Comparing Noah And The Flood And The Epic Of Gilgamesh

In both Gilgamesh and Noah and the Flood, man’s wickedness leads to death, destruction, and rebirth all caused by billions of gallons of water sweeping the earth’s surface. The flood in both stories destroys most of mankind. The floods represent rebirth and a new beginning for mankind, as well as the gods and God’s wrath. In Gilgamesh the gods decide to destroy mankind by flooding the earth for six days and nights. Utnapishtim is chosen to build a boat in order to restart mankind after the flood. In the Bible God also decides to flood the earth due to the increase in wickedness. God chooses Noah to build an ark and store seven pairs of every clean animal and two of every other kind of animal on it

The general idea of both stories follows the idea of punishment for one’s unacceptable behavior. In the first flood myth, the idea of four monsters morphing into one large beast is presented. This large beast is supposed to represent society as a whole. When society adapts malicious intentions and negative traits, a higher being decides whether or not a “cleansing” of society is necessary to improve the planet. Similarly, the story of Genesis follows the idea that humans have begun to behave in an irrational and shameful manner, so God creates a flood to punish the humans who had behaved poorly. “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.”

The tales of Gilgamesh and Noah are as memorable as they are incredible. They materialize the beliefs of two cultures telling very similar yet very different stories. Gilgamesh, a mighty warrior overwhelmed by grief of his passed friend, went an an epic adventure to find the secret of eternal life. Noah, a morally right and genuine man saved the future of the entire human race and every animal through great endurance and faith. The personality traits, reasons for journeys, and stories of origin of each myth have a plentiful amount of both commonalities and diversities.

In each of these stories there was a great flood. In the flood story in the Bible the purpose was to kill all air-breathing animals and all the sinful humans that lived on land. In the Bible Noah was told to build an ark and take his family and two of each animal with him. The flood story in the Epic of Gilgamesh had a very similar reason but the Gods were meaning to kill human and animal. Ea tells Utnapishtim to build a boat and take only himself and two of each animal, but he ends up taking his workers, family, and a lot of things that he was not suppose to. In the Navajo flood story the flood was not to kill all of mankind, it was to get the sea monsters baby back. Unlike the first

When comparing the Genesis Flood narrative to that of the Gilgamesh Flood narrative, there are many similar symbols throughout both narratives. In the Genesis version of the flood, God had chosen to send the flood because the humankind he had created was evil and he saw their wickedness. “For my par, I am going to bring a good of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die” (Genesis 6:18). This excerpt from the narrative shows that one God had chosen to send the flood to destroy all humankind that he had originally created. Just like this narrative, the Gilgamesh Flood narrative, a God by the name of Enlil orders a flood to destroy humankind. “Decided that the great gods should make a flood” (Gilgamesh XI 109). This quote states how that a flood was to be sent for the city of Shuruppak. In the Genesis narrative there was a righteous man by the name of Noah that was chosen to build the ark. “Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with a pitch” (Genesis

The flood story that is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh has the same principle as the story of Noah told in the book of Genesis in the Bible, but there are some major differences. In the epic,

The Hebrew Flood story of Noah and his obligation to preserve man kind after God had punished all living creatures for their inequities parallels The Epic of Gilgamesh in several ways. Even though these two compilations are passed on orally at different times in history the similarities and differences invoke deliberation when these stories are compared. Numerous underlining themes are illustrated throughout each story. Humans are guilty of transgressions and must be punished, God or Gods send a flood as punishment to destroy this evil race, a person is selected by the gods to build a craft that will withstand the flood and allow this person to create a new race. An

The Epic of Gilgamesh: story of the flood is a story telling of the time when the Sumerian gods flood the Earth hoping to get rid of the annoying humans. Throughout the story, Utnapishtim would be the preserver of life; by building a ship that would carry two of every animal. In Genesis 6-9, the Hebrew God chose to cleanse humanity by flooding the Earth, and in this story Noah would be instructed by the Lord to build an ark and put two of every animal with this ark. These stories of the flood have many differences, one major difference being that The Epic of Gilgamesh is a fictional story of Sumerian gods, while Genesis is a religious book with in the Bible. Although there are many differences between Genesis’ and Gilgamesh’s story of the flood, there are significantly more similarities linking the two stories.

