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termpaper: a comparison of the flood stories of the epic of gilgamesh and genesis
People grow up listening to the story of Noah and the flood. They remember
the length of the flood, the dove, and the rainbow very vividly. However,
most people do not realize that the story is told throughout many different
cultures and with accounts older than Genesisıs version in the Bible.
Although each of the accounts tells of the flood, there are many variations
to the story. One such story can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Although the Epic of Gilgamesh is similar to the Genesis version, there are
some differences in the days leading to, during, and after the flood.
The days leading to the flood are different as well as similar in the Epic
of Gilgamesh and the Genesis version of the flood. In the Epic of
Gilgamesh, the gods decided to send a flood because the people on Earth were
noisy. One man, Utnapishtim, was given a dream by one of the gods because
of an oath. Contrastingly, in Genesis, God sent a flood to destroy the
evils that man had created. He warned Noah about the flood because Noah was
good. Both Utnapishtim and Noah constructed boats to survive the flood.
Utnapishtimıs boat was 120 cubits and a perfect cube. It was completed with
seven decks that were divided into nine sections each. On the other hand,
Noahıs ark was three hundred cubits in length, fifty cubits in width, and
thirty cubits in height. It had a skylight and a door in the side. It was
only three stories high. After the boat was constructed, Gilgamesh ³loaded
into her all that I (he) had of gold and of living things, my family, my
kin, the best of the field both wild and tame, and all the craftsmen²(p.
37). Noah, similarly, loaded his family, food, and a male and female pair
of each animal. Now each group waited for the flood. Utnapishtimıs rain
began that night but stormed the next day. After 7 days, Noahıs flood
began.
During the flood there are several similarities between the two stories.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the flood lasted six days and nights. The whole
world looked like an ocean except for the top of a mountain where the boat
ultimately landed. In Genesis, ³the rain was upon the earth forty days and
forty nights² (p. 69). The water covered the entire earth including the
mountains for 150 days. Eventually the ark rested on a mountaintop, but the
mountaintops were not shown for three months. To test to see if the waters
had receded, Utnapishtim waited for six days to see if his boat would hold
onto the mountaintop. Then on the seventh day, Utnapishtim released a dove
from a hatch in the boat. The dove came back. Then he released a swallow
that also came back. Lastly, he ³loosed a raven...and she did not come
back² (p. 38). After the flood ended, Noah also released birds. First, he
sent a raven, which flew around until the water dried up. Then he sent a
dove, which came back. Noah waited seven days and released it again. This
time the dove came back with an olive leaf. Noah waited seven more days; he
released the dove again, which did not return.
After testing the earth to see if it was dry, both men disembarked and
began their new lives. Utnapishtim made sacrifices to his gods on the
mountaintop. Noah also made sacrifices to his god. Utnapishtimıs gods
decided that a flood as a means of destruction was not a good idea. They
also rewarded Utnapishtim with the gift of immortality. Correspondingly,
Noahıs god made a pact with Noah not to send another flood. He told Noah
that the reminder of the oath would be a ³bow in the cloud² (p. 71).
Although the two accounts seem very parallel, they are somewhat divergent
in many different ways. Both men were told of the flood. They both
constructed boats and filled their boats with animals and their families.
Next, they released birds to test the waters, and both made sacrifices.
However, the boats were different in construction. The number of days
differed in how long the flood lasted, when the waters receded, and when
each man left their boats. The birds that did not come back to their boats
were also different. It is very easy to see that the flood story can be
true based on these two accounts because it is easy to see how two different
cultures, the Samarians and the Hebrews, molded the flood story to fit their
cultures. Although the stories are different, there seems to be one major
common thread, the flood.
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