Epic Of Gilgamesh Flood Story with the Genesis Flood Story



Thesis statement

Through the flood of Gilgamesh and Genesis, tradtion of the people has been preserved by the god on the true account.

Introduction

The Gilgamesh flood myth is a story of the flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Many scholars believe that the flood myth was added to Tablet XI in the “standard version” of the Gilgamesh Epic by an editor who used the story of Atrahasis Epic. The historical Gilgamesh was a Sumerian King of Uruk whose reign lasted a mythical 126 years around 2700 B.C. in a geographical area that is today know as Iran” (Kennedy, Gioia., & Baucrlcin). Gilgamesh ruled the people of Uruk fearlessly, he was awesomc and a super human which means two third of him was a god. His people were proud of him but yet they fear him. So for this reason they pray that their gods would send another man who is as big and strong as their king Gilgamesh. Enkidu was created to stand up against the king to prefect the people if needed, Gilgamesh and Enkidu became friends after they met. They both went on great adventurcs together; killing Humbab Cedar Forest and slanining the Bull of Heaven. Because of thcir behaviors the gods angry with Enkidu and punish him to dealh.

Gilgamesh was a Sumerian god-hero, considered to have been an ancient king of the city of Uruk. He was the subject of five Sumerian narrative poems and of a more extended one in Akkadian conventionally known as the Epic of Gilgamesh. This is known to us from over two hundred fragments of cuneiform tablets from different periods and sites. The first was read in 1872, and they continue to be found; we now have perhaps two thirds of the original. It is much the longest of Mesopotamian poems and also the most affecting, with its tragic perspective on issues of life and death. Its importance for Homeric studies is that it contains a series of episodes and motifs that have remarkable correspondences in the Iliad and Odyssey (Barlee, 2012, 1-9).

The ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh has earned a preeminent place in world literature because of its universal themes of love, loss, despair, and coming to terms with fate. Its motifs and themes have echoed throughout the early religious traditions of the Middle East. Introduced to the modern world in the late 19th century, the story struck a chord with biblical and classical scholars, who recognized the motifs of a forfeited paradise, initiation by seduction, a catastrophic flood, and the powerful love between heroes, one of whom dies (Barlee, 2012, 1-9). Along with the Enuma Elish, the Epic of Atrahasis, and other discoveries, the Epic of Gilgamesh excited research into the shared Mesopotamian-Mediterranean religious imagination. Today, the stories are studied as biblical and Greek Ur literature and also as classics in themselves.

Pupose of the Flood

The vast majority of people know the story of Noah, but for those who are unaware, in short, ...