"The Deluge", frontispiece toGustave Doré's illustrated edition of theBible
Aflood myth or adeluge myth is amyth in which a greatflood, usually sent by adeity or deities, destroyscivilization, often in an act ofdivine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of thesemyths and the primevalcosmic ocean which appear in certaincreation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for thecleansing of humanity, for example in preparation forrebirth. Most flood myths also contain aculture hero, who "represents the human craving for life".[1]
The oldest known narrative of adivinely inititated flood originates from theSumerian culture inMesopotamia, among others expressed in the AkkadianAtra-Hasis epic, which dates to the 18th century BCE. Comparable flood narratives appear in many other cultures, including the biblicalGenesis flood narrative,manvantara-sandhya in Hinduism,Deucalion in Greek mythology, and in indigenous North American cultures.
The Sumerian Genesis describes theAbzu as a cosmic freshwater ocean that surrounds our planet (created in its midst) above and below, so the sketch shows the same asBabylon's map, now in sideview. A bubble of breathable air clings to Earth, with the Abzu as roof like on Athrahasis' lifeboat. Further details, such as Utnapishtim's (Athrahasis) islandDilmun, are taken from theEpic of Gilgamesh. An important technical detail are thesluices built into sky. Through them, the gods, skilled in construction of irrigation systems, supplied their Garden of Eden with rain, but also unleashed the Flood.
TheEpic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100–1800 BCE) references an early flood myth.[2][a] This story has some parallels to the 18th century BCE epicAtra-Hasis,[b] in which a group of Sumerian gods begins to transform Mesopotamia into a fertile garden landscape. The hard labour leads to a revolt of the 'lower' gods, and to pacify it, a first pair of humans was created to do the work in place of the gods. After a few thousand years, however, the humans have multiplied to such an extent that they disturb the gods with their noise, soEnlil, the highest of all gods, decides to unleash a mighty flood to wipe out humanity. The rebellious godEnki secretly warns his priest Athrahasis of the impending catastrophe. Giving him detailed instructions for building a boat,[5] Athrahasis and his family survive, ensuring continued existence of artificially constructed mankind.[6][failed verification] In theGilgamesh flood myth, the flood is survived by the manUtnapishtim.[7] The similarEridu Genesis flood myth (c. 1600 BCE),[8] known from tablets found in the ruins ofNippur in the late 1890s, was translated by assyriologistArno Poebel.[9]
Academic Yi Samuel Chen[10] analyzed various texts from theEarly Dynastic III Period through to the Old Babylonian Period, and argues that the flood narrative was only added in texts written during theOld Babylonian Period. With regard to theSumerian King List, observations by experts have always indicated that the portion of the Sumerian King List talking about before the flood differs stylistically from the King List Proper. Old Babylonian copies tend to represent a tradition of before the flood apart from the actual King List, whereas theUr III copy of the King List and the duplicate from the Brockmon collection indicate that the King List Proper once existed independent of mention of the flood and the tradition of before the flood. Chen gives evidence to prove that the section of before the flood and references to the flood in the Sumerian King List were all later additions added in during the Old Babylonian Period, as the Sumerian King List went through updates and edits. The flood as a watershed in early history of the world was probably a new historiographical concept emerging in the Mesopotamian literary traditions during the Old Babylonian Period, as evident by the fact that the flood motif did not show up in the Ur III copy and that earliest chronographical sources related to the flood show up in the Old Babylonian Period. Chen also concludes that the name of "Ziusudra" as a flood hero and the idea of the flood hinted at by that name in the Old Babylonian Version of "Instructions of Shuruppak" are only developments during that Old Babylonian Period, when also the didactic text was updated with information from the burgeoning Antediluvian Tradition.[11]
In the HebrewGenesis (9th century BCE or5th century BCE), the godYahweh, who had created man out of the dust of the ground,[12]decides to flood the earth because of the corrupted state of mankind. Yahweh then gives the protagonist,Noah, instructions to buildan ark in order to preserve human and animal life. When the ark is completed, Noah, his family, and representatives of all the animals of the earth are called upon to enter the ark. When the destructive flood begins, all life outside of the ark perishes. After the waters recede, all those aboard the ark disembark and have Yahweh's promise that he will never judge the earth with a flood again. Yahweh causes arainbow to form as the sign of this promise.[13]
