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Flood Myths in the Religions of the Ancient World

Angela Kay Harris

American Military University (APUS)
[email protected]

Many cultures have some form of flood myth as part of their religious beliefs,

but some of the most ancient of these are those of Mesopotamia and other early

Middle Eastern civilizations, as well as certain Asian groups. It is possible that

these myths have been passed down from their oldest form to the cultures of other

groups such as those of the Chinese Miao. It could also be that the flood myths of

each culture are actually based on a real catastrophic event that occurred at some

point far in the past history of the world and each culture has passed the tale of this

flood incident down through the generations.

One of the oldest recorded flood myths that have been discovered so far

comes from the Babylonian culture, is included within the Gilgamesh stor y and the

Seven Tablets, and was written sometime around 2800 B.C.E. According to the

tablets that have been found, there are at least two differing tales, both of which

describe a similar deluge. In one legend, carved into a clay tablet that was found at

the Library of Nebo in Nineveh and was inscribed around 2800-2700 B.C.E., Uta-

Napishtim tells Gilgamesh the story about the Great Deluge, saying that on the

bank of the river we now know as the Euphrates was a city where the gods lived.

One day the gods decided they wanted to create a storm, but Ea wanted to save

the life of Uta-Napishtim. So Ea awoke Uta-Napishtim and told him that he needed

to tear down his house and build a ship if he wanted to survive this storm and that

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he must leave behind all of his possessions and wealth. Ea told him that he must

carry every kind of grain that there was with him on the ship and then gave him

instructions concerning the ship’s size and design. Ea also told Uta -Napishtim that

he would have to tell the town’s people how he was going to live upon the oceans

with his lord Ea. He was also supposed to warn the town’s people that a violent

storm was going to fall upon them. Uta-Napishtim built the ship as Ea had told him

to do, but instead of leaving behind his riches he loaded them all onto the ship

along with the grains. He then loaded his family and friends onto the ship, along

with all of the livestock and craftsmen who had helped him build the ship (Budge

“The Babylonian Story” Kindle PC Location 215-299).

When evening came, the Power of Darkness caused the rains to start falling

and a cyclone fell upon the land, laying it to waste. This storm continued unabated

for six days and nights before it finally abated on the seventh day. The great ship

was caught on the mountain called Nisir and would not move, so Uta-Nipishtim sent

out an assortment of birds on different days in order to find out if the waters had

finally subsided. One bird was a dove, which returned, and another was a swallow,

which also returned. He also sent out a raven which saw the ground and began to

peck and eat and did not come back, thus signaling to Uta-Napishtim that the

waters had finally subsided. The story then continues about how the gods were not

pleased that Uta-Napishtim survived the destruction (Budge “The Babylonian Story”

loc. 215-299).

For any Jewish or Christian person, this story would look very familiar, even

if the names are unknown. This is because the main storyline is almost identical to

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the one that is described within the Book of Genesis, with the saved person being

told to build a mighty boat, load up all of the animals and his family onto this ship,

and then having to send out an assortment of birds after the rains have stopped in

order to find out if dry land is once again available to live on.

Another Babylonian deluge or flood myth is written on tablets that are from

sometime around 2000 B.C.E. and tells of the Great Deluge of Creation (see figure

1). It is written on these tablets that “In the beginning nothing whatever exi sted

except APSU, which may be described as a boundless, confused and disordered

mass of watery matter; how it came into being is unknown” (Budge “The

Babylonian Legends” Kindle PC Location 109-119). The tablets go on to explain the

creation of the gods and the demons, explaining that two brother gods were always

fighting with one another and their parents could not control them, nor could the

Great Creator, APSU “diminish their brawl” (Budge “The Babylonian Legends” loc.

354-362).

Finally, this constant fighting caused the fighting caused a war to break out

among the gods Tiamat and Marduk. The god Marduk caused a great tempest to

happen as part of his attacks during this fighting (Budge “The Babylonian Legends”

loc. 199-205; 537-550). Marduk ends up winning the war and cuts the goddess

Tiamat in half, creating the upper Tiamat and the lower Tiamat, which the

Babylonians thought were the heavenly and earthly oceans or the “the waters that

were above” and “the waters that were beneath” respectively (Budge “ The

Babylonian Legends” loc. 668-694).

