the land became filled with such pollution. God then brought on the great flood not as a punishment for human wickedness but to wash away the pollution caused by evil deeds. God spared Noah and his family (instructing him to build a survival vessel) so mankind and the earth could begin a clean slate.

Similar to the post-flood events in the Atrahasis Epic, new solutions were made so a flood would not ever be needed again. God's solution was the invention of laws to keep mankinds evil in check. Most of these that he handed down to Noah deal with murder and blood spilling, so the earth doesn't get polluted again. Interestingly, the first of the post-flood laws, a commandment to be "fruitful", "multiply", and "Swarm over the earth", is thought to be a conscious refutation, from the biblical author, of the Atrahasis Epic.

Other Flood Myths

Deucalion in Greek Mythology

The wrath of Zeus is ignited against the Pelasgians, the original inhabitants of Greece. Deucalion has been forewarned by his father to build an ark and provision it. He and his wife Pyrrha are the surviving pair of humans when the waters recede. Accounts differ on which mountain they landed on (Mount Parnassus, or Mount Etna, or Mount Athos, or perhaps Mount Othrys in Thessaly). Though Deucalion is no longer allowed to be the inventor of wine as Noah still is, his name gives away his secret: deucos + halieus "new wine sailor." His wife, named "wine-red," just happens to be the sister of Ariadne who mothered with Dionysus, several winemaking progenitors of Aegean tribes.

After the flood has subsided, Deucalion and Pyrrha give thanks to Zeus. However, the repopulation of the world is the work of Thetis, who advises the new primal pair, "Cover your heads and throw the bones of your mother behind you," and the stones of Gaia thrown over their shoulders, take life and repeople the land. There is no mention of the plight of animals in this Flood myth.

Hinduism

In Hindu scriptures (specifically the Puranas), an avatar of Vishnu in the form of a fish, Matsya, warned Manu of a terrible flood that was to come and that it would wash away all living things. Manu cared for the fish and eventually released it in the sea. There the fish cautioned Manu to build a boat. He did so, and when the flood arrived, the fish towed the ship to safety by a cable attached to his horn.

Inca Flood Myth

Among the Inca, Viracocha destroyed the giants with a Great Flood, and two people repopulated the earth. Uniquely, they survived in sealed caves. In Maya mythology, Huracan ("one-legged") was a wind and storm god caused the Great Flood after the first humans angered the gods. He supposedly lived in the windy mists above the floodwaters and spoke "earth" until land came up again from the seas.

External links

Reference

Alan Dundes (editor), The Flood Myth University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988. ISBN 0-520-05973-5 / 0520059735