Comparing Gilgamesh And The Mesopotamian Flood

As the Epic of Gilgamesh reached its conclusion an alternative ending from the account of Utnapishtim who is a Mesopotamian version of the later biblical Noah tells the story of the gods becoming angry because humans are breeding wildly and sleep is no longer possible due to the “babel”. Therefore the gods agree to exterminate mankind. The Sumerian Enki who is the god of the waters warns Gilgamesh in a dream to ‘tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul alive. Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat. “ Gilgamesh did exactly that and endured the world flooding for 6 days. During the 7th day the storm stopped and all mankind was dead and he docked his boat on a

The similarities that this version shares with The Flood described in Genesis is that the reason behind the flood are both punishments to humanity due to wickedness and sin. The individual in both these stories who are Utnapishtim and Noah are both forewarn by the disaster and act out of righteous to give life for all another chance. These characters also both dock on a mountain after the flood and use birds as a test to find more land. The biggest difference is that in Epic of Gilgamesh the storm only lasts 6 days while in The Flood it is said to have lasted between 40 days to a year. I am sure there are many viewpoints that have transformed these stories throughout the years because we have no evidence of these events. I feel that if we want to technically say what one is more correct it would have to be Genesis since the tablets that describe the flood from The Epic of Gilgamesh were discovered long