Chaotic Primordial Waters and Flood Catastrophe Myths Worldwide: commonly a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, and destroys civilization

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“Damien, spirituality is different from religion…”

My response: They are kind of different. Spirituality is a form of animism to me, and all religions have some form of animism thinking; thus, they are still similar.

“Flood myths are common across a wide range of cultures, extending back into Bronze Age and Neolithic prehistory. These accounts depict a flood, sometimes global in scale, usually sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution.” ref

“Chaos (Ancient Greek: χάος, romanized: kháos) (aka Primordial Chaos, Primordial Void) is the mythological void state preceding the creation of the universe (the cosmos) in Greek creation myths. In Christian theology, the same term is used to refer to the gap or the abyss created by the separation of heaven and earth. In Norse mythology, Ginnungagap (old Norse: [ˈɡinːoŋɡɑˌɡɑp]; “gaping abyss,” “yawning void”) is the primordial void mentioned in the Gylfaginning, the Eddaic text recording Norse cosmogony. A creation myth (or cosmogonic myth) is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage, the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths – metaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally. They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness.” ref

“Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions. They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily. They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore (‘at that time’). Creation myths address questions deeply meaningful to the society that shares them, revealing their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context. Creation myths develop in oral traditions and, therefore, typically have multiple versions; found throughout human culture, they are the most common form of myth. A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeval waters which appear in certain creation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for the cleansing of humanity, in preparation for rebirth. Most flood myths also contain a culture hero, who “represents the human craving for life”. The flood-myth motif occurs in many cultures, including the manvantara-sandhya in Hinduism, Deucalion and Pyrrha in Greek mythology, the Genesis flood narrative, the Mesopotamian flood stories, and the Cheyenne flood story.” ref, ref

“Cultures around the world tell stories about a great flood. In many cases, the flood leaves only one survivor or group of survivors. For example, both the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible tell of a global flood that wiped out humanity and of a man who saved the Earth’s species by taking them aboard a boat. Similar stories of a single flood survivor appear in Hindu mythology where Manu saves the Earth from the deluge by building an ark as well as Greek, Norse mythology, Inca mythology, and Aztec mythology. The flood narratives, spanning across different traditions such as Mesopotamian, Hebrew, Islamic, and Hindu, reveal striking similarities in their core elements, including divine warnings, ark construction, and the preservation of righteousness, highlighting the universal themes that thread through diverse religious beliefs.” ref

“In myth a variety of reasons are given for the occurrence of the flood: either the world was simply very old and needed to be renewed; the humans had neglected their duty to adore the gods; or they were punished for a transgression (cannibalism, for example).” ref

Some think flood myths can be explained by Aliens, Some (believed real) deity/deities or spirit/spirits, or a Mythic Advanced culture, while others think food myths can be explained by either local floods experienced or memories of the real flooding that started at the end of the last ice age. I think the naturalistic ideas are better, but as always, I see this as but one of several myth themes that spread to and from Siberia (Golden Mountains to Lake Baikal) and thus are very loosely related but still, to me, connected even if varied. This was not done by one culture or people and not by a single DNA either.

Siberia flood myths:

“Ket: In the mythology of the Ket people of Northern Eurasia, there have been many floods in the past. People and animals survived by grabbing on to pieces of floating turf. In the future, a final flood will bring back ancient Ket heroes.” ref

“Kets are a Yeniseian-speaking people in Siberia. The Ket people share their origin with other Yeniseian people and are closely related to other Indigenous people of Siberia and Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Ket language has been linked to the Na-Dené languages of North America in the Dené–Yeniseian language family. This link has led to some collaboration between the Ket and northern Athabaskan peoples. Although a potential link to the Na-Dené languages has been identified, this link is not accepted by all linguists. They belong mostly to Y-DNA haplogroup Q-M242. Q-M242 is the predominant Y-DNA haplogroup among Native Americans and several peoples of Central Asia and Northern Siberia. Q-M242 is believed to have arisen around the Altai Mountains area (or South Central Siberia), approximately 17,000 to 31,700 years ago.” ref, ref

“In the indigenous people of North America, Q-M242 is found in Na-Dené speakers at an average rate of 68%. The highest frequency is 92.3% in Navajo, followed by 78.1% in Apache, 87% in SC Apache, and about 80% in North American Eskimo (Inuit, Yupik)–Aleut populations. (Q-M3 occupies 46% among Q in North America). Haplogroup Q-M242 has been found in approximately 94% of Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and South America. On the other hand, a 4000-year-old Saqqaq individual belonging to Q1a-MEH2* has been found in Greenland. Surprisingly, he turned out to be genetically more closely related to Far East Siberians such as Koryaks and Chukchi people rather than Native Americans. Today, the frequency of Q runs at 53.7% (122/227: 70 Q-NWT01, 52 Q-M3) in Greenland, showing the highest in east Sermersooq at 82% and the lowest in Qeqqata at 30%.” ref

“The Flood — The Tlingit Nation of Southeastern Alaska. Tlingit language is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family. Long, long ago, in the days of the animal people, Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass became angry. He said, “Let rain pour down all over the world. Let people die of starvation.” At once it be- came so stormy people could not get food, so they began to starve.” ref, ref

“There can be no doubt that they are referring to the flood of Noah, described in Genesis. Part of Western Canada Flood Legends: Tlingit Couple (Situwuka and Katkwachsnea). The earliest explorers of Canada and the Arctic regions of North America found the knowledge of the flood among all the tribes they met, in remarkable correspondence with the Genesis account. We possess over 36 aboriginal traditions of the flood from this area alone! There are several accounts of creation, the fall, and the tower of Babel as well. In western Canada, we find a multitude of peoples with traditions that testify to the truth of the Genesis record. Among these, the Lillooet people, in 1905, told anthropologist James Teit their sacred tradition. A man named Ntci’nemkin “had a very large canoe, in which he took refuge with his family.” The floodwaters rose “until all the land was submerged except the peak of the high mountain called Split. The canoe drifted about until the waters receded, and it grounded on Smimelc Mountain.” When the waters went down, the survivors came out and repopulated the earth. The Nootka told that a good and discerning man, Wispohahp, foresaw the flood and made preparations with his brothers. “In his canoe were placed all his movables, his wife, his two brothers, and their wives. . . . Finally, the water covered the whole country, except Quossakt, a high mountain near the Toquahts, and Mount Arrowsmith.” When the earth had dried, they came out and repopulated the earth.” ref

“In 1888, the Sarci elders related how, in ancient times, “when the world was flooded there were only one man and one woman left, and these two saved themselves on a raft, on which they also collected animals and birds of all sorts.” The Squamish people too had their tradition of the global flood which, while it was slowly advancing, a Great Council met and decided that “a giant canoe should be built” and that all the children should be placed in this canoe, with one young man and woman to guide the ship. Then, “all was a world of water,” and “for days and days there was no land.” Finally, the Flood receded and the boat came to rest again on Mount Baker. The surviving young people went down from the mountain and repopulated the earth. “We have a tradition about the swelling of the water a long time ago,” told a Tsimshian chief to one Mr. Duncan, in which “all people perished in the water but a few.” The Bella Coola said that “the surface of the waters covered all the land up to the peaks of the mountains.” They also have a vague tradition of the confusion of languages, which they said took place after the flood.” ref

“The Cowichan tribal elders told that, long ago, certain people started having terrifying dreams. “One man said, ‘I have dreamed a strange thing,’ and the others were eager to hear what he had to say. ‘I dreamed that such rain fell that we all were drowned.’ ‘I,’ said another, ‘dreamed that the river rose and flooded the place, and we were all destroyed.’ ‘So did I,’ chimed in another. ‘And I too.’ They determined to build a “huge raft of canoes tied together.” Others jeered and mocked, who did not believe in these dreams. But those who believed “took their families and placed them on the raft and took food and waited.” Then the flood came, and “the raft rose with the water, and was the only thing seen for many days.” Those who formerly mocked fled to the mountains, but those soon were under the water too. Finally, those on the giant raft “felt the waters going down, and their raft rested on the top of Cowichan Mountain.” ref

“All the land was flooded,” said the Coastal Salish, “except the tops of a few very high mountains. Xals and his wife and daughters escaped in a large canoe. … They drifted against the top of Qotselis Mountain … the water at last receded, and they cast off their canoe.” The Carrier people told that a boy survived the flood on a raft, and sent a wolf (instead of Noah’s dove) to see whether the newly appeared land was ready for habitation. The Tahltan related that a wise man was forewarned of the coming flood, sent by God due to the wickedness of mankind. Their tradition also mentions a race of fallen beings that existed in those days, and a confusion of languages that occurred after the flood. The Tsetsaut said their ancestors “resolved to enclose their children in hollow trees,” and that “they gave them an ample supply of food, and then closed up the trees with wooden covers, which they caulked with pitch.” After the flood ended, they came out and then repopulated the earth. And we have the flood traditions of other communities besides, including the Shuswap, Kootenay, Kwakiutl, Haida, and Beaver peoples.” ref

“Mankind and the animals all did as they pleased, quarreled and shed much blood,” said the Western Cree. “The quarrels of men and the animals made the ground red with blood,” and “this made the Great Spirit very angry.” Therefore, the Great Spirit sent the flood. One man survived, and a few animals with him, one of which was sent and returned with a piece of earth. The Western Cree also recognize the rainbow as “the mark of life,” the sign that the Great Spirit will not again destroy the earth with a flood. The Saulteaux people, around the year 1850, told Lieutenant Hooper “of a medicine-man named Wis who built a big canoe in which he put all classes of animals. A great deluge occurred and covered all land, hills, and trees.” After the flood, “he sent out a crow and, when it did not return, he concluded it [the earth] was now large enough for all to inhabit. So he and all the animals got out from the boat.” ref

