Comparing Noah, Utnapishtim, And Deucalion

Flood Essay Introduction

Killing an estimated 1,833 people, Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes to ever hit the United States. The flooding alone caused massive devastation and destruction. Millions of people lost their homes and all their possessions. This flood was horrific, but imagine a flood so great that it destroyed all of humanity. This great flood occurs in the stories of Noah, Utnapishtim, and Deucalion. The flood stories from Noah and the Flood, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and Deucalion, are all similar but have unique aspects.

Flood Origins All three flood stories have similarities in the origin of the flood and the preparations taken for the flood. First of all, each story began with an angry god who wanted to wipe out humanity. However, the god was different in each story. In Noah, the angry god was Yahweh. “The Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the men whom I

After the flood ended, the people who had survived had to repopulate the earth. The way this was done varied from each story. In Noah, he had his wife and his three sons and their wives. In the flood of Utnapishtim, Utnapishtim had his wife and there was also the boat crew. The way the earth was repopulated in the Deucalion was much different than the other stories, but all in all it was repopulated. “All alone in the world they wanted company. In answer to this need, the titan and goddess of prophecy Themis cryptically told them to throw the bones of their mother behind them.” This passage explains that Deucalion and Pyrrha were told to throw their mother’s bones behind them. They interpreted this correctly as throwing stones from “Mother Earth” over their shoulder. The stones they threw then became humans. The three flood stories are similar in the aftermath of the flood because they all had to repopulate the