The great Flood: the story from the Bible. The Great Flood: mythological story about a great destruction that once befell the earth.
There are several variants; the Biblical version is the most famous. The possibility that there is a historical event behind the story (a local flood in southern Babylonia in the twenty-eighth century BCE) can not be excluded. Introduction The famous story about the Great Flood is best known from the Bible (Genesis 6-9). It has always been known that there were similar stories from Greece and Rome (like the ones by Apollodorus, Ovid, and Hyginus), but in the nineteenth century, several texts from ancient Iraq were added. Genesis 6-9 and its Source This can best be recognized when we scrutinize the Biblical Flood Story and reconstruct the original text. As early as the eighteenth century, it was proposed that the author of the Torah had used at least two sources. A possible, perhaps even likely, reconstruction of these two sources can be found here. General Pattern Differences. List of flood myths. The Flood myths or deluge myths are, taken collectively, stories surviving from human prehistory, of a great flood which has generally been taken as mythical.
These legends depict global flooding, usually sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution. Flood stories are common across a wide range of cultures, extending back into prehistory. Below is a list of some flood stories from around the world and is in no way exhaustive. West Asia and Europe[edit] Ancient Near East[edit] Sumerian[edit] Sumerian creation myth Babylonian (Epic of Gilgamesh)[edit] Gilgamesh flood myth Abrahamic religions (Noah's flood)[edit] The Deluge, c. 1896-1902, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot Classical Antiquity[edit] Ancient Greek flood myths Medieval Europe[edit] Germanic[edit] The Louse and the Flea Irish[edit] Lebor Gabála Érenn - Cessair Modern era folklore[edit] Finnish[edit] Finnish flood myth Africa[edit] Once upon a time the rivers began to flood. Asia-Pacific[edit] India[edit] Nama Sumé. Flood myth. "The Deluge", frontispiece to Gustave Doré's illustrated edition of the Bible.
Based on the story of Noah's Ark, this shows humans and a tiger doomed by the flood futilely attempting to save their children and cubs. A flood myth or deluge myth is a symbolic narrative in which a great flood is sent by a deity, or deities, to destroy civilization in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeval waters found in certain creation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for the cleansing of humanity, in preparation for rebirth. Mythologies[edit] The Mesopotamian flood stories concern the epics of Ziusudra, Gilgamesh, and Atrahasis. In the Genesis flood narrative, Yahweh decides to flood the earth because of the depth of the sinful state of mankind. Claims of historicity[edit] Nanabozho in Ojibwe flood story from an illustration by R.C.
See also[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ Leeming, David (2004).