Both Gilgamesh and Noah build arks because of an impending devastation of the earth by rain and flooding. Shamash had warned, "In the evening, when the rider of the storm sends down the destroying rain, enter the boat and batten her down." (p. 147) God told Noah, "For in seven days' time I will make it rain upon the earth, forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out from the earth all existence that I created." (p. 172) Both boats were built to detailed specifications in order to withstand the torrents of rain. Following the cessation of the rain, both Noah and Gilgamesh send out birds as a test of the recession of the waters so that they can safely exit onto the land. Gilgamesh sends first a dove, then a swallow, and then a raven, who, "…saw that the waters had retreated, she ate, she flew around, she cawed, and she did not come back." (p. 148) Noah first sends a raven which, "…went to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. " (p. 173) He then sends a dove that returns to the ark having found no resting place. After seven days Noah again sends the dove which returns with an olive leaf in its bill. "Then Noah knew that the waters had decreased on the earth. He waited still another seven days and sent the dove forth; and it did not return to him any more." (p. 173) Both Noah and Gilgamesh, immediately upon leaving their boats, make a sacrifice. Gilgamesh says, "Then I threw everything open to

     Although the plots are similar, the details included in the stories have numerous differences. To begin, when Noah receives warning about the flood and directions about how to build and fill the ark, he receives the message directly from God. When Utnapishtim receives his message, Ea indirectly sends it through a dream.

The Epic of Gilgamesh and Noah and the Ark are two very famous stories that contain a variety of similarities and differences. The story of Gilgamesh, dating back to the third millennium B.C.E., tells the story of the hero, Gilgamesh, trying to find a way to become immortal after the death of his friend, Enkidu. He confides in and listens to the story of Utnapishtim, a former mortal whom the gods granted eternal life to after he was chosen to survive the wrath that was brought down upon mankind. The story of Noah, which dates back to around 2349 B.C.E.-2348 B.C.E., tells the story of a man named Noah who was spared by God after He also exterminated mankind. There are many comparisons for these stories, including the floods used for human punishment, the release of birds once the flood ended, and the underlying fact that both protagonists, Utnapishtim and Noah, were righteous heroes. However, these stories do contain differences, such as the dates of when the stories took place, the length of both the floods, and the landing location of their boats.

Both the story of “Noah and the Flood” in the book of Genesis in The Hebrew Bible and the flood story in The Epic of Gilgamesh detail a grand flood in which a man saved life from extinction by building an ark, earning fame and immortality in some form. The theme of completing this grand task for a moral purpose holds true to both stories, but the depiction and actions of the divine and mortal characters in the stories contain different similarities and differences.

Although the stories are similar they are not identical. In Genesis God sent the Flood to destroy humankind because of man’s wickedness. Unlike The Gilgamesha where the reason was never said however the sender of the flood was a secret council of gods the idea was brought up by Enlil , the god of earth wind and air. God favored Noah because he was a righteous man therefore, he was chosen to build the ark that was three hundred cubits long, fifty cubit wide, and thirty cubits high, about three stories. Utnapishtim was chosen out of the cleverness of Ea, the god of wisdom and crafts. God came directly to Noah to tell him about the Flood where as Ea was swore to secrecy so “he repeated their plans to the reed fence” so he would no break the oath to the group. The boat Utnapishtim was directed to build was a rectangle shaped measuring one acre and about 6 stories high. When the floor came in Gilgamesh it was only rainwater however the Flood in Genesis was rain water as well as ground water. Both floods did indeed wipe out all of humankind but the did not last equal as long. After the flood Utnapishtim was gifted the gift of eternal life where as Noah was to multiply and have rule over the animals.

More differences between the stories include only minor details. Noah only invited his family and the animals onboard, but Ut-Napishtim invited additional people such as a pilot and some skilled workmen. Noah's ark landed on Mt. Ararat, but Ut-Napishtim's ark landed on Mt. Nisir, which is only a few 100 miles away. In the Babylonian account, the water came only in the form of rain; however in the Biblical account water came from beneath the earth in addition to rain. Noah released a raven once and a dove twice, but Ut-Napishtim released three different birds; a dove, a swallow, and a raven (Comparison). Perhaps the differences were intentional in order to make the two stories more unique in their own way. Perhaps the differences are simply two different people's renditioning of the same story.

For both stories a specific person was picked out to survive the flood by building an arc but the Gods went about it in different ways.