ipl-logo

The Flood Myth: The Epic Of Gilgamesh

695 Words3 Pages

There are hundreds of flood myths in every culture around the world. Certain commonalties exist in all of them. For instance, in 95 percent of the stories the flood was worldwide; in 88 percent, a certain family was favored; in 70 percent, survival was by means of a boat; in 67 percent, animals were also saved; in 66 percent, the flood was due to the wickedness of man; in 66 percent, the survivors had been forewarned; in 57 percent, they ended up on a mountain; in 35 percent, birds were sent out from the boat; and in 9 percent, exactly eight people were spared . Another commonality in some of these myths are giants being the cause of the flood. If the events of Genesis 6 are true, then this is exactly what we should expect to see. Tales of …show more content…

The two battle it out but end up becoming close friends and going on many adventures together. On one of their adventures, the two travel together to the Cedar Mountain and defeat a giant named Huwawa. Later the goddess Ishtar asks Gilgamesh to marry her but he refuses. Spurned she goes to heaven and complains to her father Anu, and so the gods sentence Enkidu to death as punishment. After Enkidu falls ill and dies, Gilgamesh becomes distressed and goes on a quest to discover immortality. On his journey he searches for his ancestor, named Utanapishtim, who is a survivor of the Great Flood. But Utanapishtim councils Gilgamesh to abandon his quest for immortality, and so he returns home to Uruk in …show more content…

In the story Utanapishtim is tasked by the creator god Enki to build a giant ship, called The Preserver of Life, for an upcoming flood that will wipe out all animals and humans. He brings onboard his wife, family, relatives, craftsmen of his village, animals, and grain. Just like with Noah, he sends out a dove and a raven to see if the waters have receded. The ship eventually comes to rest on Mount Nisir and once on dry land he releases the animals and makes a sacrifice to the gods.
It is largely accepted that Gilgamesh was an actual historical figure that later became embellished in myth. Some have identified Gilgamesh as the biblical figure Nimrod. Just as parallels exist between Utanapishtim and Noah, so too between Gilgamesh and Nimrod:
• Nimrod opposed God (Yahweh), Gilgamesh opposed Huwawa. “Yahweh” is phonetically similar to “Huwawa.”
• Gilgamesh did just as the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 did by forcibly taking men's wives.
• The Bible calls Nimrod a tyrant, Gilgamesh was a tyrant.
• There was a flood in the Bible; there is a flood in the Epic. Both stories take place after a great deluge.
• Cush is mentioned in the Bible, Kish in the

Show More
Related
850 Words | 4 Pages

In both myths, the god(s) are not pleased with the order of the earth and the people that they have created, which leads them to want to completely destroy the people and start on a clean slate. The people do not pray enough, are not well behaved, and are audacious, which proves to the god(s) that what they have created is not good enough. “‘The end of all flesh is come before [Him]; for the earth is filled with violence’”, God was telling Noah as he explained to him what he wanted him to do with the ark (70). When the god(s) want to put a stop to the destruction of the people, in both myths, the god(s) choose one specific person to be rescued and have a second chance at proving their mightiness, in “Noah and the Flood” it was Noah and in “The Story of the Flood”, it was Utnapishtim. These characters are bold and are favored by the gods for their dedication and they tell them each man how to build their sacred shelter and what to bring onto the boat/ark they build.

Read More
1045 Words | 5 Pages

If you have read Gilgamesh the Hero and Genesis 6-9:19, you would think the two passages are pretty similar to each other, maybe even almost the same exact thing. But when we dive deeper into each passage of writing, you start to see that Gilgamesh the Hero to Genesis 6-9:17 are very different from each other. Even though their similarities will also be expressed in this essay, these stories are not as similar as you may think because of the Gods’ motivation for sending a flood, and how Noah and Utnapistim were warned about the incoming flood. The Gods’ in both stories were upset with the way their creation, which was humanity, turned out to be.

Read More
119 Words | 1 Pages

Gilgamesh quest to Utnapishtimis not only to escape his death, but also an experiance of life. Gilgamesh learns that no one person can escape death. He was bothered by the fact that only gods had eturnal lives. Enkidu tells him not to go to battle with with Humbuba. They tell each other life is to short and the fame is the only thing that last forever.

Read More
720 Words | 3 Pages

Although flood myths are found around the world, each one differs slightly. In the story of Noah’s Ark, God is angry that the Sons of God and human women bore children, creating the race of giants. Following this, God instructs Noah to build the Ark to save his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, along with animals, to repopulate the earth. Then, God sends torrential rain for forty days and forty nights, covering the highest peaks with more than twenty feet of water. The water, eventually, recedes.

