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Flood Myths

Flood Myths. Story Patterns of The Flood. Productive sacrifice The Deluge cleanses and gives rebirth Primordial Chaos Purification by water Baptism overcoming destructive chaos The dark waters of the unconscious “Re-boot”…”Let’s start over”. Mesopotamian Flood Story.

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Flood Myths

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  1. Flood Myths OneWorldInsight.com

  2. Story Patterns of The Flood • Productive sacrifice • The Deluge cleanses and gives rebirth • Primordial Chaos • Purification by water • Baptism overcoming destructive chaos • The dark waters of the unconscious • “Re-boot”…”Let’s start over” OneWorldInsight.com

  3. Mesopotamian Flood Story • This is recorded in the ancient tale of Gilgamesh and was the source for the later Bible story • This versions depicts the whims of the gods OneWorldInsight.com

  4. Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the gods in council, “The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible…”So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind. But Ea because of his oath warned me (Ziusudra) in a dream. I was told to tear down my house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save my soul. Let this boat be equal in length and width, her deck be roofed like the vault that covers the abyss, and then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures… OneWorldInsight.com

  5. In the first light of dawn all my household gathered around me, the children brought pitch and the men whatever was necessary. On the fifth day I laid the keel and the ribs, then I made fast the planking. The ground-space was one acre, each side of the deck measured on hundred and twenty cubits (a cubit is one forearm length or about 20 inches) making a square. I built six decks below, seven in all… On the seventh day the boat was complete… (120 cubits = 200 feet) OneWorldInsight.com

  6. With the first light of dawn a black cloud came from the horizon; it thundered within where Adad, lord of the storm was riding…A stupor of despair went up to heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight to darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup... Even the gods were terrified at the flood. Then Ishtar the sweet-voiced Queen of Heaven cried out “Alas the days of old are turned to dust because I commanded evil”… The great gods of heaven and of hell wept, they covered their mouths. OneWorldInsight.com

  7. For six days and nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world… All mankind was turned to clay. The surface of the sea stretches as flat as a roof-top. In the distance there appeared a mountain, and there the boat grounded. When the seventh day dawned I loosed a dove and let her go…but she returned. I then loosed a raven, she saw that the waters had retreated, she ate, she flew around, she cawed, and she did not come back. Then I threw everything open to the four winds, I made a sacrifice and poured out a libation on the mountain top. OneWorldInsight.com

  8. When the gods smelled the sweet savour, they gathered like flies over the sacrifice. Then the god Istar said, “Let all the gods gather round the sacrifice, except Enlil. He shall not approach this offering, for without reflection he brought the flood that consigned my people to destruction. When Enlil had come, when he saw the boat, he was wrath and swelled with anger at the gods… “Not one was to have survived the destruction”. Then to Enlil he was said, “Who is there of the gods that can devise without Ea? It is Ea alone who knows all things. ”Then Ea asked of Enlil how could he so senselessly bring down the flood. OneWorldInsight.com

  9. And Ea said to the gods, “It was not I that revealed the secret of the gods; the wise man (Utnapishtim) learned it in a dream. Now take your counsel what shall be done with him.” Then the god Enlil went up into the boat, took me by the hand and my wife and made us enter the boat and kneel down on either side. He touched our forehead to bless us saying. “In time past Utnapishtim was a mortal man; henceforth he and his wife shall live in the distance at the mouth of the rivers.” OneWorldInsight.com

  10. Thus it was that the gods took me and placed me here to live in the distance, at the mouth of the rivers…” (in Mesopotamia) OneWorldInsight.com

  11. Hebrew Noah Flood Story • Based on older Babylonian story • Older story is based on a whim of the gods • This time the flood is punishment and Noah is saved so humankind can be reborn in a cleansed state OneWorldInsight.com

  12. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose… And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually… And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping things… But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord… OneWorldInsight.com

  13. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and , behold, I will destroy them with the earth…Make thee an ark of gopher wood…the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits… I bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh…but with thee will I establish my covenant… OneWorldInsight.com

  14. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives… And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights…. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. OneWorldInsight.com

  15. And at the end of forty days, Noah opened the window to the ark… He sent forth a raven…then he sent forth a dove. He stayed another seven days and again sent forth the dove out into the darkness. The dove returned in the evening with a olive leaf so Noah knew that the waters were abated… After Noah left the ark he built an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake… OneWorldInsight.com

  16. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the Lord made a covenant with Noah and to his sons not to destroy the earth with another flood. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And the sons of Noah that went forth from the Ark were Hem, Ham, and Japheth. These three sons of Noah repopulated the earth. OneWorldInsight.com

  17. Chinese Yu Flood Story • One of the oldest stories in Chinese mythology • Practical matter of channeling an unruly river to make more land for cultivation • Historical & mythological account of this event OneWorldInsight.com

  18. (Historical account) Everywhere the tremendous flood waters were wreaking destruction. The people were groaning. A ruler named Ti commanded Kun to deal with this flood. Nine years Kun labored without success to dam up the waters. At the end of that time Kun was executed at the Feather Mountain. Kun’s son Yu was ordered to continue the task. Yu, rather than trying to dam the river, instead re-channeled with waters back into the sea. He thus conquered the flood and made the land fit for habitation. As a reward he was given the throne by Shun and became founder of the Hsia dynasty. OneWorldInsight.com

  19. (Mythological account) On being ordered to deal with the flood, Kun stole from the Lord the “swelling mold”, a magical soil which had the property of ever swelling in size. With this he tried to build dams to hold back the waters. He failed. When the Lord discovered this theft he executed Kun at Feather Mountain. Kun’s body remained for three years without decomposing, until someone cut it open with a sword and Yu emerged from his father’s belly. OneWorldInsight.com

  20. Yu came down from on high to continue his father’s work. He was helped by a winged dragon which, going ahead of him, trailed its tail over the ground and thus marked the places where channels should be dug. Yu succeeded in draining the great rivers to the sea, expelling snakes and dragons from the marshlands. “Were it not for Yu we would indeed be fish!” OneWorldInsight.com

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