Many cultures have some sort of story of a great flood. With our current technology, we can see evidence all around the world of there actually being a historical great flood. With this common history, however, there are still so many differences between the exact details of these flood myths. These variations reflect the culture, geography, and religion of the group that they belong to, and we can learn quite a bit about a culture based on their literature and/or religion involving a great flood.
Deucalion and Pyrrha, printed c. 1690, France (more about images below)
In ancient Roman poet Ovid's version of the myth, Jupiter brought the great flood to earth with the assistance of his brother Neptune in order to punish the humans for being so cruel. Jupiter had spent some time on earth to see what the humans were like after they came about from the destruction of the giants. Jupiter found that he was treated poorly and when he revealed himself as a god, people worshiped him. One man did not: Lycaon, who is the tyrant of Arcadia who had planned to test Jupiter’s claims to godhood by having him murdered in his sleep, and also “secretly” feeding him a butchered emissary from a neighboring land. Jupiter was outraged by this and decided to destroy the humans, but instead of using fire he used a flood so that not all of them would be killed, as the gods need sacrifices from the people. During the flood, Neptune aids Jupiter in covering the earth in water, and after there were only two people left cowering on the top of a mountain, them being the pious Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, Jupiter stopped the flood and spared their lives. This myth of a flood coming to wipe out humanity can be found in many different cultures around the world from throughout the past. Many times this flood is sent by a god or gods to wipe out the people as a form of punishment for wrongdoing and creates a clean slate for the god or gods to start over again. This myth being so common does mean that there are other reasons for the flood, whether that could be a gift or the result of another action are possibilities, but the flood does appear frequently around the world.
For reference, here are some flood stories from cultures across the world.
Ancient Mesopotamian
This myth is one of the oldest flood myths in history; it is recorded on 12 different tablets and among one of the first pieces of literature in history. Gilgamesh was a Sumerian king who lived to the age of 969 years old. Gilgamesh lost a very close friend and began to search for immortality. On his quest, he eventually met an immortal man named Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim had been granted immortality after he built a ship called the Preserver of Life and survived the great flood. Utnapishtim brought all of his relatives and different species of creatures on his ship to try to save mankind, similar to the story of Noah. The great flood occurred because of an angry god, but he showed compassion for Utnapishtim and allowed him a chance to survive and begin a new population.
The most accurate assumption of the flood is around 3000 BCE. The flood story has many similarities as the common flood story of Noah in the Genesis flood. The Sumerian king, Gilgamesh reigned as king for 126 years. The story is said to have been proven different from the flood story involving Noah because the repopulation aspects of the myths are very different from each other. This myth was a form of punishment where Utnapishtim was given an opportunity to save himself as well as other relatives and creatures.
Aztec
The Aztec flood story is said to be very similar to the modern day story of the flood involving Noah. The myth begins with a man named Nata and his wife Nena, the couple is warned by Titlacauan about an upcoming flood. The couple decided to hollow out a cypress tree and then Titlacauan sealed them safely inside and instructed them that they may each eat one ear of maize. The story then takes quite a turn from the original story of Noah. The flood occurs, but no one is killed but instead turned into fish. Nata and Nena disobeyed the Titlacauan and ate fish, he learned what they had done and punished them by turning them both into dogs. The myth ends with the population of the earth not destroyed but a large portion turned into fish with two dogs.
This myth is believed to have taken place around 1452 BCE. This Aztec population was heavily reduced and the waters are now full of fish that were once humans of the land. This flood was a form of punishment against the Aztec people for the crimes and sins against other nations. There was punishment which lead to the flood, but there was also punishment which lead to the husband and wife being turned into dogs for their disobedience against Titlacauan.
Depiction of Aztec flood story, Diego Duran, c. 1500
Incan
In the Incan version of their flood myth, the creator god and supreme being of the world, Con Tici Viracocha created a race of giants out of stones. Although these people that were created became unruly and did not show their love and support to the god who made them. Viracocha decided to destroy them for their unruliness with a great flood, known as the Unu Pachakuti, and wiped them from the earth, turning them into stone and allowing the flood to break them apart. Viracocha then created humans from these smaller stones of the now destroyed giants he once made.
