A Great Flood In The Yoruban And Mayan Culture

What is The Great Flood? Throughout history, there have always been works of literature explaining a flood that had taken place, causing the human population to almost be extinct. Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh, both containing this very significant and important flood, have many similarities and differences showing their parallels, which include how they were ordered to save the human population, the differences and similarities in the test to find land, and facts about why and how long it lasts. All of these things began to prove the significant parallels within the two well-known works of literature.

In both Gilgamesh and Noah and the Flood, man’s wickedness leads to death, destruction, and rebirth all caused by billions of gallons of water sweeping the earth’s surface. The flood in both stories destroys most of mankind. The floods represent rebirth and a new beginning for mankind, as well as the gods and God’s wrath. In Gilgamesh the gods decide to destroy mankind by flooding the earth for six days and nights. Utnapishtim is chosen to build a boat in order to restart mankind after the flood. In the Bible God also decides to flood the earth due to the increase in wickedness. God chooses Noah to build an ark and store seven pairs of every clean animal and two of every other kind of animal on it

The two flood myths, The Voice, The Flood, and The Turtle, and Genesis follow a similar story line as they attempt to depict the punishment placed upon humans for their misconduct on Earth. The myth tells the tale of how a certain figures suffer the consequences of their actions. These flood myths present the idea of a select group people receive a warning from a higher being telling them to construct a form of shelter that will protect them from a flood that will be used to wipe out the people, or monsters, that are behaving poorly.

When is excessive pride considered Dangerous? That is the question people have been asking throughout history. Based on your beliefs, one may deem that their actions on this earth is worth far more than the consequences you could receive in heaven. On the other hand, The Puritans were strong believers of the total opposite Ideology. During the 1600s in Salem Massachusetts the majority of the population were Puritans, who believed that their solitary goal in life was to please God to secure their place in heaven. In order to secure his place in heaven, John Proctor committed an honorable act to hang instead of admitting to any relation to Satan.

In the Bible the reason God sent the flood was because he saw that there was a lot of sinful things in the world and he was upset. He saw that Noah and his family were the only ones that stayed true to want God wanted in his people. In the Epic of Gilgamesh the Gods and Goddesses saw that the people in the earth were evil and they decided that they wanted to completely restart the world and kill every human and animal. Ea went against the other Gods and told Utnapishtim in a dream to build a boat because he saw something in Utnapishim that was not in other people. In the Navajo flood story the Gods did not send the flood to kill the people or to restart the world. The flood happened in this story because the coyote stole the sea monsters baby, and the sea monster wanted his baby

God was unhappy with man and decided to destroy both men and beast because of their wickedness. But God found favor in Noah and his family. Noah had to get ready because a flood was coming.

The Hebrew Flood story of Noah and his obligation to preserve man kind after God had punished all living creatures for their inequities parallels The Epic of Gilgamesh in several ways. Even though these two compilations are passed on orally at different times in history the similarities and differences invoke deliberation when these stories are compared. Numerous underlining themes are illustrated throughout each story. Humans are guilty of transgressions and must be punished, God or Gods send a flood as punishment to destroy this evil race, a person is selected by the gods to build a craft that will withstand the flood and allow this person to create a new race. An

Legends of a great flood exist in the records of many cultures: the Middle East, Asia, South America. One Babylonian document in particular, “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” parallels the story of Noah and the flood. The Bible presents the flood as an act of God against rebellious people, not merely an accident of geography or climate. The churning waters described stand as a

Throughout the world, there exists thousands of cultures and myths, separated from each other by thousands of miles and geographic barriers, by some means these cultures share countless symbols. To understand why the Judeo-Christian myth of Genesis, Shinto creation myth, and Hindu creation myth and the Mahabharata are so comparable an individual must understand how these stories formed and changed over time. Myths, originally told orally by storytellers were formed to explain the world and beliefs of their respective individuals. One must also understand that if myths are viewed literally the imagery is distinct but when examined figuratively the symbolism shown is identical. It is evident that certain symbols and motifs transcend human

In both versions of the flood story something angers God (Genesis) and the gods (Gilgamesh). Looking closely at both stories, the reason for taking out humanity immensely differs. The humans are so wicked and evil: “It repented the Lord that he had made man on earth, and grieved him at his heart (“Genesis

In both works there is a Supreme being and a being that has come to the realization that the inhabitants of earth were wicked. Therefore, God in his infinite wisdom destroyed the earth with a flood. However, In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods influenced by Enlil were counseled to make the decision to destroy the earth. In the Hebrew Bible, the story of Noah was mentioned briefly detailing God’s punishment on all living creatures for their bitterness correlates in The Epic of Gilgamesh in several ways. Even though these literary works are passed on orally at contrasting times in history the correlations implore deliberation when these stories are compared. Numerous themes are illustrated throughout each story. Humans were found guilty of moral violation and were sentenced by God with flood as punishment to destroy this immoral behavior. An investigation of the inconsistency and similarities of both flood stories exposes the relationship between the Gods and the story’s hero, insight on each culture moral perspective on friendship and values as it applies to the flood, and each story’s common

One very interesting thing about the Mayans was that they had a very different view of creation than most common belief systems. The Mayans believed that the earth was just a plain old watery void to start out. Then, animals and plants came into the earth’s wide picture (Jarus). It was just animals and plants on the planet--no humans.

In “Genesis”, God has a fatherly relationship with the humans and as a result he chooses to bring a flood to destroy all of mankind for a specific reason. God chooses to kill all of humankind because they are noxious beings and need to be destroyed to rid the world of poisonous beings. “When the Lord saw that man had done much evil and that his thoughts and inclinations were always evil, he was sorry that he had made man on earth,”(6:5-7). God created humankind and because of the way their perilous acts he decided to destroy his

Someone once wrote “The Lord saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time”(Noah and the flood pg.171). “ The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel” (the Epic of Gilgamesh pg.147). Both stories from two different cultures but despite the differences in the heroes, their gods, and the flood stories in “Noah and the Flood” and “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” both of these stories appear to refer to the same historical event the great flood.

The next motif: human creation of organic materials. There were many myths that had gods creating humans out of many different things. The Inca used stone, yet they were pitiful and did not know anything, including how to survive. The Inuit’s humans came from a pea-pod, yet the god Raven did not know how. The Yoruba used clay, as well as the Chinese did. The Yoruba shaped the humans out of clay, then breathed life into them. The Chinese formed the humans out of clay, but made it to where they had legs instead of tails. The Enuma Elish used bones and flesh, after the war that took place, using the bones and the making of the flesh. The Mayan used corn paste, after many attempts of making humans. The Norse used trees, that had fallen over. The reason why I think this motif has repeated in so many myths is because even without them knowing, humans are now created from organic materials. Another reason could be that they wanted to create humans to help work and take care of the Earth.