“Eastern and Central Canada Flood Legends: “Now all the writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood and of this ark.” (Josephus, ca. CE 90). Let us begin with the Cree people, that settled a vast section of Canada. Their ancient tradition, passed down from generation to generation, states that God sent the flood because people became completely disobedient. But a good man named Wesaketchan “built a large raft on which he boarded all his family, as well as a pair of all the birds and all the animals.” The man sent out a raven and a dove, the latter of which “returned with a piece of clay in its legs. The man concluded that the earth was quite dry, and he landed.” The Montagnais or Innu of eastern Canada said, “God, being angry with the giants, commanded a man to build a large canoe. The man did so, and when he had embarked in it, the water rose on all sides, and the canoe with it, till no land was anywhere to be seen.” They have a memory of Noah’s raven too.” ref

“The Ojibwe (related to an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian language) people of Canada and the Great Lakes area, tell that their patriarch built a giant raft and rescued all sorts of animals and birds upon it. “On this raft he floated about for a long time, till all the mountains were covered, and all the beasts of the earth and fowls of the air, except those he had with him, perished.” The Ottawa, around the year 1770, told the fur trader Alexander Henry about their ancestor Nanibojou, their Noah, who “lived originally toward the going down of the sun, where being warned, in a dream, that the inhabitants would be drowned by a general flood, produced by heavy rains, he built a raft, on which he afterward preserved his own family, and all the animal world without exception. According to his dream, the rains fell, and a flood ensued. His raft drifted for many moons, during which no land was discovered.” ref

“A cosmic ocean, primordial waters, or celestial river is a mythological motif that represents the world or cosmos enveloped by a vast primordial ocean. Found in many cultures and civilizations, the cosmic ocean exists before the creation of the earth. From the primordial waters, the earth and the entire cosmos arose. The cosmic ocean represents or embodies chaos. The cosmic ocean takes form in the mythology of Yazidism, Ahl-e Haqq, Alevism, Ancient Egyptian mythology, Ancient Greek mythology, Canaanite mythology, Ancient Hindu mythology, Ancient Iranian, Sumerian, Zoroastrianism, Ancient Roman mythology, and many other world mythologies. The primacy of the ocean in some creation myths corresponds to the cosmological model of land surrounded by the world’s ocean. The sky is often thought of as something like the upper sea. The concept of a watery chaos also underlies the widespread motif of the worldwide flood that took place in early times. The emergence of earth from water and the curbing of the global flood or underground waters are usually presented as a factor in cosmic ordering.” ref

“In ancient creation texts, the primordial waters are often represented as having filled the entire universe and are the first source of the gods. The act of creation is the establishment of an inhabitable space separate from the enveloping waters. The cosmic ocean is the shape of the universe before creation. The ocean is boundless, unordered, unorganized, amorphous, formless, dangerous, terrible. In some myths, its cacophony is noted, opposed to the ordered rhythm of the sea. Chaos can be personified as water or by the unorganized interaction of water and fire, The transformation of chaos into order is also the transition from water to land. In many ancient cosmogonic myths, the ocean and chaos are equivalent and inseparable from each other. The ocean remains outside space even after the emergence of the land. At the same time, the ability of the ocean to generate is realized in the appearance of the earth from it and in the presence of a mythological creature in the ocean that promotes generation or, on the contrary, zealously defends the “old order” and prevents the beginning of the chain of births from the ocean.” ref

“Yu. E. Berezkin and E. N. Duvakin generalize the motif of primary waters as follows: “Waters are primary. The earth is launched into the water, appears above the water, grows from a piece of solid substance placed on the surface of the water or liquid mud, from an island in the ocean, is exposed when the waters subsided, etc.” The idea of the primacy of the ocean as an element, from the bowels of which the earth arises or is created, is universally prevalent. This representation is present in many mythologies of the world. In Asia and North America, the earth-diver myth is found. In this myth a creator god dives into the cosmic ocean to bring up and form the earth. A diving bird, catching a lump of earth from the primordial ocean, often appears in the mythologies of the Native Americans and Siberian peoples. In totemic myths, bird people are often presented as ancestors. Eggs are a common theme in creation myths. A waterfowl extracts silt from the sea, from which land is gradually created.” ref

“In Polynesian mythology, Maui fishes islands. In Scandinavian mythology, the gods raise the earth, and Thor catches Jörmungandr from the bottom of the ocean. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the earth itself comes to the surface in the form of a mound. In the Hindu Brahmanas it was said that Brahma as Prajapati took the earth out of the water, taking the form of a boar. In the mythologies of many Asian countries, in which there is an image of an endless and eternal primordial ocean or sea, there is a motif of the creation of the earth by a celestial being descending from the sky and interfering with the water of the ocean with an iron club, spear or other object. This results in condensation which gives rise to the earth. In Japanese mythology, the islands of Japan arose from dirty foam raised by mixing the waters of the ocean with a spear of gods (Izanagi and Izanami). In the mythologies of the Mongolian peoples, the role of the compactor of the ocean waters is played by the wind, which creates a special milky substance out of them, which then becomes the earth’s firmament. According to the Kalmyks, plants, animals, people and deities were born from this milky liquid. Hindu Mythology has a similar with about the churning of the Churning of the Ocean.” ref

“Water emerges as the fundamental element from which the cosmos is born in the primordial chaos of creation myths.” ref

“In Sumerian cosmology, the primordial sea is viewed as a chaotic entity that precedes order and creation, essential for understanding the universe’s structure. The primordial sea is often depicted as existing before any land or life forms, emphasizing its role as a source from which everything emerges. Gods such as Apsu and Tiamat arise from this primordial sea, illustrating how ancient cultures personified natural elements to explain their origins.” ref

“In the creation myth of the Nganasan people, a Uralic people of the Samoyedic branch native to the Taymyr Peninsula in north Siberia, at first the earth was completely covered with water, then the water subsides and exposes the top of the Shaitan ridge Koika-mou. The Nganasans are thought to be the direct descendants of proto-Uralic peoples. The Nganasans are the northernmost ethnic group of the Eurasian continent. And there is some evidence that they absorbed a local Paleo-Siberian population. The homeland of the Proto-Uralic peoples, including the Samoyeds, is suggested to be somewhere near the Ob and Yenisey river drainage areas of Central Siberia or near Lake Baikal. The first two people fall to this peak – a man and a woman. In the myth of the creation of the Tuamotu Islands, the creator Tāne, “Spilling Water,” created the world in the waters of the lord of the waters, Pune, and invoked the light that initiated the creation of the earth. The motif of the cosmogonic struggle with the serpent and its killing is widespread in terms of suppressing water chaos. The serpent in most mythologies is associated with water, often as its abductor. It threatens either with a flood or a drought, that is, a violation of the measure, the water “balance.” ref, ref

“Since the cosmos is identified with order and measure, chaos is associated with the violation of measure. The Egyptian Ra fights and kills the underground serpent Apep, the Hindu Indra fights and kills the demon Vritra, who took the form of a snake, the Mesopotamian Enki, Ninurta and Inanna fight with Kur and kill him, the Iranian Tishtry (Sirius) – with the deva Aposhi Tishtry kills Aposhi. The killed Apep, Vritra, Kur and Aposhi hold back the cosmic waters. Marduk defeats and kills the progenitors Tiamat and Apsu before resurrecting them back together, the deities of the dark waters of chaos, who has taken the form of snakes. There are stories in Canaanite mythology about the struggle of the Canaanite deities with monstrous snakes, which also represents water chaos (Rahab, Tehom, Leviathan) and these monstrous snakes are all killed by the Canaanite deities. Yu the Great‘s heroic struggle with the cosmic flood ends with the killing of the insidious owner of the water Gungun and his “close associate” – the nine-headed Xiangliu.” ref

“The transition from the formless water element to land is the most important act necessary for the transformation of chaos into space. The next step in the same direction is the separation of the sky from the earth, which, perhaps, essentially coincides with the first act, given the initial identification of the sky with the oceans. But it was precisely the repetition of the act – first down, and then up – that led to the allocation of three spheres – earthly, heavenly and underground, which represents the transition from binary division to trinity. The middle sphere, the earth, opposes the watery world below and the heavenly world above. A trichotomous scheme of the cosmos arises, including the necessary space between earth and sky. This space is often represented as a cosmic tree. Earth and sky are almost universally represented as feminine and masculine, a married couple standing at the beginning of a theogonic or theocosmogonic process. At the same time, the feminine and masculine principles are associated with the element of water and with chaos; usually they are conceived on the side of “nature” rather than “culture.” ref

“Mythical creatures from chaos, defeated and victorious, shackled and released, overthrown and restored, always continue to exist on the outskirts of space, along the shores of the oceans, in the under ground “lower” world, in the above ground “upper” world. Other evil creatures were killed in these mythologies by the deities also. So, in Scandinavian mythology, frost giants precede time, and in space they are located on the outskirts of the earth’s circle, in cold places, near the oceans.” ref

The Arctic Region Flood Legends

“In the far northern regions of this continent, we find the Dene people group, who inhabit much of Alaska and the northwestern parts Canada. According to their tradition, an old man named Tchapewi “made a large raft, on which he placed a couple of each kind of animal, and he drifted away on his raft.” The flood covered the entire earth for a long time, including the highest mountains of the Rockies. The Dene also preserved the memory of the crow, which the old man set loose, followed by the dove. “Having been sent a third time, it [the dove] returned in the evening, tired out, and holding in its foot a green branch of fir.” The Yupiks of Alaska tell of a great flood, which only a few people survived in their fur boats, and then landed on the highest mountains. The Kaigani, an Alaskan tribe, referred to “the big canoe in which a good man was saved in the time of a great flood.” This landed on a high mountain. He later sent a crow to see if the waters had gone down.” ref

