Across mythology, many of the same themes can be seen. Although they are different in narrative, they remain similar in the idea being portrayed. One example of this is the flood, or deluge; most notable in the story of Noah's ark in the bible. In the story of Noah's ark, the flood was brought upon humanity by God because of the “folly and wickedness” of humankind. Essentially, the flood is brought upon by a god and can take different forms, but its purpose is the same: to wipe out or bring death to the world. Throughout many of these myths that follow, the flood comes in the form of a woman. Three different versions of the flood are in the form of Sekhmet in Egyptian mythology, Pandora's box in Greek mythology, and Kali in Hinduism. Firstly, in Egyptian mythology, Ra, the sun god, created and released Sekhmet into the world as punishment to humanity for ridiculing him due to his aging. Sekhmet goes on a raging killing spree slaughtering many until Ra decides to save the rest of humanity and orders the priest of his temple to dye 7,000 jars of beer the color red. Sekhmet drinks this thinking it is blood and becomes drunk enough to stop the slaughter. With her departure, …show more content…
In the story of Sekhmet, she was set out into the world as revenge to the people by the god Ra. Consequently, the action of the people's humiliation of Ra, in his opinion, deserved death. In Pandora's story, she was also set out as revenge by a god, Zeus. This revenge was more geared towards Prometheus though as he was the one who angered Zeus in his protection of the human race. In the story of Kali, she was created by a goddess as opposed to Sekhmet and Pandora, which were created by a god. Although her creation is different, her purpose remains in line with Sekhmet and Pandora's purpose: to bring upon
Lorey, F. 1997. The Flood of Noah and the Flood of Gilgamesh. Acts & Facts. 26 (3) Web. 4 Feb. 2014. When reading the story, someone can take many different viewpoints. In the article above, the author is analyzing the Epic of Gilgamesh through a creationists view point.
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.
How hurricanes are made in greek mythology. IN greek mythology there is god for everything. Zeus (god of heaven) and Poseidon (god of the sea). Zeus was in the heaven watching over this beautiful city that had no ruler. Poseidon was was doing the same but he had planes to take it.
Across all barriers, women have always brought pain, suffering, and aguish to the men as demonstrated in both Homer's Odyssey and the Bible. With their beauty and grace, temptresses like the Sirens and Delilah lure men into their grasps, only to later steer them to their ruin. Other times, they use their cunning abilities and deception, as Circe and Jezebel did, in order to entice men into doing things that they normally would never accede to do. Moreover, most tragedies, disasters, and misfortunes are essentially caused by women as demonstrated by Helen, who caused the Trojan War, and Eve, who caused the exile of all mankind from the Garden of Eden and is the mother of all sin. The women of the Odyssey and the women of the Bible, through astute manipulation and seduction, inflict many tribulations, which in due course cause the pains and destruction of mankind.
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).
To this day, the story of Pandora fascinates human beings enough to survive in media and culture. However, the modern adaptations of the myth often deviate from the misogynist undertones of Hesiod’s original version. As retaliation for Prometheus stealing fire from Olympus and gifting it to humans, Zeus resolves to afflict mankind with misfortune in the form of Pandora. He instructs Hephaestus to mold a woman out of clay and water, and asks Athena and Aphrodite to give her “painful yearning and consuming obsession”, “a bitch’s mind and knavish nature” and “lies and wily pretenses” (Works and Days, 39). Pandora is given to the misguided and forgetful Epimetheus and, due to her curiosity, releases all the terrible things that trouble mankind. Only hope is left at the end, which becomes trapped in the jar when Pandora replaces the lid. Despite Hesiod’s conclusion that the story proves “there is no way to evade the purpose of Zeus” (Works and Days, 40), it is clear that Pandora taking the form of a woman with negative attributes carries its own, separate significance. Hesiod proves this in the following: “For from her [Pandora] is descended the female sex, a great affliction to mortals as they dwell with their husbands” (Theogony, 20). Hesiod believed that all women were descended from Pandora – a woman he described as being deceitful, troublesome and difficult. By
