Babylonian and Assyrian are two dialects of the Akkadian, and both contain a flood account. While there are differences between the original Sumerian and later Babylonian and Assyrian flood accounts, many of the similarities are strikingly close to the Genesis flood account.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is contained on twelve large tablets, and since the original discovery, it has been found on others, as well as having been translated into other early languages. The Epic was composed in the form of a poem. The main figure is Gilgamesh, who actually may have been an historical person.
Indeed, after Gilgamesh, the kings lived a normal life span as compared with today. The story starts by introducing the deeds of the hero Gilgamesh.
He was one who had great knowledge and wisdom, and preserved information of the days before the flood. Gilgamesh wrote on tablets of stone all that he had done, including building the city walls of Uruk and its temple for Eanna. He was an oppressive ruler, however, which caused his subjects to cry out to the "gods" to create a nemesis to cause Gilgamesh strife.
After one fight, this nemesis—Enkidu—became best friends with Gilgamesh. The two set off to win fame by going on many dangerous adventures in which Enkidu is eventually killed. Gilgamesh then determines to find immortality since he now fears death.
It is upon this search that he meets Utnapishtim, the character most like the Biblical Noah. In brief, Utnapishtim had become immortal after building a ship to weather the Great Deluge that destroyed mankind.
He brought all of his relatives and all species of creatures aboard the vessel. Utnapishtim released birds to find land, and the ship landed upon a mountain after the flood.
The story then ends with tales of Enkidu's visit to the underworld. The table below presents a comparison of the main aspects of the two accounts of the flood as presented in the Book of Genesis and in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Some comments need to be made about the comparisons in the table. Gilgamesh tried to stay awake for a week, but of course he eventually slumbers, and then sleeps for days. If mortal sleep cannot be avoided, how can eternal sleep be escaped? Gilgamesh ties weights to his feet, sinks beneath the sea, finds the plant and returns to the surface, but while he rests after the almost successful quest, a serpent comes and takes away the magical plant, and now Gilgamesh has no hope.
He must the return to his home city of Uruk, a sadder and wiser man. But the story ends with him seeing the high and magnificent walls and he sees that while every man must die, his great walled city will outlive him.
Mankind might find immortality in their ongoing civilization, even if every individual man will not. Unlike the Greek story of Deucalion, we have here some real resemblances to the biblical Noah story. In both Gilgamesh and Genesis, we have angry deities who first resolve to kill all mankind, then advise a devout man to build a boat and fill it with animals; birds are sent out from the boat to see if it is safe; a sacrifice is offered after the flood; and divine powers promise never to do it again.
Yet there are differences, too. Noah was not granted immortality like Utnapishtim. In the recounting of the tale in Genesis, it is an all-knowing but unknown voice that relates the tale, and not the pilot of the ark as in Gilgamesh.
Genesis has no hero king on a quest and it reflects a monotheistic world rather than a polytheistic council of the gods. Yet most tantalizing, is that naughty serpent in Gilgamesh who takes the life-giving plant away from Gilgamesh, much like the fast-talking serpent in Genesis.
Yet both stories make a similar important point in each of their cultures. Immortality is not for men, and death cannot be escaped.
The sorrows of this life, be they floods or other disasters, must be met with resolve. Perhaps the most important message, as Noah and Utnapishtim would advise us, is that the wise will listen to their creators if they wish to find hope in the uncertain future. Previously Gilgamesh has bathed after all his major actions a sign of physical and spiritual rejuvenation , and the flood takes this idea to a much larger scale. Once again the most frightening images in the Epic are of wild, uncontrollable nature, usually embodied as storms or natural disasters.
For six days and nights, the storm rages on. At dawn of the seventh day, the storm ends and the sea becomes calm. Utnapishtim opens the hatch of his boat and sees an endless sea around him. But he also sees a mountain rising out of the water fourteen leagues away.
For six days and six nights the boat sails toward the mountain, and on the seventh dawn Utnapishtim releases a dove into the air. The dove returns, having not found a place to land. Then Utnapishtim releases a swallow, and it too returns. But then Utnapishtim releases a raven that eats and keeps flying, and does not come back.
Utnapishtim then opens all the hatches and makes an offering of cane, cedar, and myrtle on a mountaintop in a heated cauldron. The details again resemble those of the story of Noah. Like Noah with the dove, Utnapishtim sends out birds to figure out whether there is land nearby. Ishtar was a destructive, petty goddess in dealing with Gilgamesh, but here she appears as a friend to mankind.
Ishtar swears that she will remember the flood and all that happened. She tells all the gods but Enlil , who was responsible for the flood, to gather around the offering. Ea then criticizes Enlil for trying to destroy mankind. Now Enlil has overstepped his bounds. Though as a god he is more powerful than mere mortals, the other gods judged that he did not respect his place in the universe, which is to be involved in human affairs but not presume to destroy all of mankind.
He then wishes that a lion, or wolf, or famine had destroyed mankind, rather than the flood. Pride and the Gods.
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