Armo77 Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 http://www.naaba.com/gilgamesh.gif Do you know that in ancient Sumerian scriptures, Gilgamesh's story is Identical to Noah's? This was thousands of years before Noah! During Gilgamesh’s time, the "world" flooded, but to them the middle east was all they knew. The "world" was their region which the Sumerians lived. The western part of the Earth had not been discovered by then. There is scientific proof that many floods occurred around the black sea and red sea, but not around the entire Globe. As the story goes, the world (their region) was becoming to over populated and the people began to disrespect the "Gods". So the "Gods" decided to flood the "World". Gilgamesh was instructed by the "Gods" to put male and female of every species on a Arc. As the world (their region) flooded, all was lost except for the arc. At the end of the rains and floods, Gilgamesh sent out one Raven to search for dry land.. The Raven came back with no news. Later Gilgamesh let out a dove to find dry land, the dove came back with an Olive branch and the flood was over. This story may sound familiar and is IDENTICLE to the story of Noah in the Bible that we all know and read. But Ancient scriptures show that story had been told over and over again for thousands of years through each civilization.. You have to admit though, the story is amazing and a good story for motivation. The fact is the Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and MANy other cultures and civiliaztions all had their share of Heroes that built an Arc to survive great floods in the area. Just something to think about from Armo... What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasun Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 I believe there is at least some truth in all these stories. There is also a Hindu version of the flood but it is a little different. A king (I forget the name) discoveres a miraculous small fish that talks. The fish asks him if he can give him a place in his palace, to which the king laughs and says proudly that he can of course give the fish as much space as it needs, and takes to the palace. However, the fish starts growing very fast. The king gets suprised and puts it in a bigger tank, then in another even bigger tank, then another one. Finally when his palace no longer can house the fish the king realizes that this fish is not a simple fish but a divine fish, and that this is happening because of his arrogance. He learns the moral lesson and starts worshipiing the fish which is now a giant fish floating in the nearby sea. The now humbled and rightous king asks the fish why it had picked him to honor with its divine presence. The fish tells the king that he is the earthly incarnation of Vishnu (the highest Hindu God) and it has come to tell him that there is going to be a big flood, and the king has to gather many seeds and leave everything and go on a boat until he finds land. There he can continue the civilization and plant the seeds, etc. As soon as the flood starts the king leaves with a few good rightous friends. Ironically, there were no women among them. So that's another flood story in brief as much as I can remember There probably have been several floods in different parts of the world, each one of them concidered to be the whole world by their people. Or there was just one global flood the story of which has been spread, adopted and flavored accordingly by various peoples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THOTH Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Armo - well this isn't the half of it really. Basically the entire book of Genesis was lifted from the Gilgamesh Epic. And its no surprise - remember the Babalonian Exile? Well where did you think the Jewish religion (and a good deal of their language/culture etc) came from anyway? Whats interesting though is how the paternalistic - monotheistic Jews reworked the stories to put their own distinct spin - making sex and knowledge between male and female evil, creating this idea of Satan and downplaying the concept of many Gods (though in fact there are still references to such in the book of Genesis - which is interesting) etc etc.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sev-mard Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Armo - well this isn't the half of it really. Basically the entire book of Genesis was lifted from the Gilgamesh Epic. And its no surprise - remember the Babalonian Exile? Well where did you think the Jewish religion (and a good deal of their language/culture etc) came from anyway? Exactly, people sleep on this fact all the time. The ancient stories/religions are many times interwoven or 'lifted' as you said from the civiliations that mixed with one another, or consumed one another. Divine births, virgins mothers, from isis to horus, to osirus to jesus and mary. The correlations and connections are deep and very interconnected. The Flood is actually extremely common in most ancient religions, epics. Leads one to believe that at some point this did truly take place and many different cultures witnessed it and recorded it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THOTH Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Yes Sev-Marde...all this and more. The creation story - as well as the gods fashioning the first humans are really worth a look in the Sumer-babylonian version...pretty amazing... Also the flood. Evidence is suggesting that the flood "myth" may be from the actual flooding of the Black Sea approx 8,000 years ago (may be off on the dates)...caused by sea levels (MEd) rising and breaking through the Bosphorus. So yes - many of these stories do seem to have some origin in fact...and many are perhaps just allegorical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sev-mard Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Hindu and old Indian stories of creation are great too. The creation of all the 'classes' out of the body of some great ancient god are immensely interesting/entertaing. So much out there to read/know, I really can't get enough of it all. Seriously knowledge, and history is definately a passion of mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THOTH Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Sev marde - i highly recommend to you (and to anyone interested in comparative myth/religion) the books of Joseph Campbell. Specifically the "Hero with a thousand faces" and the "Masks of God" (the latter is dived into Primitive, Oriental, and Occidental mythologies/religions) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...ce&s=books&st=* http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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