Flood Myths

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Flood Myths

• Katrina Chrisman
• Honors 390H
• Professor Dobelbower
• January 31, 2003

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Around the World

• Flood myths have found their way into the
  histories of numerous cultures all around the
  world
• Each of these myths have at least some
  similarities to the flood told of in the Bibles
  book of Genesis

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Main Similarities

• Humans are guilty of some sort of sin
• The flood is a form of punishment from a deity
• A person is chosen to build a boat
• Animals and humans are stashed on this boat for
  survival
• The sinful are destroyed
• The Earth is better after the flood

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Hebrew

• Noah is the chosen individual to build an ark
• God sends flood to punish the sinful
• The flood lasts for 40 days and 40 nights
• A dove is sent out to determine if the land is
  dry
• God sends a rainbow to promise not to flood the
  Earth again

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Sumerian

• The story is part of the epic of Gilgamesh
• Utnapishtim is chosen to build an ark
• The Gods send the flood to cleanse the
  overpopulated Earth
• The flood lasts 6 days and 6 nights
• A dove and then a swallow are sent out for dry
  land

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Babylonian

• The Gods send the flood to stop overpopulation
• Atrahasis is sent to build an ark
• Cattle, wild animals and birds and Atrahasis
  family are put on the ark
• The gods regret the flood and establish barren
  women and stillbirth to avoid overpopulation in
  the future

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Hindu

• Manu, the first human, saves a fish
• To return the favor the fish warns Manu of a
  coming flood
• Manu builds a boat and puts samples of every
  species aboard
• He then tied the boat to a horn on the fish and
  the fish took them to dry land

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Greco-Roman

• Zeus decided to punish the people for their evil
  ways
• Deucalion and Pyrrha were warned of the flood
  while worshiping another god
• they acquired a boat in time for the flood
• Zeus saw that they were pious and stopped the
  flood

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Reasons for Myths

• Each of these stories are rather similar
  considering their origins
• It is possible that they have derived themselves
  from the stories that preceded them
• It is also possible that a large flood did
  actually happen and these stories are an
  explanation suited to its culture

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Works Cited

• Flood Myths Part One
• www.dreamscape.com/morgana/titania.htm
• The Flood(s)
• http//www.mksmith.org/Flood20Myth.htm
• Flood
• http//ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa0
  72997.htm