This myth of a flood from the peoples around Lake Titicaca from between 1100-1600 BCE. This flood myth is different from some others as there are two versions of it, the one above being from the Tiahuanaco, or the people who came before the Incan civilization rose, and lived in the same region around Lake Titicaca. This myth does remain the same between the pre-Incas and the Incans themselves, except that in the Incan tradition the giants that were made and punished by Viacocha are said to be the Tiahuanaco, as a way to describe how their civilization had started from the earlier peoples.
Sumerian
The Sumerian creation and flood myths come right after each other in their order, which is partially due to a missing section. In their creation, gods An, Enlil Enki and Ninhursanga created the Sumerians and they were given animals to survive. After the missing section of their myths, the gods had decided that they would not save man from a great incoming flood. There is a king, Zi-ud-sura, who learns of this with his gudug, a sort of priest. There is another version, in the Akkadian language, where a hero, Akkadian Atrahasis is warned by Enki, the god of water, and told to construct an ark to survive, which is also thought to have been in the missing section of the Sumerian story as Enki is suggested to have given similar instructions in that part. The flood was caused by a week-long storm which ended after Utu, the god of the sun, appears and sacrifices both an ox and a sheep.
The Sumerian creation story and flood myth were discovered in the Eridu Genesis which was uncovered in 1893 in Nippur, an ancient Sumerian city being excavated at the time. The tablet was found to be written in the Sumerian language and dated to be from 1600 BCE, although there was unfortunately a missing portion of the tablet that left out a portion between the creation and flood myth of the people. This missing portion makes it difficult to decipher exactly what the people of the time would have done to cause the gods to turn on mankind and wipe them off the earth. The missing portion could have contained a reason for the gods not saving man from the storm, which may have also shown us an aspect of their ancient lives, such as whether or not their ancestor were thought to be pius and thankful to the gods and of course whether the gods were the actual cause of the flood or if it was nature and they were not going to intervene as in some other ancient cultures. Without the missing section all we can do is infer what we think they would have believed, but no way to fully determine the ancient thoughts on the power of the gods.
Norse
The Norse story of the great flood actually involves no water. Back when the only beings on Earth were giants (or 'jotun'), the very first giant was Ymir. The god Odin slays Ymir, whose blood then covers the Earth. The only two survivors of this flood are Ymir’s grandson, the jotun Bergelmir, and his wife, who created a sort of ark, just as Noah did in the Old Testament’s flood. Unlike the Old Testament, however, the flood was not a punishment sent by the gods, but merely a consequence of the gods’ actions. One major cultural difference is that the Norse believed that their gods could be killed. There’s surprisingly little online information about this story, and the versions differ slightly from each other, but each version makes it clear that this was no punishment, but instead something that happened naturally. Some versions, like John Lindon's Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs, also include that Ymir’s body was used to form the Earth. The idea of the Earth being some sort of deity or higher being is similar to that of Greek and Roman mythology, but there’s still that significant difference that the flood wasn’t water: it was blood. The Norse were known as being a very warlike people and for their bloodlust. Some Norse were berserkers, or warriors that would fight with an intense rage even until they died (this rage was due to them taking mushrooms before charging into battle). So, perhaps to the Norse, bloodshed was such a large part of their lifestyle that they related it to a historical great flood.
Egyptian
Another ‘great flood’ that doesn’t involve water is one of Egyptian culture. In the myth, the sun god Ra becomes angry with how mankind is behaving, just as in the Old Testament flood story. He sends the goddess Sekhmet, who is a lioness and is known as the ‘Eye of Ra’ to punish mankind. She killed so many that Ra started to regret his decision, but when he ordered her to stop, she would not. So Ra mixed pomegranate with beer and poured it in her path. She became drunk and fell asleep, allowing Ra to control her again, saving the human race.
Sekhmet is known also as the “Red Lady”, and is associated with the desert sands and with her blood-lust. She is sent to punish the humans, but it ends up being the flood that saves them, which seems quite opposite to the Old Testament flood story, in which the flood IS the punishment that kills the human race. A flood to Egyptians, because of their geographical location, has a much different connotation than to many other cultures, because the Egyptians depended on the yearly flooding of the Nile to grow crops and survive in the desert. So, although there is a flood story in Egyptian culture just as in many others, its meaning is extremely different.