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Even though this legend is more about the creation of the universe, the world

and the oceans, it does mention a great flood being caused by Marduk during the

war waged between him and Tiamat. This suggests that there is actually some

connection to previous flood myths, but that information is not written into the story

or has been lost to time. This is highly likely, especially since only a few fragments

of the APSU tablets have ever been found (Budge “The Babylonian Legends” loc.

109-119), and the missing portions may have the remainder of the flood tale written

upon them, thus bridging that gap and making a connection between the two

myths.

There is also a Great Deluge myth from the period of Alexander the Great

that was recorded by a Babylonian priest. This priest, named Berosus, wrote a

history of Babylonia, some of which describes a great flood that occurred during

the reign of King Xisuthrus of the Chaldeans and describes how Cronus appeared

to the king and told him that there was going to be a flood which would completely

destroy mankind. Xisuthrus was told to write down everything he could about all

things that existed and to bury it in Sippara. Like survivors in previous flood myths,

he was also told that he was to build a vessel or boat and take his family and

friends on to it along with everything they would need in order to survive. In

addition to all of this, Xisuthrus was supposed to put all the different kinds of

animals and birds that existed onto the vessel, as well and then he was told to

“trust himself fearlessly to the deep” (Budge “The Babylonian Story” Kindle PC

Location 188-200).

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Some time after the flood had subsided, Xisuthrus—like his predecessor

Uta-Napishtim and the future Noah—sent birds out to search for food and land, but

they could not find any and returned to the vessel He waited for a little while longer

and then sent them out again, but this time the birds returned to the vessel with

mud caked to their feet. After a waiting period of a few more days, Xisuthrus sent

the birds out one more time and they never returned, which led him to believe that

the flood waters had subsided completely and that there was now dry land

available to unload the vessel on (Budge “The Babylonian Story” loc. 202-214).

From the gradual progression of the flood story from 2800 B.C.E. to

approximately 320 B.C.E. it does seem to show that this is only an evolution of the

original that has happened naturally through time. Even though there are some

differences in a few of the details, this could have come about because of changes

in language, which gods were in favor, and preferences of the story teller or his

audience and not have anything to do with a completely different flood incident.

Since it appears that the flood myth has so far only been passed down from one

generation to the next of very similar cultures, all of which are in Babylonia, it would

seem reasonable to think that some of the next versions of this tale would be from

somewhere near Babylonia, but this is not the case. One of the oldest flood

legends after those of Babylonia actually comes from the ancient Chinese cultural

group known as the Miao.

The Chinese Miao can trace their origins back more than 4000 years to

around 1900-2000 BCE and have no written records, instead they have an oral

verse tradition that has been passed down which tells about the creation and a

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great deluge. One of their creation songs tells about how everything was either

made by the Heavenly King, Ziene or because of him. The song goes on to explain

that Thunder had a bad disposition and sent water to destroy the earth (see figure

2).

According to this story, only two people survived the flood and these were A-

Zie and his sister, who were saved because they had been warned and told to hide

within a giant gourd. After the flood destroyed all of mankind, A-Zie asked his sister

to become his wife, but she told him that she would only marry him if he passed

certain tests. A-Zie did not trust that these tests would end in his favor, so he

cheated and his sister agreed to marry him. They had one child who was born

hideously deformed, having no arms or legs. A-Zie slaughtered the infant in

disgust, cutting the baby into tiny pieces and flinging them over the edge of a hill.

The next morning, when they awoke, the pieces of the dead baby had all become

men and women, thus repopulating the earth with people (Dash 1-2).

