2.6 Comparative Flood Stories

Epic of Gilgamesh

The Bible

The Mayan Popol Vuh

Hindu

Babylonian (Epic of Gilgamesh)

In the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh the story of the Flood is told in some detail, with many striking parallels to the Genesis version. The hero, Gilgamesh, seeking immortality, searches out the human immortal Utnapishtim in Dilmun, a kind of terrestrial paradise.

Noah and his dove. In the Epic of Gilgamesh it is Utnapishtim who survives the flood: “I opened a vent and sunlight fell on the side of my face… I released a dove to go free, The dove went and returned. No landing place came to view, it turned back.”

Utnapishtim tells how Ea (the Babylonian equivalent of the Sumerian Enki) warned him of the gods’ plan to destroy all life through a Great Flood and instructed him to build a vessel in which he could save his family, his friends and servants, his cattle, and other wealth. The deluge comes and covers the earth. As in the Genesis version, Untapishtim sends out both a dove and raven from his boat before descending on dry land. After the Deluge, he offers a sacrifice to the gods, who repented their action and make Utnapishtim immortal.

India

Incarnation of Vishnu as a Fish, from a devotional text.

The Hindu version of Noah is named Manu. He is warned by an incarnation of Vishnu of the impending Great Flood, enabling him to build a boat and survive to repopulate the earth.

According to the texts Matsya Purana and Shatapatha Brahmana (I-8, 1-6), Manu was a minister to the king of pre-ancient Dravida. He was washing his hands in a river when a little fish swam into his hands and begged him to save its life. He put the fish in a jar, which it soon outgrew. He successively moved it to a tank, a river and then the ocean. The fish then warned him that a deluge would occur in a week that would destroy all life. It turned out that fish was none other than Matsya (Fish in Sanskrit) the first Avatara of Vishnu.

Manu therefore built a boat which Matsya towed to a mountaintop when the flood came, and thus he survived along with some “seeds of life” to re-establish life on earth.

Maya

The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge, by Cole Thomas, 1829

In Maya mythology, from the Popol Vuh, Part 1, Chapter 3, Huracan (“one-legged”) was a wind and storm god. It is from his name that the English word hurricane is derived. Huracan caused the Great Flood (of resin) after the first humans angered the gods because, being made of wood, they were unable to engage in worship. Huracan lived in the windy mists above the floodwaters and spoke “earth” until land came up again from the seas. Humans had become monkeys, but later, real people would emerge, and three men and four women repopulate the world after the flood.

New World Encyclopedia. (February 9, 2017).  Great Flood.  Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Great_Flood Used under CC BY 3.0.

Hinduism is another ancient religion, originating in India around 1200 BCE or earlier. Buddhism developed out of Hinduism around the fifth century BCE. As you read about Hinduism and Buddhism, think about how they compare and contrast to Judaism.