Essay about The Flood of Noah and Gilgamesh

Flood Comparison: Gilgamesh vs Genesis Many ancient text often incorporate the usage of floods as a symbol of rebirth, life, and growth. The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis are no different. Both works implement floods into their storyline; however, the way the floods are utilized highlights differences and similarities in ideology, origin, and culture.

In Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim is chosen to survive the great flood because he too is faithful to his lord, God Ea. They each prepare for their journey by building a large boat, and bringing with them two of every animal and their families. Noah’s ark is thirty cubits high, and three stories while Utnapishtim’s boat is two hundred feet tall, with six

Thesis: The flood stories in the Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis have many points of agreement, suggesting that they are somehow connected. Yet, there are also many differences. This term paper will identify similarities and differences in both.

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

In Thomas C. Foster’s book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster discusses that in every piece of literature, there is no originality. Each literary work is connected in one way or another to a different literary work, making “one story”. Having striking similarities, but being written 2000 years apart, the flood stories of Utnapishtim in The Epic of Gilgamesh and Noah in the Bible back up what Foster says. Gilgamesh in an old epic about a man named Gilgamesh and his quest for immortality, while Noah is a not quite so old story of when God flooded the earth. Each story is unique in its own way with having slight differences, perhaps caused by the extensive time period between each, but the similarities are

In both, a great storm floods and destroys everything and everyone except the passengers and animals onboard the boat/ark. In Gilgamesh, the flood and all its destruction make the gods cry "The great gods of heaven and hell wept" (Gilgamesh 13). The rains last only for 6 days and 6 nights in Gilgamesh and they end up landing on Nisir. The boat stays on the mountain for seven days. The number 7 is a mystical number symbolizing when gods and men interacted. In Genesis, God with his divine power sends down a flood. "After seven days, the waters of the flood were upon the earth" (Gen.7:10). Again, the number 7 is used for the interaction between Noah and God. The rain lasts a more significant amount of time in Genesis then in Gilgamesh. The rain was "upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (Gen. 7:12). As the water calmed down and receded, the ark landed on Mt. Ararat. In both stories, you have a similar storyline, as you can see, smaller details are much more

Many people know Noah but many don’t know Utnapishtim. Both of them survived the same great flood but each is told differently. Telling the purpose of the flood, how long the flood lasted, and the reaction of God/gods. This will the differences of both stories.

There’s only a couple instances that make any real distinctions regarding the two stories. For example, both Gilgamesh and Noah are upstanding individuals that have no business sharing the same soil with the scum of the earth because they, unlike the scum, have found favor with the “Divine.” The gods/God (in the Hebrew there is one God, whereas in Gilgamesh there are multiple gods) promised to send a flood to cleanse the earth. but instructed both Noah and Gilgamesh to build a vessel which was to be their one-way ticket out of drowntown. The dimensions on their boats were considerably different. If Gilgamesh’s had more width to it, it would’ve been more rectangular like Noah’s. Noah got strung out at sea longer due to the

In the book of Genesis, people worshiped one God and believed him to be the creator of all things. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, they worshiped many Goddesses and one creator. Noah was granted guideline about the surge directly from God, through Utnapishtim and got them in an indirect way within a dream. In the Bible, it showered for forty days and forty nights, but in the Epic of Gilgamesh, it drizzled for six days and six evenings.

Many people all over the world have read the famous story of Genesis; after all it is one of the most widely read books in the world. The main concept from the Gilgamesh flood story and the Genesis flood story is the biggest similarity of the two. They also differ in smaller details in the events that take place. The stories are particularly the same, but when comparing the details within, the two flood stories highly stories highly differ.

The similarity between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Story of the Flood from The Book of Genesis is an interesting one. Considering how in both stories the Gods commanded one human to construct boats that could survive massive floods, to how both characters had seven days to build their respective boats before the floods came, to even how the dove in each story returned but the raven did not. I think one of the possibilities could be that they are the same story, merely told at a different time, some of the texts are even nearly the same, such as the Lord said in The Story of the Flood “ I will blot out from the earth the men whom I created-men together with beasts and creepy things, and birds of the sky”. Or Enlil’s quote from the Epic of Gilgamesh “the uproar of

The Epic of Gilgamesh, is a story that dates back to the 7th millennium, that describes an ancient flood. In about the 10th century B.C.E. the Hebrew Bible recorded their version of The Epic of Gilgamesh.The Epic of Gilgamesh and the story of Noah share many similarities. But one difference is that one story is polytheistic and the other is in monotheistic.

Most people know about the story of Noah and the Great Flood, but little do they know how it resembels Gilgamesh and their Great Flood. These stories are so mind bending how much they are so similar. The biggest similarity between both of these stories is the main theme. They also have differences. They differ greatly in the small details of events that occur. In both of the stories the number of days that the events occur are different, but the same basic events take place. Along with many more similarities and differences. Gilgamesh and Noah’s stories are very much the same, but when comparing the small details within the stories you can tell that they are very different.

Noah and Utnapishtim were both righteous men. They were both told to build a boat and they both complained about it. The flood was a result of man’s wickedness. Utnapishtim said “the world teemed, the people multiplies, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the clamour”. The noise was so harsh that they agreed to “exterminate mankind”. Genesis states that “the earth was filled with violence” and that the world was “corrupt” . So God told Noah that “the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth”. The difference here is the way that the way the gods/Gods got the idea to destroy the Earth. Since man was sinning and making all

The story in the Bible about the Garden of Eden in Genesis and the description of Enkindu’s transition from living in nature to culture and civilization has many similarities. In