“The old men of the Dogrib people, living in the Northwest Territories, told that in the earliest times, a god-like man named Chapewee “created children, to whom he gave two kinds of fruit, the black and the white, but forbade them to eat the black.” They obeyed him for a while, but when he left on a long excursion, “they forgot the orders of their father, and ate of the black [fruit].” Chapewee “was much displeased on his return, and told them that in the future the earth would produce black fruits, and they would be tormented by sickness and death—penalties that have attached to his descendants to the present day.” Regarding the flood, they related that one time, “the water rose and overflowed the earth. Chapewee embarked with his family in a canoe, taking with them all manner of birds and beasts.” Later, he sent animals to help him remake the earth until, after a full year, “all on board the canoe were able to disembark on it [the earth].” ref

“The Hareskin (or Sahtú) people, in 1852, told one Dr. Tache their account of the flood. “In the history of their deluge, they substitute for the ark a floating island, on which four persons with a number of animals and birds found safety, and escaped from the general destruction.” In 1870, the Gwich’in or Kutchin people told missionary Émile Petitot their tradition about their ancestor, an old man called the Mariner, who “floated in a gigantic straw until the waters had evaporated and the earth and dried up.” They pointed to the mountain where they said he landed, in the Rocky Mountains of extreme northwest Canada, a place which they called “the place of the old man.” “It is an old, old story,” told the Netsilik Inuit. They referred to the “dreadful deluge,” saying that “the world collapsed, the earth was destroyed, that great showers of rain flooded the land.” “Incessant rain flooded the land and great destruction followed. All the animals and men died, with the exception of two shaman.” ref

“Inuits all think this earth [was] once covered with water,” told an Inuit woman on Baffin Island. “A long time ago the ocean suddenly began to rise, until it covered the whole land. The water even rose to the top of the mountains.” As evidence of this flood, they pointed to the bones of whales, seals, and fish, which have been found on top of the local mountains. Even in Greenland, the early missionaries and ethnologists found the knowledge of the flood. “When the One above was displeased with the people upon it, he destroyed the world.” “All mankind, except one, were drowned.” Like other Inuit, they pointed out that bones of large creatures had been found on high mountains as evidence of the global flood. Regarding the garden of Eden, “they call the first man Kallak, and say he sprung out of the earth, and soon afterward his wife sprung from his thumb,” whereas Genesis says it was the man’s rib which God used to make her. “The woman is said to have brought death into the world” for something she said, according to the native Greenlanders.” ref

“In addition, we could relate the flood histories of the Kaska of Yukon Territory, the Tchiglit Inuit of the Arctic coast, and the Tlingit of southeastern Alaska. The latter had not only a tradition of the flood but also a vague memory of the tower of Babel. One writer described the wealth of Alaskan traditions related to Genesis in this way: “The recent [interaction] of our Presbyterian Missionaries, with the Mongolian and Ugrian tribes of Alaska, has laid open a wonderful inheritance of tradition. Some of these tribes have tradition not only of the Noachic deluge but also of the original Chaos, the first dividing of the waters, and the creation of heavenly bodies, plants, animals, and men in nearly the Mosaic order of succession. And these traditions have evidently no touch of ‘white men’s teaching.” ref

“The primordial sea refers to the vast, chaotic body of water that existed at the beginning of creation in ancient Mesopotamian cosmology. This concept is essential for understanding the Sumerian pantheon, as it is often seen as the source of life and the origin of the gods, highlighting the importance of water in their mythological narratives.” ref

“A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeval waters which appear in certain creation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for the cleansing of humanity, in preparation for rebirth. Most flood myths also contain a culture hero, who “represents the human craving for life”. The flood-myth motif occurs in many cultures, including the manvantara-sandhya in Hinduism, Deucalion and Pyrrha in Greek mythology, the Genesis flood narrative, the Mesopotamian flood stories, and the Cheyenne flood story.” ref

The Primeval Flood Catastrophe: Origins and Early Development in Mesopotamian Traditions by Y. S. Chen

“Abstract: Chapter 2, The Primeval Flood Catastrophe Motif, examines the emergence of the Flood motif within the broader development of representations of the primeval time of origins in Mesopotamian traditions (primarily Sumerian) from the Early Dynastic III period to the Old Babylonian period. It is argued that when the Flood motif first emerged explicitly in Sumerian literary traditions it manifested itself as an innovative stylistic and temporal device for introducing the primeval time of origins as well as for marking the (re‐)beginning of time. Coming to grips with these initial stages of development of the Flood motif sheds important light on some key conceptual and literary processes through which the Flood motif and its mythological and chronographic representations formed and evolved in Mesopotamian traditions. This chapter also suggests that the emergence of the Flood motif was, at least in part, connected with literary and ideological responses from the early Isin dynasty to the catastrophic demise of the Ur III dynasty.” ref

Flood Accounts: Gilgamesh epic (4,100 years ago) Noah in Genesis (2,600 years ago)

Everyone Killed in the Bible Flood? “Nephilim” (giants)?

Gilgamesh epic (4,100 years ago)

“Gilgamesh’s supposed historical reign is believed to have been approximately 2700 BCE, shortly before the earliest known written stories. The discovery of artifacts associated with Aga and Enmebaragesi of Kish, two other kings named in the stories, has lent credibility to the historical existence of Gilgamesh. The earliest Sumerian Gilgamesh poems date from as early as the Third dynasty of Ur (4,100–4,000 years ago). One of these poems mentions Gilgamesh’s journey to meet the flood hero, as well as a short version of the flood story. The earliest Akkadian versions of the unified epic are dated to ca. 4,000–3,500 years ago. Due to the fragmentary nature of these Old Babylonian versions, it is unclear whether they included an expanded account of the flood myth; although one fragment definitely includes the story of Gilgamesh’s journey to meet Utnapishtim. The “standard” Akkadian version included a long version of the story and was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 3,300-3,000 years ago.” ref

Noah in Genesis (2,600 years ago)

“Tradition credits Moses as the author of Genesis, as well as the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and most of Deuteronomy, but modern scholars increasingly see them as a product of the 6th and 5th centuries BC thus at most 2,600 years ago.” ref

Dating the BIBLE: naming names and telling times (written less than 3,000 years ago, provable to 2,200 years ago)

Flood Accounts

To compare the flood story from the Gilgamesh epic with the flood story of Noah in Genesis, one must understand the historical aspects at play to decipher all the similarities. Is the flood narrative of Genesis just a rewritten version of an original myth, The Epic of Gilgamesh, produced by the Sumerians? I think so.

To understand this similarity deeper one must look forward to who carried the Noah story to the Jewish people. In addition, to understand how it came from a similar source that was later transcribed in to the book of Genesis by Moses. “Historically, Jews and Christians alike have held that Moses was the author/compiler of the first five books of the OT. These books, known also as the Pentateuch (“five-volumed book”), were referred to in Jewish tradition as the five fifths of the law (of Moses). The Bible itself suggests Mosaic authorship of Genesis. (Barker, 2002 p. 2 New International Version, Study Bible Concordance).

The Jewish people trace their lineage to father Abraham, and the writings and oral translations that accompanied him. Abraham was a Sumerian from Mesopotamia and the Gilgamesh epic is a Sumerian story which is from Mesopotamia too. “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.” ref

“Abraham is told to leave his country and his people with ties to Sumeria region of Mesopotamia, so God could make him into a new nation, the eventual Israelites. His famaly are said to live in Haran, which is almost universally identified with Harran, a city whose ruins lie within present-day Turkey. Haran first appears in the Book of Genesis as the home of Terah father of Abraham, and as Abraham‘s temporary home. Most of what is told about Terah is recorded in Genesis 11:26–28. Terah’s father was Nahor, son of Serug, descendants of Shem. They and many of their ancestors were polytheistic. Terah had three sons: Abram (better known by his later name Abraham).” ref, ref

“The archaeological remains of ancient Harran, a major commercial, cultural, and religious center first inhabited in the Early Bronze Age III (3rd millennium BCE/5,000-4,000 years ago) period. The earliest records of Harran come from Ebla tablets (late 3rd millennium BCE). By the 4,000 years ago, Harran was established as a merchant outpost of the Assyrian Empire due to its ideal location. In its prime Harran was a major Assyrian city which controlled the point where the road from Damascus joins the highway between Nineveh and Carchemish. This location gave Harran strategic value from an early date because it had an abundance of goods that passed through its region. In the 18th century, Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I (3,813–3,781 years ago) launched an expedition to secure the Harranian trade route. In the 3,300 years ago, Assyrian king Adad-Nirari I reported that he conquered the “fortress of Kharani” and annexed it as a province. It is frequently mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions as early as the time of Tiglath-Pileser I, about 3,100 years ago, under the name Harranu (Akkadian harrānu, “road, path; campaign, journey”). Tiglath-Pileser had a fortress there, and mentioned that he was pleased with the abundance of elephants in the region.” ref

“3,100 years ago inscriptions reveal that Harran had some privileges of fiscal exemption and freedom from certain forms of military obligations. It had even been termed as the “free city of Harran”. However, 2,763 years ago, it was sacked by a Harranian rebellion against Assyrian control that resulted in the loss of those privileges. Not until Sargon II restored order, in the late 8th century BCE, were those privileges restored. During the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Harran became the stronghold of its last king, Ashur-uballit II, who had retreated from Nineveh when it was sacked by Nabopolassar of Babylon and his Median allies in 2,612 years ago. Harran was besieged and conquered by Nabopolassar and Cyaxares in 2,610 years ago. It was briefly retaken by Ashur-uballit II and his Egyptian allies in 2,609 years ago, before it finally fell to the Medes and Babylonians in 2,605 years ago. The last king of the Neo-Babylonian period, Nabonidus, also originated from Harran as substantiated by evidence from the temple of stele of his mother Adad-Guppi, who is of Assyrian origin. The city became a bastion for the worship of the moon god Sinduring the rule of Nabonidus in 2,556–2,539 years ago, much to the consternation of the city of Babylon in the south, where Marduk remained the primary deity.” ref

“The lord had said to Abram, leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you” (Genesis 12: 1 & 2 New International Version, Study Bible). There is further evidence of a connection of the origin of Abraham and thus flood story. “Abram’s family was involved in the political and religious life of Sumeria, a high class family of noble birth who lived and mingled with the high echelons of Sumerian society.”ref

Other similarities in the flood myths are as follows:

“Both Flood stories originate and occur in the Mesopotamian plain and were recounted by people of Sumerian origins. “the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia repeatedly experienced severe floods, some of which destroyed early centers of civilization” (Harris, 2007 p. 52).

