Flood Myths
OneWorldInsight.com
Story Patterns of The Flood
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Productive sacrifice
The Deluge cleanses and gives rebirth
Primordial Chaos
Purification by water
Baptism overcoming destructive chaos
The dark waters of the unconscious
“Re-boot”…”Let’s start over”
OneWorldInsight.com
Mesopotamian Flood Story
• This is recorded in the
ancient tale of
Gilgamesh and was
the source for the later
Bible story
• This versions depicts
the whims of the gods
OneWorldInsight.com
Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the gods
in council, “The uproar of mankind is intolerable
and sleep is no longer possible…”So the gods
agreed to exterminate mankind. But Ea because
of his oath warned me (Ziusudra) in a dream.
I was told to tear down my house and build a
boat, abandon possessions and look for life,
despise worldly goods and save my soul. Let
this boat be equal in length and width, her deck
be roofed like the vault that covers the abyss,
and then take up into the boat the seed of all
living creatures… OneWorldInsight.com
In the first light of dawn all my household
gathered around me, the children brought pitch
and the men whatever was necessary. On the fifth
day I laid the keel and the ribs, then I made fast
the planking.
The ground-space was one acre, each side of the
deck measured on hundred and twenty cubits (a
cubit is one forearm length or about 20 inches)
making a square. I built six decks below, seven in
all… On the seventh day the boat was
complete…
(120 cubits = 200 feet)
OneWorldInsight.com
With the first light of dawn a black cloud came
from the horizon; it thundered within where
Adad, lord of the storm was riding…A stupor of
despair went up to heaven when the god of the
storm turned daylight to darkness, when he
smashed the land like a cup...
Even the gods were terrified at the flood. Then
Ishtar the sweet-voiced Queen of Heaven cried
out “Alas the days of old are turned to dust
because I commanded evil”… The great gods
of heaven and of hell wept, they covered their
mouths.
OneWorldInsight.com
For six days and nights the winds blew, torrent and
tempest and flood overwhelmed the world… All
mankind was turned to clay. The surface of the sea
stretches as flat as a roof-top. In the distance there
appeared a mountain, and there the boat
grounded.
When the seventh day dawned I loosed a dove
and let her go…but she returned. I then loosed a
raven, she saw that the waters had retreated, she
ate, she flew around, she cawed, and she did not
come back. Then I threw everything open to the
four winds, I made a sacrifice and poured out a
libation on the mountain top.
OneWorldInsight.com
When the gods smelled the sweet savour, they
gathered like flies over the sacrifice. Then the god
Istar said, “Let all the gods gather round the
sacrifice, except Enlil. He shall not approach this
offering, for without reflection he brought the flood
that consigned my people to destruction.
When Enlil had come, when he saw the boat, he
was wrath and swelled with anger at the gods…
“Not one was to have survived the destruction”.
Then to Enlil he was said, “Who is there of the
gods that can devise without Ea? It is Ea alone
who knows all things. ”Then Ea asked of Enlil how
could he so senselessly bring down the flood.
OneWorldInsight.com
And Ea said to the gods, “It was not I that
revealed the secret of the gods; the wise man
(Utnapishtim) learned it in a dream. Now take
your counsel what shall be done with him.”
Then the god Enlil went up into the boat, took
me by the hand and my wife and made us enter
the boat and kneel down on either side. He
touched our forehead to bless us saying. “In
time past Utnapishtim was a mortal man;
henceforth he and his wife shall live in the
distance at the mouth of the rivers.”
OneWorldInsight.com
Thus it was that the gods took me and
placed me here to live in the distance, at the
mouth of the rivers…” (in Mesopotamia)
OneWorldInsight.com
Hebrew Noah Flood Story
• Based on older
Babylonian story
• Older story is based
on a whim of the
gods
• This time the flood is
punishment and
Noah is saved so
humankind can be
reborn in a cleansed
state
OneWorldInsight.com
That the sons of God saw the daughters of men
that they were fair; and they took them wives of all
which they chose…
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have
created from the face of the earth; both man, and
beast, and the creeping things…
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord…
OneWorldInsight.com
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh
is come before me; for the earth is filled with
violence through them; and , behold, I will
destroy them with the earth…Make thee an
ark of gopher wood…the length of the ark
shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of
it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty
cubits…
I bring a flood of waters upon the earth to
destroy all flesh…but with thee will I
establish my covenant…
OneWorldInsight.com
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood
of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in,
and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives…
And the rain was upon the earth forty days and
forty nights…. Fifteen cubits upward did the
waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
And the waters prevailed upon the earth an
hundred and fifty days.
And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the
seventeenth day of the month, upon the
mountains of Ararat.
OneWorldInsight.com
And at the end of forty days, Noah opened
the window to the ark… He sent forth a
raven…then he sent forth a dove. He stayed
another seven days and again sent forth the
dove out into the darkness. The dove
returned in the evening with a olive leaf so
Noah knew that the waters were abated…
After Noah left the ark he built an altar unto
the Lord and offered burnt offerings. And the
Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord
said in his heart, I will not again curse the
ground any more for man’s sake…
OneWorldInsight.com
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said
unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish
the earth. And the Lord made a covenant with
Noah and to his sons not to destroy the earth with
another flood.
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a
token of a covenant between me and the earth.
And the sons of Noah that went forth from the Ark
were Hem, Ham, and Japheth. These three sons
of Noah repopulated the earth.
OneWorldInsight.com
Chinese Yu Flood Story
• One of the oldest
stories in Chinese
mythology
• Practical matter of
channeling an unruly
river to make more
land for cultivation
• Historical &
mythological account of
this event
OneWorldInsight.com
(Historical account) Everywhere the tremendous
flood waters were wreaking destruction. The
people were groaning. A ruler named Ti
commanded Kun to deal with this flood.
Nine years Kun labored without success to dam
up the waters. At the end of that time Kun was
executed at the Feather Mountain. Kun’s son Yu
was ordered to continue the task.
Yu, rather than trying to dam the river, instead rechanneled with waters back into the sea. He thus
conquered the flood and made the land fit for
habitation. As a reward he was given the throne
by Shun and became founder of the Hsia dynasty.
OneWorldInsight.com
(Mythological account) On being ordered to
deal with the flood, Kun stole from the Lord the
“swelling mold”, a magical soil which had the
property of ever swelling in size. With this he
tried to build dams to hold back the waters. He
failed. When the Lord discovered this theft he
executed Kun at Feather Mountain.
Kun’s body remained for three years without
decomposing, until someone cut it open with a
sword and Yu emerged from his father’s belly.
OneWorldInsight.com
Yu came down from on high to continue his
father’s work. He was helped by a winged
dragon which, going ahead of him, trailed its
tail over the ground and thus marked the
places where channels should be dug.
Yu succeeded in draining the great rivers to
the sea, expelling snakes and dragons from
the marshlands.
“Were it not for Yu we would indeed be fish!”
OneWorldInsight.com