What is so interesting about this flood legend is that no other cultural group

in China has such a myth as part of their creation legends. The reason for this is

probably because of the Miao’s lack of written records. This would have spared

their myths, legends, and tales from destruction when the Chinese First Emperor

Qin Shi Huang had all books burned under penalty of death during the middle years

of 200 B.C.E. (Qian 55). The books targeted by the Emperor included all books

including those on philosophy, history, and law with only a few exceptions

regarding agriculture, medicine, forestry, or divination, thus any religious myths

would have been destroyed (Qian 55). Because of this mass book burning, it is

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possible that any written records regarding a devastating flood or deluge were

destroyed and the information they contained was lost to time, leaving o nly the oral

song traditions of the Miao to carry on the legends.

From the 4000 year old oral Miao traditions the flood myths again take on a

rather predicted appearance in the timeline of Mesopotamia and that is the story of

a Sumerian hero named Ziusudu. The oldest written record that has been

discovered so far depicting the Great Deluge and Ziusudu’s part in it have been

dated back to approximately 1900 B.C.E (Budge “The Babylonian Legends” loc.

310-330).

. Very little of these tablets remain intact, but what can be read tells the

Sumerian version of the Creation, including the adventures of the hero Ziusudu and

describing the occurrence of a great flood (Budge “The Babylonian Legends” Kindle

PC Location 310-330). Other tablet fragments have also been found that tell the

Akkadian story of the Epic of Atrahasis and were written during the eighteenth

century B.C.E (Atac 7). In this tale, the gods are bothered by the noise that the first

humans are making. This prevents them from being able to sleep and they decide

to destroy mankind with a catastrophic flood (Atac 7).

These versions of the flood myth would correspond to a logical evolution and

passing down of much older flood stories and legends from Babylonia to the

Akkadian and Sumerian people. Some other proof that the legend of the flood was

being handed down from culture to culture and generation to generation is the story

about the Cave of Treasures which takes some of its material from the older

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Babylonian myths and shows some connections to the Hebrew tales (Budge “The

Babylonian Story” loc. 174-189).

According to this legend, Noah enters the Ark and closes the door right

before “the sluices of heaven were opened, and the deeps were rent asunder”

(Budge “The Babylonian Story” loc. 174-189). It goes on to explain that the great

ocean that encompassed the entire world spewed up its waters, the sluice gates of

Heaven opened ripping apart the depths of the earth (Budge “The Babylonian

Story” loc. 174-189). The tale continues with what can only appear to be

descriptions of a great hurricane or tsunami by stating that all of the world’s winds

were set loose causing severe whirlwinds and that the sea began to roar and spew

forth its waters in great floods (Budge “The Babylonian Story” loc. 174 -189). From

this version of the story, it becomes possible to see that not only was there

massive rains and storms occurring at the time of the flood, but there were also

extensive water events happening as well, thus giving credence to the possibility of

a massive hurricane of some form.

It is also from this legend that the flood account of Noah is derived and

further evolved into what is now written in the Torah and the Bible. The Hebrew

Bible or Old Testament was compiled sometime between the second century

B.C.E. and the second century C.E (Magonet 182). The ancestors of the Hebrews

were an Asiatic race known as the Hyksos, which invaded and established

themselves in the Middle East at some point between 1720 to 1580 B.C.E

(Magonet 183).

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According to the Bible, the Jewish people can trace their ancestry back to

Abraham who was from Ur, a Sumerian city in Mesopotamia, but who also spent

some of his life in Syria (Magonet 183). While the Hebrew Bible does have a long

history beginning with oral traditions before being written down, the actual period in

which the stories it contains may have occurred is a complete mystery ( Van Voorst

217). The date in which the Hebrew Bible was written has been calculated by some

historians as beginning about 1100 B.C.E., with the portion that tells about the

creation being written in two different parts of the Middle East and from differing

religious and political perspectives (Van Voorst 217). While the great attention

given to detail does help to produce what appears to be a flowing and seamless

account of the stories the Hebrew Bible contains, it is quite likely that what they

actually reflect are a merging of the legends and myths of different tribal groups

and cultures (Magonet 183).

