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Comparison of Gilgamesh flood vs noah flood
Epic of Gilgamesh and bible comparison
Gilgamesh and the quest for immortality
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As early as 1000 B.C.E. tablets were discovered in several different regions as the first piece of literature known as, The Epic of Gilgamesh. This ancient Mesopotamia epic poem was delivered to the public in a theatrical way which was, then, the era’s only form of entertainment. “Around 1200 B.C.E. the epic was revised into its definitive form by a Babylonian priest named Sin-liqe-unninni” (Damrosch 29). Then, there is “the first eleven chapters of The Book of Genesis which was a prologue for the entire Torah, the Hebrew Bible that was written in the 1st millennium B.C.E.” (Damrosch 74). These two literatures demonstrate god(s) powers to punish mankind for sinful behavior by creating a flood that affected all mankind globally.
First, here are some insights about the god(s) and key characters in each story/poem. There are a number of gods in The Epic of Gilgamesh. These gods are immortal and very powerful and demanding over the mortals. “Gilgamesh himself is known as being the earliest Sumerian king of Uruk who is both a god (from mother) and a mortal (from father)” (Mason 15). Although he is not fond of the god’s powers he does, however, envy the fact that they are immortal. Which brings us to quest to find the one who can give him immortality The gods use their power to get back at Gilgamesh for his misconduct of sexuality and power by creating a man named, Enkidu, “a force of nature or wild man” who in turn becomes his best friend (Damrocsh 30). Utnapishtim is the only man (along with his wife) in Gilgamesh chosen by the god Ea to become immortal. It may seem like a favor, but in reality he witnessed many deaths rather than “seeing life” (the meaning of his name). “Gilgamesh sets forth on his venture t...
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Dundes, Alan. The Flood Myth. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988. Print.
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Lorey, Frank M.A. “”The Flood of Noah and the Flood of Gilgamesh” icr.org.” Institute for Creation Research. 1997. Web. 29 Apr 2014.
Mason, Herbert. Gilgamesh. New York: Penguin Group, 1970. Print.
Taylor, Ian. A Comparison of Religious and Secular Texts: The Adaption and Similarities between Noah’s Ark and The Epic of Gilgamesh. East TN State University. December 2011. Web. 06 May 2014.
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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...
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.
The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. Benjamin R. Foster. Text. Martin Puncher. New York: W.W and Company, 2013.Print.
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.
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.
The Epic of Gilgamesh flood story and the flood story found in Genesis certainly have some similarities between them, have some major differences. The Epic of Gilgamesh flood story is thought to have been written before the flood story in Genesis, so is the biblical flood story a transformed story of the Gilgamesh epic or a different story altogether for the same flood? When looking at the stories there are definitely some similarities. Noah, the main character in the Biblical story, and Utnapishtim, the main character in the Epic of Gilgamesh flood story, were both told by a god to build a ship because of a coming flood that would cover the face of the Earth. They both brought family, animals, and food onto the ship, they both sent out birds
The Epic of Gilgamesh records a story of a world-wide flood and pre-dates Genesis. So some claim that this invalidates the Genesis record. But P.J. Wiseman presents an interesting theory in this regard in his book Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1985).
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.
The Epic of Gilgamesh has many similarities to the Bible, especially in Genesis and it’s not just that the both begin with the letter “g”’! One major similarity being the flood story that is told in both works. The two stories are very similar but also very different. Another being the use of serpents in both works and how they represent the same thing. A third similarity being the power of God or gods and the influence they have on the people of the stories. Within these similarities there are also differences that need to be pointed out as well.
Ancient world literature and early civilization stories are mostly centered on human’s relationship with higher beings. Ancient civilizations were extremely religious, holding the belief that their very lives were in the hands of their almighty god or goddess. This holds true for both the people of biblical times as well as those of the epic era. However, their stories have some differences according to cultural variation but the main structure, ideas, and themes are generally found correlative. It is hard to believe that one work did not affect the others. The first great heroic epic poem of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament are parts of two cultures that are hundreds of years apart. Whereas Gilgamesh is a myth and the book of Genesis is the basis of many religions, they both have notably similar accounts of symbols, motifs, meaningful events according to the relationship between the divine and humans in literature.
A good number of people know the famous story of the Genesis flood, but do they know how it resembles to the Gilgamesh flood story? It is mind bending how the main stories are so alike. The main theme is the biggest similarity between the two. They also differ greatly in the smaller details in the events that take place. In both stories the number of days for events are different, but the same basic event takes place. Along with many other similarities and differences. The stories are very much the same, but when comparing the details within they are very different.
Foster, Benjamin R. "The Epic of Gilgamesh." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Gen. Ed. Martin Puchner. 3rd ed. Vol. A. New York: Norton, 2012. 95-151. Print. 13 March 2014.
The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. Foster, Benjamin R. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2001. Print.
The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey both are held in high respect by literature analysts and historians alike for the characterization of the hero and his companion, the imagery brought to mind when one of them is read, and the impressive length in relation to the time period it was written in. The similarities that these two epics share do not end with only those three; in fact, the comparability of these works extend to even the information on the author and the archetypes used. However, The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh contrast from one another in their writing styles, character details, and main ideas. Both epics weave together a story of a lost man who must find his way, but the path of their stories contrast from one another.