Both main characters Utnapishtim and Noah are warned by a god to build a boat to escape the flood. Utnapishtim was warned by “Ea (Enki, Nudimmud)- god of the waters” (Crystal, 2007). He was told the gods would make a flood. “Decided that the great gods should make a flood” (Harris, 2007 p. 52). Utnapishtim was told to build a boat. “Dismantle your house, build a boat” (Harris, 2007 p. 52).

Noah was warned by Yahweh (God of the bible). “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens” (Genesis 6: 17 New International Version, Study Bible). Noah was told to build a boat. “So make an ark” (Genesis 6: 14 New International Version, Study Bible).

Both Utnapishtim and Noah were told to save their families and all living creatures. Utnapishtim was told “put on board the boat all kith and kin” (Harris, 2007 p. 52). Likewise, he was told to “Put aboard the seed of all living things” (Harris, 2007 p. 52). Noah was told “you will enter the ark— you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you” (Genesis 6: 18 New International Version, Study Bible). Likewise was told to “Bring into the ark two of all living creatures” (Genesis 6: 19 New International Version, Study Bible).

Both Utnapishtim and Noah’s boats came to rest on a mountain. Utnapishtim’s “boat had come to rest on Mount Nimush” (Harris, 2007 p. 53). Noah’s “ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8: 4 New International Version, Study Bible).

Both Utnapishtim and Noah released birds to determine if the waters receded and to gain a sign that the great flood was over. Utnapishtim “put out and released a dove, a swallow, and a raven” (Harris, 2007 p. 53). Noah released a raven then a dove “When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly I plucked olive leaf” (Genesis 8: 11 New International Version, Study Bible).

Both Utnapishtim and Noah offered a sacrifice after the flood ends. Utnapishtim offers a sacrifice “I put (everything) out to the four winds, and I made a sacrifice” (Harris, 2007 p. 53). Noah offers a sacrifice “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it” (Genesis 8: 20 New International Version, Study Bible).

Both Utnapishtim and Noah are given a reminder of the flood. Utnapishtim reminder is “Behold, O gods, I shall never forget (the significance of) my lapis lazuli necklace. I shall remember these times, and I shall never forget. As in Genesis, the rainbow (Ishtar’s jeweled necklace) serves to remind the gods of the consequences of their destructive impulses” (Harris, 2007 p. 53). For Noah the reminder is a rainbow “I have set my rainbows in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Genesis 9: 13 New International Version, Study Bible).

Picture Link: ref

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Genesis Flood Myth Origins?

To me, the Bible (“flood” knock-off version), was plagiarized and not seen as true by its first writers but was cultural and they hoped it would be believed by others later. They knew the stories of the flood accounts in the Gilgamesh epic believed them false and told them as if their own to act as if it was their true myth. Flood Accounts: Gilgamesh epic (4,100 years ago) Noah in Genesis (2,600 years ago).

Eridu: First City of Power

(Eridu may relate to the garden of Eden and is the earliest description of the Great Flood, pre-dating the biblical book of Genesis as well as Eridu may be the place of the Tower of Babel.)

“Eridu (Sumerian: ????????, NUN.KI/eridugki; Akkadian: irîtu; modern Arabic: Tell Abu Shahrain) is an archaeological site in southern Mesopotamia (modern Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq). Eridu was long considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia. Located 12 km southwest of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of Sumerian cities that grew around temples, almost in sight of one another. These buildings were made of mud-brick and built on top of one another. With the temples growing upward and the village growing outward, a larger city was built. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was originally the home of Enki, later known by the Akkadians as Ea, who was considered to have founded the city. His temple was called E-Abzu, as Enki was believed to live in Abzu, an aquifer from which all life was believed to stem.” ref

“Enki was believed to be the god of creation, intelligence, crafts, water, seawater, lakewater, fertility, semen, magic, and mischief. Originally the patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Canaanites, Hittites, and Hurrians. He was associated with the southern band of star constellations.” ref

“Eridu (present-day Abu Shahrein, Iraq) was considered the first city in the world by the ancient Sumerians and is among the most ancient of the ruins from Mesopotamia. Founded in circa 5400 BCE, Eridu was thought to have been created by the gods and was home to the great god Enki (also known as Ea by the Akkadians) who would develop from a local god of fresh water into the god of wisdom and magic (among other attributes) and stand with other deities such as Anu, Enlil, and Inanna as the most important in the Mesopotamian Pantheon.” ref

“THE CITY OF ERIDU FEATURES PROMINENTLY IN SUMERIAN MYTHOLOGY, NOT ONLY AS THE FIRST CITY BUT ALSO AS THE HOME OF THE GODS.” ref

“The Sumerian King List cites Eridu as the “city of the first kings”, stating, “After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu” and the city was looked back upon by the various city-states of Mesopotamia as a metropolis of a ‘golden age’ in the same way the writers of the biblical narrative of Genesis created a ‘Garden of Eden‘ as their mythical paradise, most likely modeled on Eridu. The city was abandoned in c. 600 BCE or 2,622 years ago, most likely due to overuse of the land, and fell into ruin.” ref

“The city of Eridu features prominently in Sumerian mythology, not only as the first city and home of the gods, but as the locale to which the goddess Innana traveled in order to receive the gifts of civilization which she then bestowed upon humanity from her home city of Uruk. Uruk vies with Eridu among modern scholars for the honor of the oldest city in Mesopotamia or even the oldest in the world.” ref

“The ancients certainly believed Eridu to be the first city and the Sumerian King List gives impossibly long reigns (some between 28,000-36,000 years) for their kings while Sumerian scribes maintained that kingship in the land first came from heaven to be established at Eridu. Scholar Stephen Bertman writes:

Tradition made it the earliest city to have a king before the days of the mythical Great Flood. Eridu’s archaeological story can be traced back to at least the 6th millennium BCE. If the tradition of its antiquity is true, Eridu may well have been the first city on earth.” ref

“If not the first, the city was among the oldest. The ancient Mesopotamians frequently built their cities ontop of the ruins of older settlements (as is also true of other cultures). Excavations at Eridu have revealed a sequence of construction dating back to the Ubaid Period (6500-3800 BCE or 8,522-5,822 years ago) and continuing on from there to reach its height during the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE or 4,069-3,772 years ago) under rulers such as Ur-Nammu (r. 2047-2030 BCE) and Shulgi of Ur (r. 2029-1982 BCE or 4,051-4,004 years ago). Scholar Gwendolyn Leick points out, “Eridu was never the seat of a dynasty. Its importance was religious rather than political, as the site of the main sanctuary of Enki”. Enki, the god of wisdom, featured prominently in many Mesopotamian texts and especially in the tale of the Great Flood as told in the Atrahasis and the Eridu Genesis.” ref

Enki and Eridu

“Eridu was the home of Enki and the center of his cult. Bertman comments on the ruins of Enki’s temple:

The god’s temple has been found and shows that it was rebuilt over the course of thousands of years. In its earliest phase (dating back to about 5500 BCE or 7,522 years ago), it measured about 12 by 15 feet, was made of mud brick, and featured a simple podium or altar for sacrifices and a niche meant to hold a statue of the god. To judge by evidence found in a later niche – fish bones and ashes scattered on the floor around the altar – the god’s favorite meal was freshwater fish. The temple’s antiquity makes it the oldest in Mesopotamian architectural and religious history.” ref

“Enki was associated with fresh water, as was Eridu itself since it was located in the southern marshes of the Euphrates River, and so it is no surprise that both Enki and Eridu feature in the earliest of the Great Flood stories from which the later tale of Noah and his Ark was developed. The Eridu Genesis (composed c. 2300 BCE or 4,322 years ago) is the earliest description of the Great Flood, pre-dating the biblical book of Genesis, and is the tale of the good man Utnapishtim (also known as Atrahasis or Ziusudra) who builds a great boat by the will of the gods and gathers inside ‘the seed of life’ at Enki’s suggestion. Enki was instrumental in the creation of humanity and when Enlil, King of the Gods, grew tired of humanity’s noise and decided to destroy them, it was Enki who preserved life on earth by saving Utnapishtim and all the animals in the world.” ref

“The Eridu Genesis may have been the first written record of a long oral tradition of a time around 2800 BCE when the Euphrates rose high above her banks and flooded the region. Excavations at Ur by Leonard Wooley in 1922 CE revealed an eight-foot layer of silt and clay, consistent with the sediment of the Euphrates, which seemed to support the claim of a catastrophic flood in the area around 2800 BCE or 4,822 years ago. Notes of the excavation taken by Wooley’s assistant, Max Mallowan, however, showed the event was clearly a local, not a global, event.” ref