Cree
Wisagatcak the Trickster built a dam to capture the Great Beaver. The Beaver used his magic to stop Wisagatcak from spearing him outside his lodge, but the Beaver was still angry at the Trickster. The next day, Wisagatcak realized that even though he had taken down the dam, water was still collecting in the area. All the beavers began to work together and use their magic, and soon there was no dry land left for Wisagatcak to stand on. He made a raft and took animals onto it. He sent out the muskrat to look for land, but the muskrat drowned. The crow couldn’t find land either. Eventually, Wisagatcak used magic of his own with the wolf on his raft. The two of them grew moss on the raft until it spread out and became land. Sometimes, water leaks through the original raft, which is the Cree explanation for where natural springs come from.
Beavers and other wildlife are extremely important to Cree culture. One common theme in Native American folklore is the idea of angering nature or divine, powerful beings and being taught a lesson from it. This flood story is an extension of that. The idea of the animals and the raft are similar to the Old Testament.
Chinese
In China, the flood myth was said to be a great problem, one day a farmer discovered and captured a “thunder god” and was able to imprison him. He went into town to warn his children to stay away from the god and where he was being held. The children ignored the farmer and went to see the thunder god and ended up releasing him because they felt sorry for him. Since the children released him, the god showed gratitude toward them and gave them a warning of a great flood that was about to happen. The thunder god gave the children a big gourd and instructed them to stay inside it and they will be safe from the flood waters. The flood came and destroyed the town, the brother and sister were the only two who survived the flood. The children were left to repopulate the land but were very uncomfortable as the incest taboo was very strong. The children were given a special pass from the heavens and decided to marry and start their new family.
This myth originates from a revenge plot from the thunder god who was captured by the farmer. This flood myth was a result of punishment by the thunder god, he showed compassion for only two individuals which happened to be the two children of the farmer who showed sympathy and freed the trapped thunder god. The thunder god is a well known mythical character throughout Chinese history who punishes people for secret crimes.
Korean
In the Korean myth of a great flood, there was a storm that turned the entire world into a sea, except for a brother and sister at the top of a mountain. The world was drained of the water, and when the two siblings went down there was to longer anyone left, and they were the last of mankind. The brother and sister ascended two different mountain peaks to see if there was any sign of others, and when at the top the sister rolled down a “bedstone”, a female stone, and the brother rolled down a “runner” stone, a male stone. These had collided together in the valley, and the two interpreted that as a sign of marriage, which led to them continuing humanity.
Korean mythology is a mix of stories from the written and oral histories. In Korean, the written myths are mostly about the founding of the peoples and kingdoms and the monarchs that ruled throughout their history. The oral traditions are much more diverse and were sung and passed down by shamans throughout time, as these narratives were used while invoking the gods and telling the ancient tales about them and their actions in the past. Much of these oral stories account for why certain geographical locations are named as they are, such as in another variation of the flood myth, Gori Peak was named after the boats tied to it to stay in place during a great flood and the ancient village of Baeneomijae translates to “boat crossing path, as in another version of this myth boats travelled through this area during the storm. However, one big aspect of this flood myth from Korea that separates it from others is its altruistic aspect of the two siblings heading to the top of mountains to look for other survivors. In other myths it is usually just established that the survivors in the story do not have any thoughts of looking for others and establishing themselves as being responsible for “restarting” humanity. This aspect of the myth could be due to changes in the ancient Korean culture as Buddhism began to enter the communities in 370 AD, and changed aspects of the previous shamanistic religion.
The Deluge, Francis Danby (1840)
Filipino
In the Philippines, the flood myth starts a long time ago when the world was flat and there were no mountains. Two sons of the god Lumawig, the Great Spirit, enjoyed hunting but since there was nowhere they could not hunt for deers and pigs, or people, the brothers decided to set a trap and flood the world so that they could both capture the animals running from the flood, but also to allow mountains to form so that they could hunt. After causing the water to cover the earth they checked the trap which successfully caught many animals and people. However, Lumawig saw this and noticed there was only one place that had not been covered, where there sat a brother and sister from Pokis. Lumawig spoke to the two, seeming surprised they survived and they responded by saying they were cold. Lumawig decides to send his dog and deer to fetch fire and bring it to the two. The pair of animals struggled to get across the flood with the fire without it going out, so Lumawig took the flame himself and built the siblings a great fire which made the water disappear from the surface of the world, bringing it back to how it was before but now mountains had appeared. The brother and sister married and took it upon themselves to continue humanity.