InHinduism, texts such as theSatapatha Brahmana[14] (c. 6th century BCE)[15] and thePuranas contain the story of a great flood,manvantara-sandhya,[16][17] wherein theMatsyaAvatar ofVishnu warns the first man, Manu, of the impending flood, and also advises him to build a giant boat.[18][19][20] InZoroastrianMazdaism,Ahriman tries to destroy the world with a drought, whichMithra ends by shooting an arrow into a rock, from which a flood springs; one man survives in an ark with his cattle.[21] German academic Norbert Oettinger argues that the story ofYima and theVara was originally a flood myth, and the harsh winter was added in due to the dry nature of Eastern Iran, as flood myths did not have as much of an effect as harsh winters. He has argued that the mention of melted water flowing in Videvdad 2.24 is a remnant of the flood myth, and mentions that the Indian flood myths originally had their protagonist as Yama, but it was changed to Manu later.[22]
InPlato'sTimaeus, writtenc. 360 BCE,Timaeus describes a flood myth similar to the earlier versions. In it, theBronze race of humans angers the high godZeus with their constant warring. Zeus decides to punish humanity with a flood. TheTitanPrometheus, who had created humans from clay, tells the secret plan to his sonDeucalion, advising him to build an ark in order to be saved. After nine nights and days, the water starts receding and the ark lands on a mountain.[23]
TheCheyenne, a North AmericanGreat Plains tribe, has a tradition where a flood altered the course of their history, perhaps occurring in theMissouri River Valley.[24] TheBlackfeet, another Great Plains tribe, have a story called "Language on a Mountain". In this story the deity Napi, referred to as Old Man, tells the story of a great flood that swept through the land. After the flood Old Man made the water different colors. He gathered the people on top of a large mountain where he gave them water of different colors. Old Man then told the people to drink the water, then speak, and so they did.[25] Everyone was speaking a different language except those who received the black water; they were speaking the same language, and they consisted of thebands of the Blackfoot, thePiegan (Apatohsipikuni and Amskapipikuni), theSiksika, and theBlood (Kainai). This was said to have taken place in the highest mountain in the Montanareservation.[25]
TheHopi, southwestern United States, have a tradition of a flood that nearly reached the tops of the mountains, and otherPuebloans have similar legends.[26]
Floods in the wake of theLast Glacial Period (c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago) are speculated to have inspired myths that survive to this day.[27] Plato's allegory ofAtlantis is set over 9,000 years before his time, leading some scholars to suggest that aStone Age society which lived close to theMediterranean Sea could have been wiped out by the risingsea level, an event which could have served as the basis for the story.[28]
Archaeologist Bruce Masse stated that some of the narratives of a great flood discovered in many cultures around the world may be linked to an oceanic asteroid impact that occurred between Africa andAntarctica, around the time of asolar eclipse, that caused atsunami.[29] Among the 175 myths he analyzed were a Hindu myth speaking of an alignment of the five planets at the time, and aChinese story linking the flood to the end of the reign of EmpressNu Wa. Fourteen flood myths refer to a fullsolar eclipse.[30] According to Masse, these indications point to the date May 10, 2807 BCE.[31] His hypothesis suggests that ameteor orcomet crashed into theIndian Ocean around 3000–2800 BCE, and created the 18-mile (29 km) underseaBurckle Crater andFenambosy Chevron, and generated a giant tsunami that flooded coastal lands.[32]
Mesopotamia, like other early sites ofriverine civilisation, was flood-prone; and for those experiencing valley-wide inundations, flooding could destroy the whole of their known world.[33] According to the excavation report of the 1930s excavation atShuruppak (modern Tell Fara, Iraq), theJemdet Nasr andEarly Dynastic layers at the site were separated by a 60-cm yellow layer of alluvial sand and clay, indicating a flood,[34] like that created byriver avulsion, a process common in theTigris–Euphrates river system. Similar layers have been recorded at other sites as well, all dating to different periods, which would be consistent with the nature of river avulsions.[35]Shuruppak in Mesopotamian legend was the city ofUta-napishtim, the king who built a boat to survive the coming flood. The alluvial layer dates from around 2900 BC.[36]
