Certain legends have fascinated people through history, being passed down generations through oral tradition and hearsay. Noahs Ark is a prime example of a story many people should be well acquainted with perhaps as sleepy-eyed children on a bright Sunday morning or through gazing at a cheerful illustration featuring a bearded man on a large boat with giraffes, hippos, and lions. It surprises many that the tale is strikingly similar to a story featuring a mythical Sumerian king named Gilgamesh. Many believe that the Story of the Flood is an adaptation of Noahs Ark but in actuality it is one of the oldest pieces of literature known to man. These two stories because of the timelines it takes place in have many differences yet they share a lot in likeness. Both stories although they take place in two different worlds their plots resemble each other.
One of which is that both Utnapishtim and Noah are both acting for a higher power. In The Story of the Flood, Ea the leader of the gods chooses Utnapishtim to create a boat with specific qualifications so a select amount of humans can survive therefore saving humanity from extinction. In Noahs Ark, Noah is on Gods good side so God spares him and his family by telling him to create a boat with detailed instructions so his loved ones and a pair of every animals can survive and reproduce on the earth. Another comparison is that the gods in both stories were livid at mankind. With the gods in The Story of the Flood they were angry because the humans were overpopulating the world thus making too much noise. So the gods decided to rid the world of the humans making the world a quiet place once again. With Noahs god, he was irate because the humans became corrupt and were becoming evil. For that reason he decided to would purify the world by wiping away all the evil with the flood.
The Essay on Towneley Cycle Story of Noah and Gill
The Towneley cycle is a story line created in the seventeenth centaury with playwrights who expressed a significant amount of hatred against. Hatred was the major theme put forwad by the playwrights. Male superiority, is another element of the Towneley cycle as the as this stories portrayed the male as angelic representations of human beings whose only major problem were their wife’s who had to ...
So in general both the gods decision was to annihilate the humans. The final similarity is that the duo of Utnapishtim and Noah both used boats to survive the outpour of water. Noah had built an ark that consisted of three stories big enough to fit in all the animals and his family. Utnapishtim had constructed a boat that was more like a house because it had a square shape (at least in the picture).
Both these boats had to cater to the size of their passengers. The means by which Noah and Utnapishtim survive the flood are identical. Although these two stories had a lot in common, they do have their distinct differences.
The first and most obvious is that they took place in different worlds so to speak. Utnapishtim lived in a world of epic heroes and gods. He lived in a world full of mythical proportions. Noah on the other hand lived in a world of misery and chaos. People were going around committing sins and slowly becoming evil. So basically people in Utnapishtims time period were more happy go lucky then they were in Noahs time period. Another distinction was the immortality factor. At the end of The Story of the Flood Enlil after seeing the wrong he committed, came before Utnapishtim and his wife and bestowed immortality to them thus making them live forever. Noah on the other hand after surviving the whole ordeal was granted a prolonged life instead of an immortal life.
He lived over 950 years before he died. The last difference is that they had different gods with different personalities. In The Story of the Flood not only did they have many different gods but also their purposes are different. Utnapishtims gods acted like they were more important then the humans compared to Noahs god who treated them like his children. They also dictated the humans unlike Noahs god. Noahs god was more considerate to his peoples needs and he treated them more like his equal.
Those are the main distinctions between the two. So generally, although these two tales have much in common both are original in their own ways. Their situations were the same but the way it all came into effect was different. They both worked for their gods but both gods had a different agenda from one another. They both built their boats although they constructed it differently. So in conclusion they are both historical in many ways and will continue to be passed down for many generations.
The Term Paper on Findleys God Noah Gods People
Bible And Literature: The Flood Narrative Analyzed In The Style Of Northrop e Frye (Timothy Findley Used As A Critic/Commentary) The flood as found in Genesis is a multidimensional and an archetypal source of metaphor and myth. The flood is an example of metaphorical and mythological language that provides foundational constructs upon which other aspects of the Biblical text and other works can be ...
