Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Great Flood Myth

There is a popular misconception that the Christian bible perpetuates which relates a story of survival and by extension the extermination of the majority of the human race as well as all other inhabitants. This is the Great Flood story which has as its main character, the Patriarch known as Noah who rounds up members of his family and two of each type of animal and encapsulates them into to giant ark.
This grand tale is meant to illuminate the revengeful acts of a distant male god who is unsatisfied with the purported actions of his own creations.
This story would never have been told per se had this angry god not spared a particular family and thus given instructions on how to spare the animal kingdom who in all reality had nothing to do with the actions of the species who brought about the anger of this distant and mysterious god.
The only problem with this tale from the Christian bible is that a similar epic event was first recorded by the Sumerians who until very recently were considered the first recorded civilization in Human history.

The following writings are from circa 2300 BC and translated by Arno Poebel, Ph.D Philadelphia: Department of Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania

"After Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag had fashioned the black-headed people,Vegetation sprang from the earth,Animals, four-legged creatures of the plain,Were brought artfully into existence[37 lines are unreadable]After the....of kingship had been lowered from heaven after the exalted crown and the throne of kingship had been lowered from heaven,He perfected the rites and exalted the divine ordinances...He founded the five cities in pure places,...Then did Nintu weep like a....The pure Inanna set up a lament for its people, Enki took council with himself, Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag....The gods of heaven and earth uttered the name of Anu and Enlil then did Ziusudra, the king, the priest of...,Build a giant...;Humbly obedient, reverently he...Attending daily, constantly he...,Bringing forth all kinds of dreams, he...,Uttering the name of heaven and earth, he...[...]the gods a wall...,Ziusudra, standing at its side, listened."Stand by the wall at my left side...,By the wall I will say a word to you,Take my word,Give ear to my instructions:By our...a flood will sweep over the cult-centers;To destroy the seed of mankind...,Is the decision, the word of the assembly of the gods.By the word commanded by Anu and Enlil...,Its kingship, its rule will be put to an end.[about 40 lines missing]All the windstorms, exceedingly powerful,Attacked as one,At the same time, the flood sweeps over the cult-centers.After, for seven days,the flood sweeps over the cult centers.After, for seven days and seven nights,The flood had swept over the land,And the huge boat had been tossed about by the windstorms on the great waters, Utu came forth, who sheds light on heaven and earth, Ziusudra opened a window of the huge boat,The hero Utu brought his rays into the giant boat. Ziusudra, the king,Prostrated himself before Utu."

And so the Christian Great Flood story is actually a facsimile or re-telling of an event that occurred thousands of years prior to the advent of the first Christian.
While it is common for pieces of one religion/spiritual path to seep into another, it becomes a point of interest when the religion in question claims to be the only true religion in the world and yet is found to be a mish - mash of former belief systems unrelated to itself. Such elitism is the foundation for ignorance and thus does little to foster any true understanding and acceptance amongst the many divergent people of the world.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice post. While there are many flood stories, I found the below quote when doing a ritual in honor of Prometheus.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 45 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Now Prometheus had a son Deukalion and was married to Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, the first woman created by the gods. When Zeus was ready to obliterate the bronze generation of men, Prometheus advised Deucalion to fashion an ark, which he then outfitted with provisions and launched himself with Pyrrha aboard. Zeus presently flooded most of Hellas with a great downpour of rain from the sky, destroyed all the people except for a few who took refuge on high mountains nearby."

GHOST said...

"While it is common for pieces of one religion/spiritual path to seep into another, it becomes a point of interest when the religion in question claims to be the only true religion in the world and yet is found to be a mish - mash of former belief systems unrelated to itself. Such elitism is the foundation for ignorance and thus does little to foster any true understanding and acceptance amongst the many divergent people of the world. "

I couldn't have said it better myself.
The past 6 months of researching the Bible/Christian faith as well as paganism has only brought me to the same conclusion. Christianity, in one form or another, still maintains it's pagan roots. I see it as One religion simply evolves into another, or branching out, as time goes on.

Great work.

- GHOST