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 story of Sekhmet is violence and bloodlusting. Sekhmet is a goddess that meant to destroy every evil things in the world. However, she got so violent that she could not stop to ruin everything. Ra, her father realized that Sekhmet can not continue what she were doing. Therefore, Ra dyed all the wine in a lake into red and tricked his daughter drank all the wine to calm her down. “...She described to me once the moment when she felt that she came to understand the emotional power of what she called the dark Goddess. She had begun to draw the lion-headed Egyptian Sekhmet, whom she described as a ‘death aspect’ in Egyptian mythology and drew surrounded by flames.” (Luhrmann, 128) The auther told us a story about one of her artist friend. Her friend Chris described Sekhmet as the “dark goddess”. From here, the figure of Sekhmet is horrifying and use this figure, pharaohs were easy to took advantage from this kind of myths and threaten their populaces. In ancient Egypt, mythology is an important way to rule the kingdom. Everyone in the kingdom were obsessed and controlled by their deities. “Nor can there be any doubt that to many of the common people religion must have meant no more than a literal acceptance of the mythological gods.” (Tobin, 169) From this author 's journal the importance of religion. Also, religion and belief was the tool for pharaohs to control people. “The ancient Egyptians were neither philosophically nor theologically minded, and hence spiritual and religious values required an expression which was concrete and anthropomorphic.”(Tobin, 169) Additionally, many deities were human-like, which also is another evidence that the pharaohs able to use this kind of figure to control people. They can use this human-like figure as an advantage to tell people that they were gods/goddesses. Therefore region has a very important role in the egyptian
One difference that backs it up is in The Epic of Gilgamesh the rains that cause the floods only last six days, six nights and in “The Flood Story in Genesis” the rains last forty days, forty nights. A quote that tells about the flood is when Utnapishtim said, “For six days and six nights the wind blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts (pg. 25).” This quote by Utnapishtim describes how bad the weather, rains, and wind were during the six days and six nights of the storm. On the other hand in “The Story of the Flood” it rained for forty days, forty nights. While God was talking to Noah he said, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth (pg. 48 line 4).” This quote describes how long God will have the rain go for. It also says that he is doing it to destroy all of mankind.
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.
The tales of Greek heroes and the gods are older than all of us. Most of these tales are thought to be myths, but every interpretation of Greek mythology and the stories that it contains correlates with something in the real world today. The story of the creation of the world, and the stories of the heroes Hercules, Perseus and Theseus, are only but a few of the compelling stories Greek mythology has to offer.
Prometheus tried to warn his brother to not accept any gift from the Olympians. However, when Epimetheus saw Pandora he forgot about his brothers warning. Pandora’s beauty and charm made a quick effect to the titan. Pandora arrived to Epimetheus with a box. This box was given to her by the gods and it contained evils for mankind. Instead of Pandora, being the evil punishment it was the box she carried that encased all the evil. When Pandora opens the box all the evil spirits fly out and spread evil all throughout the world. According to Harris (2008), “Other versions of Pandora myth indicate that the jar she brings with her contained not evils but blessings”. However, Hesiod version of this story Pandora lets out miseries for mankind. Thus, Hesiod illustrates Pandora as being a malevolent person that causes turmoil. This myth is a way for Hesiod to warn his fellow man against women. The gods are Hesiod’s way to say negative aspects about women that can derive from his own personal
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...
Other similarities closely tie these two Flood Myths almost mirroring the symbolic ideas within both stories. The number seven is very significant in both of these stories. In the story of Utnapishtim, the Boat he built was finished on the seventh day. Also the rain that flooded the earth, stopped on the seventh day. In the Hebrew story of Noah, the waters of the flood were upon the earth seven days after Noah constructed the arc. After the earth was flooded and the rain subsided, during two seven day instances, Noah sent forth a dove to determine if dry land existed nearby. The two stories also showed that the Gods gave specific instructions down to the dimension regarding the construction of the two boats and both men were ordered to keep the blood line of animals alive by sparing the lives of a male a female being of each species.
In the Bible and Greek Mythology both were the believe of us to God(s). In biblical stories, christians believe that the lord God created the world; he created birds, animals, and humans. Similarly, in Greek mythology, Zeus and his forces established the mount olympus to be there Eden, and he ordered to create all alive things in earth, even though he doesn’t want mortals, but the mortals still appears. Therefore, Biblical stories and Greek mythology have many similarities, both have the stories of the creation of human. In particular, the three examples that have the closest similarities are The Creation of woman, How god's punish those who don’t worship them and reward those who worship them. and The Kingdom of God.