The Flood story has been retold, and interpreted in different styles or versions and pass on to generations. For instance the two stories – the Babylonian version in the Atrahasis and Gilgamesh epic, and the Yahwist version from Genesis are the two famous flood stories with similar themes and a few similarities like, the flood occurred in Mesopotamian plain, main characters were asked or warned to build a boat to escape from the flood, but they differ in the events that took place, i.e., the details in these stories are different. The main difference is Genesis has a monotheistic mythology and Babylonian epic has polytheistic mythology.
Atrahasis is a Babylonian or Akkadian epic of the great flood. Atrahasis was a Sumerian king of Shuruppak
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and the hero of the epic. Atrahasis was written in 17th century BCE on clay tablets of which the oldest copy was found during the reign of Ammi Saduqa, Hammurabi’s great grandson. Overall the story is described in 3 clay tablets.
The first tablet describes the creation of humans in the world, the second deals with the over crowded humans who made noise which was distracting for Gods, so they gave flood in order to control the overpopulation which is in the third tablet. It is same as Gilgamesh epic; Gilgamesh was a king of Uruku, “Gilgamesh epic was written in 1900 BC by some Akkadian scholars” (Colavito, Jason). Atrahasis was saved along with his family and makes offerings to God just like Utnapishtim, survivor of the flood story. Both stories are similar; they are almost same. But there are some dissimilarity between Genesis flood and Babylonian flood. Noah the main character from genesis flood was addressed directly from Yahweh while in Babylonian stories Gods addressed about the flood in dream to the main character. Yahweh was the God in genesis while Ea in the Babylonian version. The Gilgamesh epic was written before the Genesis, the former was written in 2000 BC in Sumerian cuneiform, and the latter in 400 BC. Humans showed wickedness, wicked schemes, corrupt, and lawlessness, Yahweh regretted himself for creating man so he decides to destroy the world by flooding. The reason of …show more content…
flooding is not clearly mentioned in the Gilgamesh but Atrahasis, which is similar to it mentioned the disturbance of human’s noise to Gods. Gods were continually interrupted so they destroyed the world by cursing a flood. Yahweh chose Noah because he was a righteous man, a good man and an upright man among his contemporaries who walked with God. God warned Atrahasis about the flood, but no specific reason is mentioned in the story. The duration of rain in Genesis is 40 days and 40 nights (Genesis 7:12), and the flood lasted for 370 days (Genesis 7:11). In Babylonian epic “the duration of flood was 6 days and 6 nights” (Sarfati, Jonathan). The sizes, shapes, and capacities of the arks in the stories are different depending on the duration of rain and flood and number of people, Birds, and animals allowed in the ark. After the flood, birds like dove and raven returns in Genesis, raven doesn’t return in Babylonian story only dove and swallow. God promises not to destroy man by flood and told Noah and family to repopulate and multiply the earth’s population, whereas Gods quarrels among themselves at the end in the end and they created 14 human beings to repopulate the earth. Noah offers one of every clean animal and a bird after the flood; Atrahasis offers a sheep and wines. (Deem, Rich). The Flood stories have been retold in different versions during different period because they were told or written for diverse cultures. Disparate societies have unique religion myths, which gave different directions and interpretations to the flood stories. People tend to tell the stories according to their own cultural ways. To preserve and maintain their culture religions passed the stories to their generations. Every generation has different myths and styles so they continued telling in their own way. Part 2 Biblical texts contain many flood stories.
We saw the Babylonian and Genesis versions above. There are later traditions on the flood like Enoch literature, New Testament, the Qur’an that tries to fill gaps while interpreting the story and many more aspects. The Enoch is a religious work of ancient Jewish. “Genesis in Noah’s flood has no sign of cannibalistic monsters, wicked angels, and anthropophagous giants wrecking havoc upon the earth,” (Goff, Matthew). It mentions about angels declination in Genesis 6, but don’t have specific numbers, their names their origin or arrival. Enoch literature says 200 angels arrived on the earth to mount Hermon, from which their twenty chiefs were recognized or titled. The wives of angels were taught beatific, godly divine and customs, rules and laws by angels. The logic behind was to advance the sexual impulse in females. Angels learned to acquire metals from the earth and taught the males to make gems, swords and different weapons to lead more violence and up skill the as warriors. These traits are lacking in Genesis, Watchers suggest there was more violence than Genesis, for instance man eating Giants. This demonstrates a reason for the flood according to Watchers, there was evil, killing, murder and blood shedding and drinking creatures so God decided to destroy the world. They used to annihilate people by drinking their blood. Bible (Leviticus 17:11) express that blood is the lifeline for humans so blood is pondered as
holy.