“A proto-Genesis tale of the Garden has been found at Eridu in which Tagtug the Weaver (or gardener) is cursed by Enki for eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree in the garden after being told not to. Eridu is further associated with the tale of the great sage Adapa (son of Enki), who was initiated into the meaning of life and all understanding by the god of wisdom but was ultimately tricked by him and denied the one thing he most wanted: knowledge of life without death, to live forever.” ref

“The desire for immortality features prominently in Mesopotamian literature, and Sumerian writings specifically, and is epitomized in the story of Gilgamesh of Uruk. Uruk’s link to Eridu is significant in that Eridu’s initial importance was later eclipsed by the rise of Uruk. This transference of power and prestige has been seen by some scholars (the historians Samuel Noah Kramer and Paul Kriwaczek among them) as the beginnings of urbanization in Mesopotamia and a significant shift from the rural model of agrarian life to an urban-centered model. The story of Inanna and the God of Wisdom, in which the goddess of Uruk takes away the sacred meh (gifts of civilization) from Enki, the god of Eridu, can be seen as an ancient story symbolizing this shift in the paradigm of Sumerian culture. The prosperous commercial center of Uruk superseded the rural Eridu.” ref

The site Eridu “Tell Abu Shahrain” contains 8 mounds

“Mound 1 – Ziggurat Sacred Area
Mound 2 – Early Dynastic Palace
Mound 3 – 300 × 150 meters in area, 2.5 meters high, 2.2 kilometers SSW of Abū Šahrain, Isin-Larsa pottery found
Mound 4 – 600 × 300 meters in area, 2.5 kilometers SW of Abū Šahrain, Kassite pottery found
Mound 5 – 500 × 300 meters in area, 3 meters high, 1.5 kilometers SE of Abū Šahrain, Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods
Mound 6 – 300 × 200 meters in area, 2 meters high, 2.5 kilometers SW of Abū Šahrain
Mound 7 – 400 × 200 meters in area, 1.5 meters high, 3 kilometers E of Abū Šahrai
Mound 8 – Usalla” ref

Eridu “Tell Abu Shahrain” Myth and legend

“In some, but not all, versions of the Sumerian King List, Eridu is the first of five cities where kingship was received before a flood came over the land. The Sumerian King List mentions two kings of Eridu: Alulim, who ruled for 28,800 years, and Alalngar, who ruled for 36,000 years. Adapa, a man of Eridu, is depicted as an early cultural hero. He was considered to have brought civilization to the city during the time of King Alulim. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was the home of the Abzu temple of the god Enki, the Sumerian counterpart of the Akkadian god Ea, god of deep waters, wisdom, and magic. Like all the Sumerian and Babylonian gods, Enki/Ea began as a local god who, according to the later cosmology, came to share the rule of the cosmos with Anu and Enlil. His kingdom was the sweet waters that lay below the earth (Sumerian ab=water; zu=far).” ref

“The stories of Inanna, goddess of Uruk, describe how she had to go to Eridu in order to receive the gifts of civilization. At first Enki, the god of Eridu, attempted to retrieve these sources of his power but later willingly accepted that Uruk now was the center of the land. This seems to be a mythical reference to the transfer of power northward. Babylonian texts talk of the foundation of Eridu by the god Marduk as the first city, “the holy city, the dwelling of their [the other gods] delight”. In the court of Assyria, special physicians trained in the ancient lore of Eridu, far to the south, foretold the course of sickness from signs and portents on the patient’s body and offered the appropriate incantations and magical resources as cures.” ref

Lament for Eridu

“The fall of early Mesopotamia cites and empires was typically believed to be the result of falling out of favor with the gods. A genre called “city laments” developed during the Isin-Larsa period, of which the Lament for Ur is the most famous. These laments had a numbers of sections (kirugu) of which only fragments have been recovered. Unlike Ur or Akkad we don’t have a good idea of how Eridu actually fell, or when other than in the Early Dynastic period. The Sumerian King List simply says “Then Eridug fell and the kingship was taken to Bad-tibira.” ref

“Its king stayed outside his city as if it were an alien city. He wept bitter tears. Father Enki stayed outside his city as if it were an alien city. He wept bitter tears. For the sake of his harmed city, he wept bitter tears. Its lady, like a flying bird, left her city. The mother of E-maḫ, holy Damgalnuna, left her city. The divine powers of the city of holiest divine powers were overturned. The divine powers of the rites of the greatest divine powers were altered. In Eridug everything was reduced to ruin, was wrought with confusion.” ref

Eridu as Babel?

“Eridu was an important center for trade as well as religion and, at its height, was a great ‘melting pot’ of cultures and diversity, as evidenced in the various forms of artistry found among the ruins. Under the reigns of Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, the city prospered. Bertman writes:

The citizens of ancient Eridu were [justly] proud of another structure [besides Enki’s temple]: a mighty ziggurat edicated around 2100 BCE or 4,122 years ago by Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, and his son. Though its eroded platform stands only about 30 feet today, its base of oven-bked brick measures over 150 by 200 feet and once supported a far more imposing structure.” ref

“The great Ziggurat of Amar-Sin in the center of the city has been associated with the Biblical Tower of Babel from The Book of Genesis and the city itself with the Biblical city of Babel. This association springs from archaeological discoveries which support the claim that the Ziggurat of Amar-Sin more closely resembles the description of the Biblical Tower than any description of the ziggurat at Babylon.” ref

“Further, the Babylonian historian Berossus (l. c. 200 BCE or 2,222 years ago), who was a major source for later Greek historians, seems to be clearly referring to Eridu when he writes of ‘Babel’ as `Babylon’. His `Babylon’ is in the southern marshes of the Euphrates and is patronized by the god of wisdom and fresh water. This association strongly suggests that Eridu is the original biblical Babel as the story of the Great Ziggurat of Amar-Sin was most likely passed down orally before Berossus set the legendary structure down in writing.” ref

“Eridu was abandoned intermittently over the years for reasons which remain unclear and, finally, left behind completely sometime around the year 600 BCE or 2,622 years ago. The cause is most likely overuse of the land. Scholar Lewis Mumford, who has studied the phenomenon of the city both ancient and modern, points out that a city will decline when it is “no longer in a symbiotic relationship with its surrounding land”. This is no doubt what brought down many, if not most of the great cities of Mesopotamia that were not destroyed in conquest.” ref

“As a popular religious and trade center, Eridu no doubt attracted many people as pilgrims and merchants, not to mention its citizens, and so the drain on the surrounding regions’ resources could have been quite significant and, finally, simply too much to endure. It is possible, even likely, that the city was periodically abandoned to allow the land to recover. Whatever the reason for its final abandonment, the ruins of Eridu today are largely wind-swept sand dunes. Very little now remains to remind a visitor of the once-mighty city which was founded and loved by the gods.” ref

“Eridu appears to be one of the earliest settlements in the region, founded c. 5400 BCE or 7,422 years ago, close to the Persian Gulf near the mouth of the Euphrates River. Because of the accumulation of silt at the shoreline over the millennia, the remains of Eridu are now some distance from the gulf at Abu Shahrain in Iraq. Excavation has shown that the city was founded on a virgin sand-dune site with no previous occupation. Piotr Steinkeller has hypothesized that the earliest divinity at Eridu was a Goddess, who later emerged as the Earth Goddess Ninhursag (Nin = Lady, Hur = Mountain, Sag = Sacred), with the later growth in Enki as a male divinity the result of a hieros gamos, with a male divinity or functionary of the temple.” ref

“According to Gwendolyn Leick, Eridu was formed at the confluence of three separate ecosystems, supporting three distinct lifestyles, that came to an agreement about access to fresh water in a desert environment. The oldest agrarian settlement seems to have been based upon intensive subsistence irrigation agriculture derived from the Samarra culture to the north, characterized by the building of canals, and mud-brick buildings. The fisher-hunter cultures of the Arabian littoral were responsible for the extensive middens along the Arabian shoreline, and may have been the original Sumerians. They seem to have dwelt in reed huts. The third culture that contributed to the building of Eridu were the Semitic-speaking nomadic herders of herds of sheep and goats living in tents in semi-desert areas. All three cultures seem implicated in the earliest levels of the city. The urban settlement was centered on a large temple complex built of mudbrick, within a small depression that allowed water to accumulate.” ref

“Kate Fielden reports “The earliest village settlement (c. 5000 BCE or 7,022 years ago) had grown into a substantial city of mudbrick and reed houses by c. 2900 BCE or 4,922 years ago, covering 8–10 ha (20–25 acres)”. Mallowan writes that by the Ubaid period, it was as an “unusually large city” of an area of approx. 20–25 acres, with a population of “not less than 4000 souls”. Jacobsen describes that “Eridu was for all practical purposes abandoned after the Ubaid period”, although it had recovered by Early Dynastic II as there was a Massive Early Dynastic II palace (100 m in each direction) partially excavated there. Ruth Whitehouse called it “a Major Early Dynastic City”. By c. 2050 BCE or 4,069-4,072 years ago, the city had declined; there is little evidence of occupation after that date. Eighteen superimposed mudbrick temples at the site underlie the unfinished Ziggurat of Amar-Sin (c. 2047–2039 BCE or 4,061 years ago). The ziggurat was dated to Amar-Sin based on an inscribed brick. It has since been suggested that the brick was re-used by Nur-Adad (1801 – 1785 BCE or 3,823-3,807 years ago). The finding of extensive deposits of fishbones associated with the earliest levels also shows a continuity of the Abzu cult associated later with Enki and Ea.” ref