The geography of the Mesopotamian area changed considerably with the filling of thePersian Gulf after sea waters rose following the last glacial period. Global sea levels were about 120 m (390 ft) lower around 18,000 BP and rose until 8,000 BP when they reached current levels, which are now an average 40 m (130 ft) above the floor of the Gulf, which was a huge (800 km × 200 km, 500 mi × 120 mi) low-lying and fertile region in Mesopotamia, in which human habitation is thought to have been strong around theGulf Oasis for 100,000 years. A sudden increase in settlements above the present-day water level is recorded at around 7,500 BP.[37][38]
The historianAdrienne Mayor theorizes that global flood stories may have been inspired by ancient observations of seashells and fish fossils in inland and mountain areas. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans all documented the discovery of such remains in such locations; the Greeks hypothesized that Earth had been covered by water on several occasions, citing the seashells and fish fossils found on mountain tops as evidence of this idea.[39]
Speculation regarding theDeucalion myth has postulated a large tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea, caused by theThera eruption (with an approximate geological date of 1630–1600 BCE), as the myth's historical basis. Although the tsunami hit the SouthAegean Sea andCrete, it did not affect cities in the mainland of Greece, such asMycenae,Athens, andThebes, which continued to prosper, indicating that it had a local rather than a region-wide effect.[40]
TheBlack Sea deluge hypothesis offers a controversial account of long-term flooding; the hypothesis argues for a catastrophic irruption of water about 5600 BCE from the Mediterranean Sea into theBlack Sea basin. This has become the subject of considerable discussion.[41][42] TheYounger Dryas impact hypothesis offered another proposed natural explanation for flood myths. However, this idea was similarly controversial[43] and has been refuted.[44]
The earliest known hypothesis about a comet that had a widespread effect on human populations can be attributed toEdmond Halley, who in 1694 suggested thata worldwide flood had been the result of a near-miss by a comet.[46][47] The issue was taken up in more detail byWilliam Whiston, a protégé of and popularizer of the theories ofIsaac Newton, who argued in his bookA New Theory of the Earth (1696) that a comet encounter was the probable cause of the Biblical Flood ofNoah in 2342 BCE.[48] Whiston also attributed the origins of the atmosphere and other significant changes in the Earth to the effects of comets.[49]
InPierre-Simon Laplace's bookExposition Du Systême Du Monde (The System of the World), first published in 1796, he stated:[50]
[T]he greater part of men and animals drowned in a universal deluge, or destroyed by the violence of the shock given to the terrestrial globe; whole species destroyed; all the monuments of human industry reversed: such are the disasters which a shock of a comet would produce.[51][52]
A similar hypothesis was popularized by Minnesota congressman andpseudoarchaeology writerIgnatius L. Donnelly in his bookRagnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel (1883), which followed his better-known bookAtlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882). InRagnarok, Donnelly argued that an enormous comet struck the Earth around 6,000 BCE to 9,000 BCE,[c] destroying an advanced civilization on the "lost continent" ofAtlantis. Donnelly, following others before him, attributed the Biblical Flood to this event, which he hypothesized had also resulted in catastrophic fires andclimate change. Shortly after the publication ofRagnarok, one commenter noted, "Whiston ascertained that the deluge of Noah came from a comet's tail; but Donnelly has outdone Whiston, for he has shown that our planet has suffered not only from a cometary flood, but from cometary fire, and a cometary rain of stones."[55]
^Andrew R. George points out that the modern version of theEpic of Gilgamesh was compiled bySîn-lēqi-unninni, who lived sometime between 1300 and 1000 BC.[3]
^Black, Jeremy A.; Cunningham, Graham;Robson, Eleanor; Zólyomi, Gábor, eds. (2004). "The Flood story".The Literature of Ancient Sumer. Oxford: Oxford University Press (published 2006). p. 212.ISBN978-0-19-929633-0. Retrieved5 February 2021.The Sumerian story of the universal Flood [...] resembles the longer version preserved in the Babylonian poemsAtra-hasis and theEpic of Gilgamesh.
