2 Versions of the Flood Story

Gilgamesh defeats Enkidu, after which they atomic number 18 friends. They suffice out together against Humbaba to do battle. When Gilgamesh refuses the marriage proposal of the paragondess of love, Ishtar, she sends a divine bull against him, and he and Enkidu kill it. Enkidu dreams that he mustiness die for his role in killing the bull, and he does die. Gilgamesh seeks a way to see that his friend is granted eternal disembodied spirit and sets out on a journey to meet the unmatched man who survived the Great Flood (Freedman 1124).

Many of the elements in this heroic poem can be found in opposite brave epics, from the journey as a quest for some payoff to the slaying of a creature sent to do destruction. The epic also echoes certain social values in its celebration of the hero, its reverence for the graven images, and its belief in the ruler-hero as a god himself. The people of this time also believe in exigency and place their fate in the hands of the gods. Gilgamesh lives in a way that is ordained by the gods: "The destiny was fulfilled which the stimulate of the gods, Enlil of the mountain, had decreed for Gilgamesh" (Sandars 118). The leader is not overly revered and is seen as embodying the fate, security, and stability of the people and their kingdom. When Gilgamesh dies, the people lament. Every aspect of spiritedness is ascribed to a god or gods--the death of Gilgamesh is attributed to Ereshkigal, the Queen of Death, and "to all in all the gods of the dead" (Sandars 119)

The rising tide tosh as found in The Epic of Gilgamesh derived from an oral customs duty in Sumeria that probably reflected long-term historical memories of a sincere cataclysmic alluvium, probably in the Black Sea region. The flood story of Noah and the ark was very likely derived from the Sumerian story. There argon numerous points of similarity. In twain, a god or beau ideal used the flood to cleanse the earth. Both feature an ark, though they are described differently. Both arks land on a mountain. Both seafarers send out birds to find land. Both sacrifice a sacrifice to their god. In the Sumerian story, Utnapishtim and his wife are made immortal, while Noah has a covenant with God.

In both stories, after the flood, human beings begin living to normal ages quite than the long life-spans described before. Both end with the god or God promising never to use a flood to destroy humankind again.

Laymon, Charles M. The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible. New York: Abingdon Press, 1971.

The both stories derive from different social structures and serve different purposes in teaching lessons to the reader, though the primary lesson of giving fealty to the god or God remains the same. What is not certain is whether in that respect was a direct link between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the gray-haired Testament or if the tale was processed through some other versions, such as the epic of Atrahasis or one of the other versions of the flood story known in the ancient world.

Freedman, David Noel. The fix Bible Dictionary: Volume 4. New York: Doubleday.

Sir Henry Layard conducted excavations on the sites of Nineveh and Nimrud between 1845 and 1854 and brought back several large crates filled with wedge-shaped tablets, not really examined until 1863. What was then found was the Mesopotamian version of the Flood. Gibson writes almost the archaeological evidence for the Flood and notes that evidence for an inundation in Mesopotamia is clear and has been attributed to circa 3500 B.C. Ind
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