It is from the Hebrew Bible that the Christian story concerning Noah and the

Great Flood, which appears in the Book of Genesis, is taken. While the story was

probably derived from the early Hebrew-like culture of 1500 B.C.E. and altered by

the Jewish people around 300 B.C.E., it was not until the first century A.D. that it

became the well-known story of Noah and the Ark that most Christians are taught

today (Van Voorst 217).

According to the Bible, God’s sons mated with man’s daughters and

produced the ancient heroes of myth and legend or as the Bible calls them the

“mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (King James Version Super Giant

Print Reference Bible, Gen. 6.4). God looked down upon the earth and saw how

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evil and wicked mankind had become, so He decided that the world must be

cleansed of all that was bad, except Noah, who “found grace in the eyes of the

Lord” (Gen. 6.5-8). God goes on to tell Noah that he must construct a huge boat

called an ark and put in it a selection of all the animals of the earth, as well as his

own family (Gen. 6.13-19). This was so that they would all be spared obliteration by

the flood that God was going to send as a means of cleansing the earth of its evil

and would be able to repopulate the world (see figure 3).

The Bible explains that the flood started with forty days and nights of

continuous rain which caused the entire world and even the mountains to be

completely covered with water (Gen. 7.4; 7.19-20). While it does not specifically

state where all of the water came from in previous verses besides the rain, later

verses tell what stops producing water when God puts an end to the flooding.

According to two verses in Chapter 8 of Genesis, not only did the heavens stop

raining, but also the fountains of the deep stopped producing water and the earth

drained for one hundred and fifty days (Gen. 8.2-3).

Noah waits for a period of time before trying to find out if there is dry land

available so that he can unload the ark and make his offerings to God, but then

starts sending out birds (Gen. 8.7-12). Like some of the previous flood myths, the

birds that Noah sends out the first time come back because there is no dry land;

the second time the bird returned with a leaf; and the final time the bird did not

return at all (Gen. 8.7-12).

It is possible that the legend of a great flood is a myth from an ancient

culture that was only passed down to similar or nearby civilizations, changing

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somewhat to in order to fit into each successive culture’s religious beliefs. But, this

is probably not likely in every situation as can be seen by the Chinese Miao flood

myth, since it is not probable that the Miao actually had contact with any of the

ancient Mesopotamian cultures whose writing we have discovered so far. What is

more likely is that at some point in the history of mankind a great and catastrophic

flood-type event did occur and that this incident had a profound effect on cultures ,

religions and civilizations far removed from the ancient Middle East.

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(Fig. 1). Sumerian Sun God

in a Dragon Boat (“Sun God”)

(Fig. 2). Chinese Hmong/Miao flood

myth (Thao).

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(Fig. 3). The Great Flood/Deluge -

The Sistine Ceiling (Michelangelo)

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Works Cited

Atac, Mehmet-Ali. “’Angelology’ in The Epic of Gilgamesh” Journal of Ancient Near

Eastern Religions (2004): 4-27. PDF file.

Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Babylonian Legends of the Creation. Montclair, New

Jersey: Distributed Proofreaders Foundation, 2006. Kindle PC file.

---. The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh.

Montclair, New Jersey: Distributed Proofreaders Foundation, 2004. Kindle

PC file.

Dash. Chinese Creation and Flood Myth. University of Pittsburgh, 07 April 2003.

Web. 10 Dec 2010.

King James Version Super Giant Print Reference Bible. Nashville: Broadman

and Holman, 1996. Print.

Magonet, Jonathan. “Judaism.” The Cambridge Illustrated History of Religions. Ed.

John Bowker. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. 180-213. Print.

Michelangelo. The Great Flood/Deluge – The Sistine Ceiling. 1508-1512. The

Vatican, Vatican City.

Qian, Sima. Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty. Trans. Burton Watson.

Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. Print.

Sun God in Dragon Boat. 2330 B.C.E. Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago.

Thao, Cy. The Hmong Migration Painting #2. 2000-2001. The Minneapolis

Institute of Arts, Minneapolis.

Van Voorst, Robert E. Anthology of World Scriptures. Boston: Wadsworth

Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

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