“Eridu was abandoned for long periods, before it was finally deserted and allowed to fall into ruin in the 6th century BC. The encroachment of neighboring sand dunes, and the rise of a saline water table, set early limits to its agricultural base so, in its later Neo-Babylonian development, Eridu was rebuilt as a purely temple site, in honor of its earliest history. The urban nucleus of Eridu was Enki‘s temple, called House of the Aquifer (Cuneiform: ???????? ????, E2.ZU.AB; Sumerian: e2-abzu; Akkadian: bītu apsû), which in later history was called House of the Waters (Cuneiform: ????????, E2.LAGAB×HAL; Sumerian: e2-engur; Akkadian: bītu engurru). The name refers to Enki’s realm. His consort Ninhursag had a nearby temple at Ubaid. During the Ur III period, Ur-Nammu had a ziggurat built over the remains of previous temples. Aside from Enmerkar of Uruk (as mentioned in the Aratta epics), several later historical Sumerian kings are said in inscriptions found here to have worked on or renewed the e-abzu temple, including Elili of Ur; Ur-Nammu, Shulgi, and Amar-Sin of Ur-III, and Nur-Adad of Larsa.” ref

The Bible (“flood” knock-off version)

“For much of the 20th century most scholars agreed that the five books of the Pentateuch—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—came from four sources, the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source, each telling the same basic story, and joined together by various editors. Since the 1970s there has been a revolution leading scholars to view the Elohist source as no more than a variation on the Yahwist, and the Priestly source as a body of revisions and expansions to the Yahwist (or “non-Priestly”) material. (The Deuteronomistic source does not appear in Genesis.)” ref

“Scholars use examples of repeated and duplicate stories to identify the separate sources. In Genesis these include three different accounts of a Patriarch claiming that his wife was his sister, the two creation stories, and the two versions of Abraham sending Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. This leaves the question of when these works were created. Scholars in the first half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that the Yahwist is a product of the monarchic period, specifically at the court of Solomon, 10th century BC, and the Priestly work in the middle of the 5th century BC (with claims that the author is Ezra), but more recent thinking is that the Yahwist is from either just before or during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC, and the Priestly final edition was made late in the Exile period or soon after.” ref

“As for why the book was created, a theory which has gained considerable interest, although still controversial is “Persian imperial authorisation”. This proposes that the Persians of the Achaemenid Empire, after their conquest of Babylon 2,539 years ago, agreed to grant Jerusalem a large measure of local autonomy within the empire, but required the local authorities to produce a single law code accepted by the entire community. The two powerful groups making up the community—the priestly families who controlled the Temple and who traced their origin to Moses and the wilderness wanderings, and the major landowning families who made up the “elders” and who traced their own origins to Abraham, who had “given” them the land—were in conflict over many issues, and each had its own “history of origins”, but the Persian promise of greatly increased local autonomy for all provided a powerful incentive to cooperate in producing a single text.” ref

“The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a number of people from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylonia. After the Battle of Carchemish in 2,605 years ago, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieged Jerusalem, resulting in tribute being paid by King Jehoiakim.” ref

“After the fall of Babylon to the Persian king Cyrus the Great 2,539 years ago, exiled Judeans were permitted to return to Judah. According to the biblical book of Ezra, construction of the second temple in Jerusalem began around 2,537 years ago. All these events are considered significant in Jewish history and culture, and had a far-reaching impact on the development of Judaism.” ref

Archaeological studies have revealed that not all of the population of Judah was deported, and that, although Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, other parts of Judah continued to be inhabited during the period of the exile. The return of the exiles was a gradual process rather than a single event, and many of the deportees or their descendants did not return, becoming the ancestors of the Iraqi Jews.” ref

Biblical accounts of the exile

“In the late 7th century BCE, the Kingdom of Judah was a client state of the Assyrianempire. In the last decades of the century, Assyria was overthrown by Babylon, an Assyrian province. Egypt, fearing the sudden rise of the Neo-Babylonian empire, seized control of Assyrian territory up to the Euphrates river in Syria, but Babylon counter-attacked. In the process Josiah, the king of Judah, was killed in a battle with the Egyptians at the Battle of Megiddo (609 BCE/2,609 years ago).” ref

“After the defeat of Pharaoh Necho’s army by the Babylonians at Carchemish 2,605 years ago, Jehoiakim began paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. Some of the young nobility of Judah were taken to Babylon. In the following years, the court of Jerusalem was divided into two parties, in support of Egypt and Babylon. After Nebuchadnezzar was defeated in battle 2,601 years ago by Egypt, Judah revolted against Babylon, culminating in a three-month siege of Jerusalem beginning in 2,598 years ago. Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, died during the siege and was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah) at the age of eighteen. The city fell on 2 Adar(March 16) 2,597 years ago, and Nebuchadnezzar pillaged Jerusalem and its Temple and took Jeconiah, his court and other prominent citizens (including the prophet Ezekiel) back to Babylon. Jehoiakim’s uncle Zedekiah was appointed king in his place, but the exiles in Babylon continued to consider Jeconiah as their Exilarch, or rightful ruler.” ref

Despite warnings by Jeremiah and others of the pro-Babylonian party, Zedekiah revolted against Babylon and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra. Nebuchadnezzar returned, defeated the Egyptians, and again besieged Jerusalem, resulting in the city’s destruction 2,587 years ago. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city wall and the Temple, together with the houses of the most important citizens. Zedekiah and his sons were captured, the sons were executed in front of Zedekiah, who was then blinded and taken to Babylon with many others (Jer 52:10–11). Judah became a Babylonian province, called Yehud, putting an end to the independent Kingdom of Judah. (Because of the missing years in the Jewish calendar, rabbinic sources place the date of the destruction of the First Temple at 3338 HC (2,423 years ago)or 3358 HC (2,403 years ago).” ref

“Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem, his capture of King Jeconiah, his appointment of Zedekiah in his place, and the plundering of the city in 2,597 years ago are corroborated by a passage in the Babylonian Chronicles: 293

In the seventh year, in the month of Kislev, the king of Akkad mustered his troops, marched to the Hatti-land, and encamped against the City of Judah and on the ninth day of the month of Adar he seized the city and captured the king. He appointed there a king of his own choice and taking heavy tribute brought it back to Babylon.” ref

“The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in central Turkey.” ref

List of Flood Myths

Everyone Killed in the Bible Flood? “Nephilim” (giants)?

Was Noah’s Ark found on Mount Ararat as claimed by Ron Wyatt? No, of course not.

Did a 4,500–4,400-year-old Volcano In Turkey Inspire the bible god?

References without links:

Barker, K. L. (Ed.). (2002). New international version, study bible. Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan.

Harris, S. L. (2007). Understanding the bible (7th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Video: The Epic of Gilgamesh: Crash Course World Mythology #26

North America Flood Myths

Algonquian peoples (some): Manabozho Stories
Anishinaabe: Flood Myth – an Algonquin Story Archived 2020-02-20 at the Wayback Machine
Anishinaabe: Turtle Island
Choctaw: A Choctaw Flood Story
Comox people: Legend of Queneesh
Cree: Cree Flood Story
Cree (Knisteneaux): Knisteneaux Flood Myth
Hopi mythology: Entrance into the Fourth World
Inuit: flood myth
Menomini: Manabozho and the Flood
Miꞌkmaq: Two Creators and their Conflicts
Nipmuc: Cautanowwit
Nisqually: In the beginning of the Nisqually world.
Ojibwe: Great Serpent and the Great Flood
Ojibwe: Manabozho and the Muskrat
Ojibwe: Waynaboozhoo and the Great Flood
Orowignarak (Alaska): “A great inundation, together with an earthquake, swept the land so rapidly that only a few people escaped in their skin canoes to the tops of the highest mountains.”
Ottawa: The Great Flood
Saanich (W̱SÁNEĆ): the W̱SÁNEĆ endonym means “the emerging people” in the Saanich dialect because they survived a great flood and settled atop the mountain that emerged as the water receded.” ref

Mesoamerican Flood Myths

Aztec/Mexica

Coxcox

Maya

Popol Vuh: Huracan caused the fall of the wooden people by way of a great flood.” ref

“Many Mesoamerican flood myths have been documented in written form or passed down through in oral tradition. Some clearly have Torah influences, but others are believed by scholars to represent native flood myths of pre-Columbian origin. One myth documented among the Tlapanec and Huaxtecs has a man and his dog as the sole survivors of the deluge, but the man finds out that the dog takes the shape of a woman during the day when he is away. The man and the dog-woman then repopulate the earth. Another myth found among the Aztec and Totonac peoples relates how a human couple survive by hiding in a hollow vessel and start to cook a fish when the water subsides. When the smoke reaches the heavens the gods become angry and punish them by turning them into dogs or monkeys depending on the version.” ref

In Maya mythology as expressed in the Popol Vuh the creator gods attempted to create creatures who would worship them three times before finally succeeding in creating a race of humans that would pay proper homage to their creators. The three previous creations were destroyed. The third race of humans carved from wood were destroyed by a flood, mauled by wild animals, and smashed by their own tools and utensils. Maya flood myths recorded by Diego de Landa and in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel holds that the only survivors of the flood were the four Bacabs who took their places as upholders of the four corners of the sky. In Mesoamerican myth a variety of reasons are given for the occurrence of the flood: either the world was simply very old and needed to be renewed; the humans had neglected their duty to adore the gods; or they were punished for a transgression (cannibalism, for example).” ref

