Comparing Noah’s Flood to the Epic of Gilgamesh The stories of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Noah’s Flood are two of the most famous, historic stories to ever be written. Noah’s Flood is a common read passage from the Hebrew Bible. It is found in the Book of Genesis and written by Moses, by the word of the Hebrew God. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written on twelve tablets and was added to gradually over time. The story has roots of Babylon and written in the Sumerian language. The author of the work is unknown as there are many contributors to the story. It is believed that Gilgamesh could have actually been a real, historic person (Gilgamesh 54). The Epic of Gilgamesh begins speaking about Gilgamesh and about his life (Gilgamesh 58-59). Unlike the Hebrew story which begins with God seeing all of the evil in the world. We do not find out about Noah until a little later in the passage (Hebrew 122). The Epic appears to be centered on Gilgamesh as the main character and storyline, even calling him “perfect” (Gilgamesh 59). The Hebrew flood story …show more content…
Gilgamesh’s friend Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh decides he wants to gain immortality due to his new fear of death (Gilgamesh 92-93). We are now introduced to a man named Utanapishtim. Gilgamesh sought to meet him in hopes of learning about immortality. He goes through another journey on the process to meet Utanapishtim. Upon meeting him, Utanapishtim was hesitant to tell Gilgamesh anything (Gilgamesh 101-102). Utanapishtim finally tells Gilgamesh a “secret matter”. Utanapishtim tells of how he gained his immortality. He tells a story of when the gods sent a great deluge to wipe out the evil of the world (Gilgamesh 102). Here we see that Gilgamesh is not like Noah in the Hebrew version; however, Utanapishtim is like Noah and is telling a story about the past to