^Black, Jeremy; Cunningham, G.; Robson, E.; Zolyomi, G.The Literature of Ancient Sumer, Oxford University Press, 2004.ISBN0-19-926311-6[full citation needed]
^Gupta, S. V. (2010)."Ch. 1.2.4 Time Measurements". In Hull, Robert;Osgood, Richard M. Jr.; Parisi, Jurgen; Warlimont, Hans (eds.).Units of Measurement: Past, Present and Future. International System of Units. Springer Series in Materials Science. Vol. 122.Springer. pp. 7–8.ISBN978-3-642-00737-8.Paraphrased: Mahayuga equals 12,000 Deva (divine) years (4,320,000 solar years). Manvantara equals 71 Mahayugas (306,720,000 solar years). Kalpa (day of Brahma) equals an Adi Sandhya, 14 Manvantaras, and 14 Sandhya Kalas, where 1st Manvantara preceded by Adi Sandhya and each Manvantara followed by Sandhya Kala, each Sandhya lasting same duration as Satya yuga (1,728,000 solar years), during which the entire earth is submerged in water. Day of Brahma equals 1,000 Mahayugas, the same length for a night of Brahma (Bhagavad-gita 8.17). Brahma lifespan (311.04 trillion solar years) equals 100 360-day years, each 12 months. Parardha is 50 Brahma years and we are in the 2nd half of his life. After 100 years of Brahma, the universe starts with a new Brahma. We are currently in the 28th Kali yuga of the first day of the 51st year of the second Parardha in the reign of the 7th (Vaivasvata) Manu.
^Krishnamurthy, V. (2019)."Ch. 20: The Cosmic Flow of Time as per Scriptures".Meet the Ancient Scriptures of Hinduism. Notion Press.ISBN978-1-68466-938-7.Each manvantara is preceded and followed by a period of 1,728,000 (= 4K) years when the entire earthly universe (bhu-loka) will submerge under water. The period of this deluge is known as manvantara-sandhya (sandhya meaning, twilight).
^Mayor, Adrienne (2011).The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times: with a new introduction by the author. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0-691-05863-4.
^Laplace PS (1796).Exposition Du Systême Du Monde (in French). Paris, France:Cercle social. pp. 61–62.[U]ne grande partie des hommes et des animaux, noyée dans ce déluge universel, ou détruite par la violente secousse imprimée au globe terrestre; des espèces entières anéanties; tous les monumens de l'industrie humaine, renversés; tels sont les désastres que le choc d'une comète a dû produire.
^Laplace PS (1809).The System of the World. Translated byPond J. p. 64.[T]he greater part of men and animals drowned in a universal deluge, or destroyed by the violence of the shock given to the terrestrial globe; whole species destroyed; all the monuments of human industry reversed: such are the disasters which a shock of a comet would produce.
^Donnelly IL (1883).Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel. New York, D. Appleton and Company. p. 404.The Deluge of Noah probably occurred somewhere from eight to eleven thousand years ago. Hence, about twenty thousand years probably intervened between the Drift and the Deluge. These were the 'myriads of years' referred to by Plato, during which mankind dwelt on the great plain of Atlantis.
^Donnelly IL (1882).Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. p. 29.Plato states that the Egyptians told Solon that the destruction of Atlantis occurred 9000 years before that date, to wit, about 9600 years before the Christian era.
Masse, W. B. "The Archaeology and Anthropology of Quaternary Period Cosmic Impact", in Bobrowsky, P., and Rickman, H. (eds.)Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach Berlin, Springer Press, 2007. pp. 25–70.[ISBN missing]
Reed, A. W.Treasury of Maori Folklore A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1963.[ISBN missing]
Reedy, Anaru (trans.),Nga Korero a Pita Kapiti: The Teachings of Pita Kapiti. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, 1997.[ISBN missing]
^Quoted in:Lindell, Kristina; Swahn, Jan-Öjvind; Tayanin, Damrong (1988). "The Flood: Three Northern Kammu Versions of the Story of Creation". InDundes, Alan (ed.).The Flood Myth. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 279.ISBN978-0-520-06353-2. Retrieved5 February 2021.A 1021.0.2 [...] Escape from deluge in wooden cask (drum)