The Igorot, whose name literally translates to “people from the mountains”, are the people who inhabit the northern part of the Philippines living in tropical forests and rugged grasslands that are situated higher from the sea level than other areas in the region. This part of the Philippines is known for being frequently hit by tropical cyclones throughout history, as it is located on the northern land mass situated between the South China Sea, to the west, and the Philippine Sea, to the east. Living in this mountainous region had meant that the people would rely on the mountainous terrain to provide them with their means to survival. The animals that inhabited this region, being a lot of chicken and pigs, would be found in this area along with plants like rice and sayote leaves which are found in these pacific regions. The combination of the animals and vegetation that were relied upon for survival which came from the mountains would explain the importance of them in the mythological history of these peoples.
Clearly, the way that history is preserved through literature is greatly affected by the culture, geography, and other historical events of the area. Each of these myths is a reflection of the beliefs and values of the people that have told them, and the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha is no different. The flood myth is a wide-spread example of how we can use history and culture to dive into the origin of the world's literature.
Contributor Bios
-Max Sibbernsen is currently a third year student from Omaha, Nebraska. He is majoring in Biology and also participates on the Shotgun Sports Team for Hastings College.
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Citations
-Sumerian Flood
Spar, Ira. “Mesopotamian Creation Myths.” Metmuseum.org, Apr. 2009, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/epic/hd_epic.htm.
Mark, Joshua J. “Eridu Genesis.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 17 Oct. 2020, www.ancient.eu/Eridu_Genesis/.
-Korean Flood
국립민속박물관 . “Great Flood.” Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture, folkency.nfm.go.kr/en/topic/detail/5483.
Cho, Francisca. “." Encyclopedia of Religion. . Encyclopedia.com. 16 Oct. 2020 .” Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia.com, Oct. 2005, www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/korean-religion.
-Filipino Flood
Ashliman, D.L. Flood Myths from the Philippines, 2003, www.pitt.edu/~dash/flood-phil.html.
“Igorot Cuisine.” What Is the Importance of Food in a given Culture?, www.mtholyoke.edu/~lopez26a/classweb/World politics website/food.html.
Kuiper, Kathleen. “Igorot.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Igorot.
-Incan Flood
“Mythphile.” Mythphile RSS, 15 Jan. 2011, www.mythphile.com/2011/01/world-flood-myths/.
Jarus, Owen. “Tiwanaku: Pre-Incan Civilization in the Andes.” LiveScience, Purch, 1 Feb. 2013, www.livescience.com/26792-tiwanaku.html.
-Chinese Flood
“A Flood of Myths and Stories.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/a-flood-of-myths-and-stories/.
“A Chinese Creation and Flood Myth.” Chinese Creation and Flood Myth, 2012, www.pitt.edu/~dash/chinaflood.html.
-Aztec Flood
“Aztec Timeline.” Aztec History,2006, www.aztec-history.com/aztec-timeline.html.
“A Flood of Myths and Stories.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/a-flood-of-myths-and-stories/.
-Ancient Mesopotamia Flood
Mark, Joshua J. “The Atrahasis Epic: The Great Flood & the Meaning of Suffering.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 17 Oct. 2020, www.ancient.eu/article/227/the-atrahasis-epic-the-great-flood--the-meaning-of/.
“The Flood: Mesopotamian Archaeological Evidence: National Center for Science Education.” The Flood: Mesopotamian Archaeological Evidence | National Center for Science Education, ncse.ngo/flood-mesopotamian-archaeological-evidence.
-Cree Flood
“Cree Flood Myth.” A Cree Flood Story, www.native-languages.org/creestory4.htm.
-Egyptian Flood
“Sekhmet.” Ancient Egypt Online, ancientegyptonline.co.uk/sekhmet/.
-Norse Flood
Norse Mythology: a Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Media Used and Significance
The Deluge, Francis Danby (1840)
- Danby was a French painter in the Romantic era, and would have most likely been a Christian. His artwork is a depiction of the Christian scene, including an angel and other elements of a heavily religious period.
Deucalion and Pyrrha, printed c. 1690, France
- In the 1600s in France, there were many religious wars, and the distinction between Christianity and myth became clearly emphasized. This depiction demonstrates how different the Greek and Roman flood myth is different from the Christian and Hebrew story.
Depiction of Aztec flood story, Diego Duran, c. 1500
- Duran was a Spaniard, which likely greatly affected the depiction of this myth. Spain's invasion of Central America caused a very one-sided view of Aztec culture, so accounts of what the Aztecs believed could be highly inaccurate.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/An_aztec_ritual_for_flooding.jpg