“Many of the modern myths included obviously Christian references such as the murder of Abel by Cain as the reason. In Mesoamerican myth the flood was but one of several destructions of the creation — usually the first of three or four cataclysmic events, although there is some evidence that the Aztecs considered the flood to be the fourth. In many Mesoamerican flood myths, especially recorded among the Nahua (Aztec), peoples tell that there were no survivors of the flood and creation had to start from scratch, while other accounts relate that current humans are descended from a small number of survivors. In some accounts the survivors transgress against the gods by lighting a fire and consequently are turned into animals. Horcasitas acknowledges that the dog-wife tale and the tale of transgression by fire and subsequent turning into animals of the flood survivors may be of pre-Columbian origin.” ref

South America Flood Myths

South America

Canari

Urcocari

Inca

Unu Pachakuti

Mapuche

Legend of Trentren Vilu and Caicai Vilu

Muisca

Bochica

Tupi

Sumé” ref

Acawai (Orinoco)

“Makunaima created the birds and animals and put his son, Sigu, in charge of them. Makunaima created a great tree from which all food plants grew. Agouti discovered it first but kept it secret, but Sigu sent Rat to follow him, and the secret was out. Sigu decided it would be best to chop down the tree and plant the seeds and cuttings so that the food would be popular. This they did, but Iwarrika, the monkey, didn’t help, so Sigu sent him to fetch water with an open-work basket. When the tree was felled, the animals discovered the hollow stump was filled with water containing all kinds of fresh-water fish. But the water began overflowing and threatened to flood the land, so Sigu wove a magic basket and covered the trunk with it. When Iwarrika returned, he saw the basket and, thinking the best fruits were under it, lifted it to look. A torrent of water flooded out and covered the countryside. Sigu led the birds and climbing animals to tall cocorite trees on the highest hill. He led the other animals to a cave and covered its entrance with wax, first giving them a long thorn with which to pierce the wax to determine when the water went down.” ref

“Many days of darkness and storm followed. The red howler monkey cried in anguish so much at the cold and hunger that his throat swelled and remains so until this day. I continued staying with the birds in the cocorite tree, occasionally dropping seeds. I have heard that it took longer and longer for them to hit water as the water dropped, and eventually they thudded on the ground. At that moment, the sky grew lighter. The trumpeter bird was in such a hurry to descend that he flopped into an ant’s nest, and the insects gnawed his legs to the bone, giving his present appearance. Sigu rubbed two pieces of wood together to make fire, but the bush-turkey mistook the first spark for a firefly, gobbled it up, and burned his throat, explaining why turkeys have red wattles today. The alligator was generally unpopular and was accused of having stolen the spark. To try to retrieve the spark, Sigu tore out the animal’s tongue, so alligators today have no tongue to speak of. The plants which had been planted sprang to life, but the fish were not distributed evenly. Monkeys are as curious as ever but are now afraid of water.” ref

Huarochiri

“In the Huarochiri area of Peru, the Quechua-speaking people have a myth of a deluge caused by a God whose presence was not recognized by the people. He sent a flood which wiped all of the villages away except for one woman who had befriended the God and was given instructions to take refuge on a high mountain.” ref

Inca (Peru)

“Pictorial records of ancient Incan rulers show that a flood rose above the highest mountains. All created things perished, except for a man and woman who floated in a box. When the flood subsided, the floating box was driven by the wind to Tiahuanacu, about 200 miles from Cuzco, where the Creator told them to dwell. The Creator molded new people from clay at Tiahuanacu. On each figure, the Creator painted dress and hair style, and he gave each nation distinctive language, songs, and seeds to plant. When he had brought them to life, he ordered them into the earth to travel underground and emerge from caves, springs, tree trunks, etc. in their various homes. He then created the sun, moon, and stars.” ref

“The creator god Viracocha made the earth and sky, and he created stone giants to live in it. After a while the giants became lazy and quarrelsome, and Viracocha decided to destroy them. Some he turned back to stone, and these stone statues still exist at Tiahuanaco and Pucara. I have destroyed the rest with a great flood. When the flood subsided, it left the lakes Titicaca and Poopo, and it left seashells on the Altiplano at elevations of 3660 m. Viracocha saved two stone giants from the flood and with their help created people of their own size. He reached down into Lake Titicaca and drew out the Sun and Moon to provide light so he could admire his new creation. In those days, the Moon was even brighter than the Sun, but the Sun grew jealous and threw ashes onto the Moon’s face.” ref

“A large, rich city once existed on the Altiplano. One day, a group of ragged Indians came and warned the proud inhabitants that the city would be destroyed by earthquake, flood, and fire. Most inhabitants just scoffed and eventually had the ragged people flogged and thrown out. Some of the city’s priests, though, heeded the warning and went to live as hermits in a temple on a hill. Some time later, a red cloud appeared on the horizon. Soon it had grown and covered the area, and its red glow eerily lit the night. Suddenly, with a flash and a rumble, an earthquake destroyed many of the city’s buildings, and a red rain poured down. Other earthquakes and more rain followed, and a flood soon covered the ruined city; this water is Lake Titicaca today. None of the city’s inhabitants survived save the priests. The descendants of the prophets became the Callawayas, wise men of the valleys.” ref

Jivaro (eastern Ecuador)

“Two boys found that the game they had hunted for a feast kept disappearing while they were gone. One stayed in camp and discovered a large snake was responsible. They built a fire to drive the snake out of the hollow in a tree, where it lived. The snake fell in the fire, and one of the brothers ate some of its roasted flesh. He became very thirsty, drank all the water in camp, and went to the lake. He was transformed first into a frog, then a lizard, and finally into a snake, which grew rapidly. His brother was frightened and tried to pull him out, but the lake began to overflow. The snake told his brother that the lake would continue to grow and all the people would perish unless they made their escape. The snake told him to take a calabash and flee to a palm tree on the highest mountain. The brother told his people what was happening, but they didn’t believe him. He fled to the top of a palm tree on the top of a mountain and returned many days later when the waters had subsided. Vultures were eating the dead people in the valley. He went to the lake and carried away his brother in a calabash. [Kelsen, pp. 140-141; see also Roheim, p. 156] A great cloud fell from heaven, turned to rain, and killed all the inhabitants of earth. Only a man and his two sons were saved. One of the sons was cursed by his father; the Jivaros are descended from him. [Gaster, p. 126]” ref

“According to some Jivaro, the flood was survived by a man and woman, who took refuge in a cave on a high mountain along with samples of all the various animal species. [Gaster, p. 126] Two brothers survived the flood in a mountain which rose higher and higher with the flood waters. They went looking for food after the flood, and when they returned, they found food set out for them. To find its source, one of the brothers hid himself and saw two parrots with the faces of women enter their hut and prepare the food. He jumped out, seized one of the birds, and married it. From this union came three boys and three girls from whom the Jivaros are descended. [Gaster, p. 126]” ref

Makiritare (Venezuela)

“The Star people listened to Jaguar and killed and tied a woman. Kuamachi wanted to punish them, but they were too many and too powerful. He went to Wlaha, their chief, and invited them to help in picking dewaka fruit. They were suspicious, but Kuamachi left some fruit with them, and they liked the taste so much they decided to go help pick fruit. Kuamachi and his grandfather Mahanama led them to the trees. The star people climbed the trees and started eating fruit; they weren’t afraid of only two people. Kuamachi dropped one fruit; water came out of it, spread, and caused a flood, covering everything but the trees. Kuamachi thought “canoe,” and a canoe appeared. He and Mahanama stayed in the canoe. Mahanama threw the baskets he was weaving into the water, and they turned into anacondas, crocodiles, caimans, and other deadly animals. Kuamachi set a termite nest on fire, filling the forest with smoke. He and his grandfather got bows and arrows they had hidden in a cave. When they got back and the smoke cleared, the Star people were begging for mercy.” ref

“The two shot them. The people fell down into the water below and were attacked by the dangerous animals. Kuamachi and his grandfather ran out of arrows before shooting Wlaha, the leader of the Star people. He had turned himself into seven people and caught seven arrows. The surviving wounded Star people climbed back into the trees. Wlaha shot the arrows into heaven, and with the help of Ahishama, who changed into the troupial, and Kütto, who became a frog, he formed a ladder which he and the surviving Star people climbed up and became stars. Ahishama became Mars; Wlaha became the Pleiades; Mönettä, the scorpion, became the Big Dipper; and Ihette, One Leg, became Orion’s belt. Kuamachi also decided to climb up. He had Kahshe, the piranha, cut the vine behind him so that the demon Ioroko couldn’t climb up with his basket of poison. Kuamachi brought Akuaniye, the Peace Plant, with him, which he offered to Wlaha, and they stopped fighting. Kuamachi became the Evening Star. Before this, the night sky had been empty and black.” ref

Yanomamo

“The son of Omauwa (one of the first beings) became very thirsty. Omauwa and his brother dug a hole for water, but they dug so deep that water gushed forth and covered the jungle. Many drowned. Some of the first beings survived by cutting down trees and floating on them. They became foreigners and floated away. The Yanomamo survived by climbing mountains. Raharariyoma painted red dots all over her body and plunged into the lake, causing it to recede. Omauwa then caused her to be changed into a rahara, a dangerous snake-like monster that lives in large rivers.” ref

Ancient Near East

Mesopotamian

Iran

The Videvdad mentions that Ahura Mazda warns Yima that there will come a harsh winter storm followed by melted snow. Ahura Mazda advises Yima to construct a Vara (Avestan: enclosure). This he is to populate with the fittest of men and women; and with two of every animal, bird and plant; and supply with food and water gathered the previous summer. Norbert Oettinger argues that the story of Yima and the Vara was originally a flood myth, and the harsh winter was added in due to the dry nature of Eastern Iran, as floods didn’t have as much of an effect as harsh winters. He has argued that the Videvdad 2.24’s mention of melted water flowing is a remnant of the flood myth.” ref

