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→Babylonian flood story
==Babylonian flood story==
==Babylonian flood story==
Excavations in the ancient city of [[Ninevah]] unearthed 12 clay tablets detailing the story of a mythical king of Uruk named Gilgamesh, and written between 2750-2500 B.C. [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/index.html] Tablet 11 of this ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' had the hero learn the secret of immortality by going to the island of Utnapishtim, where he discovers that Utnapishtim is also the builder of the ark which carried man and animals on the seas of the flood.
Excavations in the ancient city of [[Ninevah]] in 1853 unearthed 12 clay tablets detailing the story of a mythical king of Uruk named Gilgamesh, and written between 2750-2500 B.C. [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/index.html] Tablet 11 of this ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' had the hero learn the secret of immortality by going to the island of Utnapishtim, where he discovers that Utnapishtim is also the builder of the ark which carried man and animals on the seas of the flood.
:''Six days and seven nights came the wind and flood,the storm flattening the land.When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding,the flood was a war--struggling with itself like a woman writhing (in labor).The sea calmed, fell still, the whirlwind (and) flood stopped up.I looked around all day long--quiet had set in and all the human beings had turned to clay!'' [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm]
:''Six days and seven nights came the wind and flood,the storm flattening the land.When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding,the flood was a war--struggling with itself like a woman writhing (in labor).The sea calmed, fell still, the whirlwind (and) flood stopped up.I looked around all day long--quiet had set in and all the human beings had turned to clay!'' [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm]
The tablet has remarkable similarites to the Biblical account, such as the collection of animals; the violence of the Flood; the landing on a mountain (Mt Nimush); and the sending forth of a dove. However, differences abound: the ark is cube-shaped; such a vessel actually being built would have been tossed and spun around severely in the waves. Utnapishtim refers to the gods being ''frightened by the Flood, and retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu. The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall''; a sacrifice by Utnapishtim after he left the ark collected the gods ''like flies over a (sheep) sacrifice'' [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm].
The tablet has remarkable similarites to the Biblical account, such as the collection of animals; the violence of the Flood; the landing on a mountain (Mt Nimush); and the sending forth of a dove. However, differences abound: the ark is cube-shaped; such a vessel actually being built would have been tossed and spun around severely in the waves. Utnapishtim refers to the gods being ''frightened by the Flood, and retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu. The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall''; a sacrifice by Utnapishtim after he left the ark collected the gods ''like flies over a (sheep) sacrifice'' [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm].
==References==
==References==