The story of a Great Flood sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution is a widespread theme among many cultural myths. Though it is best known by the Biblical story of Noah, it is also well known in other versions, such as stories of Matsya in the Hindu Puranas, Deucalion in Greek mythology and Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh. A large percentage of the world's cultures past and present have stories of a "great flood" that devastated an earlier civilization, which has led to theories that they correspond to an actual (pre)historical event.
The Flood. The story of the Flood is a familiar one, as we see in Genesis and Popol Vuh. The Gilgamesh flood myth is a deluge story in the Epic of Gilgamesh. It was added as Tablet XI to the ten original tablets of the Gilgamesh Epic by an editor who copied or altered parts of the flood story from the Epic of Atrahasis.
The earliest surviving reference to the Flood goes back to 1900 B.C. Why is it brought in here? Why do the gods bring on the Flood? Is any reason given?
What does it tell us about the nature of history and the relation of the gods to humanity?
Noah's flood Vs The epic of Gilgamesh.