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.
Perhaps the most popular comparison with Noah's Flood is that of an ancient Babylonian story of a similar flood. A quick look at the text does show some key similarities between them however there are also some pointed differences. I will show you both and let you decide whether there is or is not a connection.
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
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 and Odysseus are two heroes from two different time periods that were both in search of the meaning of life. The epics that the two characters are featured in Gilgamesh, was developed from early Mesopotamia and the Odyssey in early Greece. Gilgamesh was a very popular and it was very valuable to the historian of Mesopotamian culture because it reveals much about the religious world, such as their attitudes toward the gods, how a hero was defined and regarded, views about death and friendship.
Qualities of the Hero: Comparing Gilgamesh and Odysseus Mark Mcleod Strayer University HUM 111 World Cultures 1 Dr. Darryl Claybon Nov 7, 2017 Qualities of the Hero: Comparing Gilgamesh and Odysseus The Epic of Gilgamesh and Homers Odyssey both feature strong characters with disastrous flaws meant to teach life lessons to the Mesopotamia and Greeks respectively. The Epic of Gilgamesh is told over eleven tablets and teaches lessons that include love is a motivational force, the importance of respecting the Gods, the power of friendship, and the inevitability of death. The Odyssey, an epic tale by Homer featured Odysseus and reinforced the lessons of the brain over brawn, self-control, pride, and perseverance to the Greeks.
The epic hero’s journeys hold the hopes for future of ordinary people’s lives. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in approximately 2000 B.C.E which is highly enriched with Ancient Mesopotamian religions, and The Ramayana was written by ancient Indians in around 1800 B.C.E. The stories were written in two different parts of the world. However, these two stories etched great evidence that show people from generation to generation that different cultures and religions are interconnected; they share ideas with each other. Both Gilgamesh and Rama traveled long journeys in these tales. These epic journeys played a role in the creation of different archetypes. We can clearly see that these two tales share similarities between these archetypes. Although
The flood of Gilgamesh was written before 2000 B.C, while the Genesis story was written in 400 BC Which was much later then the Gilgamesh flood. Biblical writers probably knew of the much older flood but revised it so that it fit with their own history and worldview. They most likely intended the original story with their own mythology. Despite the many similarities between the two stories, the differences are revealed in a number of different topics that distinguish the biblical version of the story from the ancient version.
Despite the time difference both stories were written, The Flood of Gilgamesh and The Story of Noah and the Flood are more similar than they are different. Gilgamesh was written in 2000 BC whereas Noah was written much later in 400 BC. The Story of Noah takes its inspiration from Gilgamesh, however it earned more recognition because of its Biblical affiliation. The summary of both tales conclude with a relatively symmetrical moral, however Gilgamesh has been believed to have less sensitivity. There are small details in both stories that differ from each other, but in retrospect they preach the same morals.
When two people are so much alike yet so different, it makes a comparison of Gilgamesh and Odysseus an interesting subject. Both the stories of “Gilgamesh” and “The Odyssey” show that the characters were successful warriors with many adventures to be told. Gilgamesh and Odysseus are human with many god-like qualities. Their perception of immortality, as well as regard for death and the influences of the gods in their lives and adventures, are similar; however, the characters have many differences.
Almost every culture or ancient civilization has a flood story. For example, in the Old Testament, there was a flood story that lasted forty days and forty nights. In the Sumerian civilization, there is a flood story as well. The motive for the flood story in the Old Testament is similar to the motive in the flood story in the Sumerian culture. This motive was to punish the wickedness of men. The flood happened in a city called Shurrupak. It stands on the bank of the Euphrates River. The city grew old and the gods that were in it grew old. The city was in an uproar and the god Enlil heard the clamor and he said to the god in the council, “The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel.” (Bailey 59.) The gods decided to exterminate mankind. “For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts.” (Bailey 57.) Even the gods were terrified at the flood, they fled to the highest heaven, the firmament of Anu.
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)
While the Epic of Atrahassis, Book of Enoch, the Heavenly Cow and Gilgamesh contrast in a multitude of ways, they are similar in that they convey a severed relationship between mankind and the divine, as well as the divine's attempt to reconcile humanity by use of natural disasters or the wrath of one god. Additionally one is spared, and the world is recreated.
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 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.