Read More
602 Words | 3 Pages

The Bible includes, as does the Epic of Gilgamesh, the effort put into building the boat that would save them from the flood. The parallel accounts continue the story with a heavy rain and subsequent flood. The waters destroy all men not in the boat but eventually subside. The details of the aftermath of the flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh are nearly identical to the aftermath of the biblical flood. The hero in both stories waits for a few days after the rain stops, sends off three birds to discover whether the flood waters have lowered, offer a sacrifice to the divine beings, and is rewarded by the divine beings.

Read More
643 Words | 3 Pages

Before doing this journey Gilgamesh didn’t realize that he didn’t have his friend Enkidu to help him through the journey like he usually would. He had to go on the journey and get through it on his own. The journey is very difficult for Gilgamesh. It makes him very emotional. Utnapustim is the only one who actually see that Gilgamesh is very dedicated to bring back his friend.

Read More
306 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
1949 Words | 8 Pages

It troubles me because I do not believe that there could have been two floods, which makes me unsure of how to interpret this story in the

Read More
2116 Words | 9 Pages

For Utnapishtim he was warned in a dream by Ea. On the other hand Noah was warned directly from the lord as in the lord was speaking directly to him. As they the two soon received their warning and instructions, they soon started to work. They followed the god’s direction and measurement on how to build the specific craft they needed to survive the flood. “Ea because of his oath warned me in a dream”(29).

Read More
1476 Words | 6 Pages

This lengthy expedition begins with the death of Gilgamesh’s close friend and adopted brother, Enkidu. After killing the Bull of Heaven, the gods need to punish those responsible (Enkidu and Gilgamesh) and decide on the ill-stricken Enkidu, because the city needs Gilgamesh to rule over their land. Gilgamesh watches his friend die without any ability to save him. This leads Gilagemesh on his journey to find a man by the name of Utanishptim. After passing many dangerous feats and crossing the waters of death, the boatman, Urshanabi brings him to this immortal man.

Read More
672 Words | 3 Pages

Achilles and Gilgamesh venture into epic journeys that change the trajectory of their lives. It is evident that Achilles’ and Gilgamesh’s journeys fit into Joseph Campbell’s stages of a hero’s journey. Through analyzing each of the stages that Achilles and Gilgamesh endure, both characters indeed grow as heroes. Nonetheless, the growth in Achilles’ and Gilgamesh’s characters are different due to their different journeys. Each of the stages in Achilles’ and Gilgamesh’s journeys are essential to their growth; however, the stages known as the road back and the return with the elixir reveal how they have ultimately grown.

Read More
770 Words | 4 Pages

Gilgamesh, from the tale of Gilgamesh, was the king of Uruk, on the river Euphrates in modern Iraq. When the story is first intorduced, the reader can see that Gilgamesh was a very confident man and contained very little compassion for his people of Uruk. He was a king sure enough, but he was not one to count on as a leadear or a protector. He was the one to kill his people loved ones and rapes their daughters. He knew in his mind that he was superior to others due to the fact that he was two-thirds god and one third human.

Read More
991 Words | 4 Pages

The flood story is based on the geologic ages identified through scientific understanding of the changing physical features of the earth (Origin myths: The Flood, 37). The period is between about 12,000 and 7000 BCE which was a period of worldwide warming (Origin myths, 37). Changing environmental conditions was common throughout the world. The rainfall and ocean levels rose some 300 feet (Origin myths 37). Some people began to believe their creator was punishing humans who were displeasing, so the Great Flood become part of the origin myth.

Read More
768 Words | 4 Pages

Even though both The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis are similar in that they all use the floods for a destruction, both the stories are different from each other in the distribution of roles within the gods and a way to warn the extermination from the gods. First, the similarity between The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis is the relevance with the flooding that used to exterminate the human. To prove the occurrence of the flood, chapter 5 of The Epic of Gilgamesh records, “For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts (line 62-63, p. 21)”. Also in Genesis, the text “The waters flooded the earth for a hundred

Read More
921 Words | 4 Pages

God told one man, Noah, to build an ark and to take two of every creature onto his ark. God allowed Noah to bring his wife, his sons and his sons wives with him on the boat. The flood lasted for forty days and forty nights. When it stopped raining, Noah and his family released a raven and three doves to see if there was any dry land to live on. As a reward for surviving the flood, Noah was granted an extended life. In the Epic of Gilgamesh there was a man who gained immortality because he survived the flood that the gods sent.

Read More

More about The Flood Myth: The Epic Of Gilgamesh

Related Topics

Open Document