Egypt

“Floods were seen as beneficial in Ancient Egypt, and similar to the case with Japan, Ancient Egypt did not have any cataclysmic flood myths picturing it as destructive rather than fertile force. One “flood myth” in Egyptian mythology involves the god Ra and his daughter Sekhmet. Ra sent Sekhmet to destroy part of humanity for their disrespect and unfaithfulness which resulted in the gods overturning wine jugs to simulate a great flood of blood, so that by getting her drunk on the wine and causing her to pass out her slaughter would cease. This is commemorated in a wine drinking festival during the annual Nile flood.” ref

Africa

“Although the continent has relatively few flood legends, African cultures preserving an oral tradition of a flood include the Kwaya, Mbuti, Maasai, Mandin, and Yoruba peoples.” ref

Abrahamic religions

Genesis flood narrative (retold in Gnostic texts such as the Secret Book of John and Hypostasis of the Archons)
- Noah’s Ark
- Islamic view of Noah

India

Manu and Matsya: The legend first appears in Shatapatha Brahmana (700–300 BCE), and is further detailed in Matsya Purana (250–500 CE). Matsya (the incarnation of Lord Vishnu as a fish) forewarns Manu (a human) about an impending catastrophic flood and orders him to collect all the grains of the world in a boat; in some forms of the story, all living creatures are also to be preserved in the boat. When the flood destroys the world, Manu – in some versions accompanied by the seven great sages – survives by boarding the ark, which Matsya pulls to safety. Norbert Oettinger argues that the story originally was about Yama, but that he was replaced by his brother Manu due to the social context of the authorship of the Shatapatha Brahmana.
Pūluga, the creator god in the religion of the indigenous inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, sends a devastating flood to punish people who have forgotten his commands. Only four people survive this flood: two men and two women.” ref

China/Flood Mythology of China

Korea

Japan

“Japan lacks a major flood myth. The namazu is considered a creature that brings earthquakes, which in turn bring tsunamis, but they do not count as floods in a strict mythological sense. Japanese scholars in the 19th century such as Hirata Atsutane and Motoori Norinaga have used the global flood myths of other cultures to argue for the supremacy of Shinto and promote Japanese nationalism. They claimed that the fact that Japan has no flood myth showed that it was both the centre and highest point on Earth, making it the closest place on Earth to the heavens. As such, to them this demonstrates the veracity of the Japanese creation myth, where Japan comes first and foremost.” ref

Taiwan

Saisiyat: An old white-haired man came to Oppehnaboon in a dream and told him that a great storm would soon come. Oppehnaboon built a boat. Only Oppehnaboon and his sister survived. They had a child, they cut the child into pieces and each piece became a new person. Oppehnaboon taught the new people their names and they went forth to populate the earth.” ref

Philippines

Ifugao: One year, when the rainy season should have come, it did not. When the river dried up, the people dug into its grave, hoping to find the soul of the river. They struck a great spring, which angered the river gods. It began to rain and the river overflowed its banks. The resulting flood wiped out all of humanity save for two survivors, Wigan and Bugan, who repopulated the earth once the waters receded.
Igorot: Once upon a time, when the world was flat and there were no mountains, there lived two brothers, sons of Lumawig, the Great Spirit. The brothers were fond of hunting, and since no mountains had formed there was no good place to catch wild pig and deer, and the older brother said: “Let us cause water to flow over all the world and cover it, and then mountains will rise up.” ref

Thailand

“There are many folktales among Tai peoples, included Zhuang, Thai, Shan and Lao, talking about the origin of them and the deluge from their Thean (แถน), supreme being object of faith.

Pu Sangkasa-Ya Sangkasi (Thai: ปู่สังกะสา-ย่าสังกะสี) or Grandfather Sangkasa and Grandmother Sangkasi, according to the creation myth of those Tai people folktales, were the first man and woman created by the supreme god, Phu Ruthua (ผู้รู้ทั่ว). A thousand years passed, their descendants were wicked and crude as well as not interested in worshiping the supreme god. The god got angry and punished them with a great flood. Fortunately, some descendants survived because they fled into an enormous magical gourd. Many months passed, the supreme god had compassion on the humans that had to live in the difficult period of their life, so he had two deities Khun Luang and Khun Lai climbed down a massive vine linking an island heaven that floated in the sky to the earth in order to drill the enormous gourd and take the surviving humans to a new land. The water levels had been come down already and there was the dry land. The deities helped the surviving people and led them to the new land. When everyone arrived in the land called Mueang Thaen, the two deities taught the humans how to cultivate rice, farming and building structures.” ref

Vietnam

Sơn Tinh – Thủy Tinh
Virtually every Southeast Asian ethnic group in Vietnam tells a story of a great flood that leaves only 2 survivors who must consummate the marriage. Sometimes they are siblings, sometimes a woman and dog, but from this incestuous abnormality is born a gourd or a gourd-shaped lump of flesh, and the gourd becomes the source for various ethnic groups, according to Dang Nghiem Van, who explored the flood myths of Southeast Asia by collecting 307 flood myths in a field research in Vietnam in the early 90s, describing how they all have varying versions of essentially a similar story.” ref

Indonesia

Watuwe the Mystic Crocodile

Malaysia

Polynesia

Australia

Tiddalik: A water-holding frog awoke one morning with an extreme thirst, and began to drink until all the freshwater was consumed. Creatures and plant life everywhere began to die due to lack of moisture. Other animals devised a plan for him to release all of the water he had consumed by making him laugh. As Tiddalik laughed, the water rushed out of him to replenish the lakes, swamps and rivers.
Lizards vs Platypuses: The world became overpopulated with birds, reptiles, and other animals. Therefore, a meeting took place in the Blue Mountains to mitigate this. Tiger Snake planned that birds and animals who have good mobility should migrate to a new country. The lizards, who knew about rainmaking, decided to rid the world of the platypuses, whereby instructing all of their family to perform the rain ceremony. The lizards fled to mountain tops, before a deluge covered the land below, destroying most of the world. The flood eventually ended and there were no platypuses. After some time Carpet Snake observed the existence of platypus. The animals discovered that they were all related to the platypuses, who were then invited back and treated as ancient value. Eventually the head platypus married into the bandicoot family, although platypuses were never comfortable with other animals.” ref

Classical Antiquity

Ancient Greek flood myths

Baltic area

Vineta

Breton

Cornish

Lyonesse

Irish

Lebor Gabála Érenn – Cessair

Welsh

Norse

Bergelmir

Bashkir

Ural-batyr

But is Atlantis real?

No. Atlantis (an allegory: “face story” interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning) can’t be found any more than one can locate the Jolly Green Giant that is said to watch over frozen vegetables. Lol

ref

May Reason Set You Free

There are a lot of truly great things said by anarchists in history, and also some deeply vile things, too, from not supporting Women’s rights to Anti-Semitism. There are those who also reject those supporting women’s rights as well as fight anti-Semitism. This is why I push reason as my only master, not anarchist thinking, though anarchism, to me, should see all humans everywhere as equal in dignity and rights.

We—Cory and Damien—are following the greatness that can be found in anarchist thinking.

As an Anarchist Educator, Damien strives to teach the plain truth. Damien does not support violence as my method to change. Rather, I choose education that builds Enlightenment and Empowerment. I champion Dignity and Equality. We rise by helping each other. What is the price of a tear? What is the cost of a smile? How can we see clearly when others pay the cost of our indifference and fear? We should help people in need. Why is that so hard for some people? Rich Ghouls must End. Damien wants “billionaires” to stop being a thing. Tax then into equality. To Damien, there is no debate, Capitalism is unethical. Moreover, as an Anarchist Educator, Damien knows violence is not the way to inspire lasting positive change. But we are not limited to violence, we have education, one of the most lasting and powerful ways to improve the world. We empower the world by championing Truth and its supporters.

Anarchism and Education

“Various alternatives to education and their problems have been proposed by anarchists which have gone from alternative education systems and environments, self-education, advocacy of youth and children rights, and freethought activism.” ref

“Historical accounts of anarchist educational experiments to explore how their pedagogical practices, organization, and content constituted a radical alternative to mainstream forms of educational provision in different historical periods.” ref

“The Ferrer school was an early 20th century libertarian school inspired by the anarchist pedagogy of Francisco Ferrer. He was a proponent of rationalist, secular education that emphasized reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observation. The Ferrer movement’s philosophy had two distinct tendencies: non-didactic freedom from dogma and the more didactic fostering of counter-hegemonic beliefs. Towards non-didactic freedom from dogma, and fulfilled the child-centered tradition.” ref

Teach Real History: all our lives depend on it.

#SupportRealArchaeology

#RejectPseudoarchaeology

Damien sees lies about history as crimes against humanity. And we all must help humanity by addressing “any and all” who make harmful lies about history.

Anarchists Cory Johnston (in Saskatchewan) and Damien Marie AtHope (in Florida) seek to learn more about the indigenous peoples of the Americas (First Nations/Native Americans) where they both live.

“The First Nations of Saskatchewan are: Nêhiyawak (Plains Cree), Nahkawininiwak (Saulteaux), Nakota (Assiniboine), Dakota and Lakota (Sioux), and Denesuline (Dene/Chipewyan).” ref

“Native Americans in Florida are: Ais, Apalachee, Calusa, Creek, Miccosukee, Seminole, Timucua, and Yemassee.” ref

Investigating and Visiting Several Prehistoric Indian Mounds in Florida; Culture, Religion, and Power

Colonization and Colonialism of Canada: learning about Indigenous Peoples of Canada and Saskatchewan (VIDEO)

Colonization and Colonialism of the USA: learning about Indigenous Peoples of America and Florida (VIDEO)

Colonization and Colonialism of Florida, its Indigenous Peoples, and a little on Masculinity (VIDEO)