What are the similarites and differences between Noah and the Flood and the flood story in Gilgamesh?

Answer 1

i gather this is for a world lit class, in gilamesh naptishman? gets eternal life, noah gets the promise of no more flood as proven by the rainbow, both were warned about the upcoming flood, both stories say the flood is because humans are loud etc, in both there is a boat

Answer 2

Extent of flood: Genesis- Global Gligamesh- Global
Cause: Genesis- Man's wickedness Gilgamesh- Man's sins
Intended for whom? Genesis- All mankind Gligamesh- One city
Sender: Genesis- Yahweh (God) Gilgamesh- Assembly of gods
Name of hero: Genesis- Noah Gligamesh- Utnaphishtim
Hero's character: Genesis- righteous Gilgamesh- Righteous
Announcement: Genesis- Direct from God Gilgamesh- In a dream
Build boat? Genesis- Yes Gilgamesh- yes
hero complain? Genesis- yes Gilgamesh- yes
Height of boat: Genesis- seven stories Gilgamesh- seven stories
Human passengers- Genesis- Family Gilgamesh- family and friends
means of flood- Genesis- ground water/rain Gilgamesh- heavy rain
duration of flood- Genesis- 40 days and nights Gilgamesh- short six days and nights
test to find land- Genesis- birds Gilgamesh- bird
ark landing spot: Genesis- Mount Aarat Gilgamesh- Mount Nisir
Blessed after flood- Genesis- yes Gilgamesh- yes

Answer 3

I hestiate to give too much information when it sounds like it could be for school. However, the basics? Flood as punishment for human wickedness. Warned by god (or a god). Given directions for a boat to put all the animals in. Survives the flood. Given a reward for it.

Answer 4

Gilgamesh is pretty much the Babylonian version of Noah's flood:

Gilgamesh was an historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in modern Iraq; he lived about 2700 B.C. Although historians (and your textbook) tend to emphasize Hammurabi and his code of law, the civilizations of the Tigris-Euphrates area, among the first civilizations, focus rather on Gilgamesh and the legends accruing around him to explain, as it were, themselves. Many stories and myths were written about Gilgamesh, some of which were written down about 2000 B.C. in the Sumerian language on clay tablets which still survive; the Sumerian language, as far as we know, bears no relation to any other human language we know about. These Sumerian Gilgamesh stories were integrated into a longer poem, versions of which survive not only in Akkadian (the Semitic language, related to Hebrew, spoken by the Babylonians) but also on tablets written in Hurrian and Hittite (an Indo-European language, a family of languages which includes Greek and English, spoken in Asia Minor). All the above languages were written in the script known as cuneiform, which means "wedge-shaped." The fullest surviving version, from which the summary here is taken, is derived from twelve stone tablets, in the Akkadian language, found in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria 669-633 B.C., at Nineveh. The library was destroyed by the Persians in 612 B.C., and all the tablets are damaged. The tablets actually name an author, which is extremely rare in the ancient world, for this particular version of the story: Shin-eqi-unninni. You are being introduced here to the oldest known human author we can name by name!


This summary is derived from several sources: translations, commentaries, and academic scholarship on the Shin-eqi-unninni tablets. Verses are derived from several English and French translations in consultation with the English and German language commentaries and with the Babylonian text. For the entire text, you should turn to The Epic of Gilgamesh , trans. by Maureen Gallery Kovacs (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), or Gilgamesh , translated by John Maier and John Gardner (New York: Vintage, 1981)

As you read this short summary, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Themes. The first things you want to sort out are the ideas which seem to animate the work. One of the problems with literature, art, mythology, etc., is that you can never be quite sure that you've correctly identified the central ideas or philosophy of the work, but you should take a stab at it anyway. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as one and only one idea in a work of literature, and that in most art and literature, like life, there is no one correct answer concerning any single issue. To identify an idea, question, or theme that the work seems to treat, look for specific places where that idea seems to be a concern; mark these passages and combine and contrast them when you begin to try to resolve what the work seems to be about. The questions I provide in these reading notes are meant to organize the families of questions you can bring to these texts.

2. Structure. Try to define for yourself the overall structure of the story. This narrative has two distinct parts; what are these parts and how are they separated? How do events in the second part of the narrative repeat or develop ideas in the first part of the narrative? Do these events contrast with or develop themes and values articulated in the first part of the narrative?

3. The Nature of the Heroic. When you read the myth, notice how Gilgamesh is presented as superhuman, so powerful that the gods create a counterpart to moderate his desires and actions. Do you get the sense that Gilgamesh and Enkidu should have spared the demon of the cedar forest? Despite all of Gilgamesh's power, he is unable to prevent Enkidu's death, and the narrative changes direction. How can one describe Gilgamesh as a hero in the last half of the work? What has he achieved at the end of the poem? Why is this important?

4. The Gods. The gods in Gilgamesh are a bit problematic. How do the gods behave? What is their relation to humans? How much freedom do humans have, or are they merely subject to the will of these gods?


Hebrews Reader Genesis: The Flood
6. The Flood. The story of the Flood is a familiar one, as we shall see in Genesis and Popol Vuh (Plato also gives an account of the Flood and the city of Atlantis in the dialogue, Critias ; the Nez Perce of the Palouse also have a flood story in which the only humans that survived did so by climbing the mountain, Yamustus, that is, Steptoe Butte). 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? (Later compare the reasons for the floods in Genesis and Popol Vuh.) What does it tell us about the nature of history and the relation of the gods to humanity?

Answer 5

they're both the same flood

Answer 6

They are both total fictions.