The myth of the Flood - the most ancient versions. Myths about the Flood among different nations Versions of the Flood legends
Soon a terrible flood began. It rained incessantly for 40 days and 40 nights. Water flooded the entire earth, but Noah's ark survived, floating on the waves. All life on earth perished from the global flood, except those who were in the ark.
Then the rains stopped, the water began to subside, and the ark stopped on the high Mount Ararat. Noah opened the window of the ark and released first a raven and then a dove. The birds flew away and flew back because they had nowhere to land because of the water. But one day the dove released into the wild did not return to the ark, and Noah realized that the flood had stopped and dry land had risen somewhere from the sea.
Noah releases a dove from the ark. Mosaic from the Cathedral of Montreal, Italy, 1180s.
He and his family left the ark, brought out the animals, built an altar and sacrificed some animals to God on it, as a sign of gratitude for their salvation. He promised Noah to God that he would no longer send a flood to the earth and, as a sign of his reconciliation with people, he raised a rainbow between the clouds. Having blessed Noah and his children, the Almighty told them: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Let all the beasts of the earth, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea submit to you; you can eat their meat along with any greens and herbs. Just do not shed human blood, for man was created in the image and likeness of God.”
Official historical science practically does not take into account the overwhelming majority of legends and traditions, labeling them as “myth” and equating it with the inventions and flights of fancy of ancient peoples.
Of course, one can declare myths about cataclysms to be a consequence of the difficult living conditions of people, who were extremely dependent on the vagaries of nature and local natural disasters. However, “it is much more difficult to explain the specific but distinct imprint of intelligence in cataclysmic myths. The reliability of mythological data turns out to be at a very high level when verified on the basis of objective analysis. Myths appear before us not as the fantasies of some ancient authors or folk tales, but acquire the status of a unique description of events and phenomena that took place in reality.
The author himself has been convinced more than once that modern science is for the most part pseudoscience that distorts the real picture of the world.
One of these myths, known to everyone, is the myth of the great, “Universal Flood.” We somehow learn about this event from the Old Testament, which describes the creation of the world and the destruction at the end of humanity mired in sins, but did you know that there are 500 legends in the world describing the global flood?
Dr. Richard Andre, at one time, examined 86 of them (20 Asian, 3 European, 7 African, 46 American and 10 Australian), and came to the conclusion that 62 are completely independent of Mesopotamian, (the most ancient) and Hebrew (the most popular) options
The displacement of the Earth's core is confirmed by numerous myths and legends of various peoples, and in all sources the same characteristic feature appears - this cataclysm was accompanied by an underground rumble and the rapid disappearance of the Sun beyond the horizon. A myth recorded on the islands of Micronesia says that the catastrophe was preceded by a sudden darkness (when the planet's axis shifted, the Sun went below the horizon). Then the flood began.
The Earth itself testifies to the reality of the Flood.
This book also included a number of legends that spoke about the consequences of how “people rebelled against the gods, and the system of the universe fell into disarray”: “The planets changed their path. The sky moved to the north. The Sun, Moon and stars began to move in new. The earth fell apart, water gushed from its depths and flooded the earth."
The Jesuit missionary Martinius, who lived for many years in China and studied ancient Chinese chronicles, wrote the book “History of China”, which talks about the displacement of the Earth’s axis and the flood as a consequence of this cataclysm:
The support of the sky collapsed. The earth was shaken to its very foundation. The sky began to fall to the north. The sun, moon and stars changed their path. The entire system of the Universe has fallen into disarray. The sun was eclipsed and the planets changed their paths. The Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala” tells: terrible shadows covered the Earth, and the sun sometimes left its usual path. The Icelandic Voluspa contains the following lines:
She (the Earth) did not know where her home should be, the Moon did not know what her home was, the Stars did not know where to stand. Then the gods restore order among the celestial bodies.
In the jungles of Malaysia, the Chewong people seriously believe that from time to time their world, which they call Earth-Seven, is turned upside down, so that everything sinks and collapses. However, with the assistance of the creator god Tohan, new mountains, valleys and plains appear on the plane that was previously on the lower side of Earth-Seven. New trees grow, new people are born. That is, the world is completely renewed.
Flood myths from Laos and northern Thailand say that many centuries ago the ten beings lived in the upper kingdom, and the rulers of the lower world were three great men: Pu Len Xiong, Hun Kan and Hun Ket. One day, the Tens declared that before eating anything, people should share their food with them as a sign of respect. The people refused, and the thens, enraged, caused a flood that devastated the Earth. Three great men built a raft with a house, where they put a number of women and children. In this way they and their descendants managed to survive the flood.
A similar legend about a flood from which two brothers escaped on a raft exists among the Karen in Burma. Such a flood is an integral part of Vietnamese mythology; there the brother and sister escaped in a large wooden chest, along with pairs of animals of all breeds. This story could, after some time, acquire non-existent facts, such as the salvation of all animals.
Australia and Oceania
A number of Australian Aboriginal tribes, especially those traditionally found along the northern tropical coast, believe that they originated from a great flood that swept away the pre-existing landscape along with its inhabitants.
According to the origin myths of a number of other tribes, responsibility for the flood lies with the cosmic serpent Yurlungur, whose symbol is a rainbow.
There are Japanese legends according to which the islands of Oceania appeared after the waves of the great flood receded. In Oceania itself, a Native Hawaiian myth tells how the world was destroyed by a flood and then recreated by the god Tangaloa.
Samoans believe in a flood that once wiped out all of humanity. Only two people survived it, sailing out to sea on a boat, which then landed in the Samoan archipelago.
Egypt
Ancient Egyptian legends also mention a great flood. For example, a funerary text discovered in the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I speaks of the destruction of sinful humanity by a flood.
From space you can clearly see these same traces of water retreating into the Red Sea.
Cairo, Egypt, traces of powerful streams
The specific causes of this catastrophe are stated in Chapter 175 of the Book of the Dead, which attributes the following speech to the moon god Thoth:
“They fought, they were mired in strife, they caused evil, they stirred up enmity, they committed murder, they created grief and oppression... [That is why] I am going to wash away everything that I have done. The earth must be washed in the watery depths with the fury of the flood and become pure again, as in primitive times."
India
A similar figure was revered in Vedic India more than 3,000 years ago. One day, the legend says, “a certain sage named Manu was taking a bath and found a small fish in his palm, which asked for its life. Taking pity on it, he put the fish into a jug. However, the next day it grew so big that he had to take it away. it into the lake. Soon the lake also turned out to be too small. “Throw me into the sea,” said the fish, who was in fact the incarnation of the god Vishnu, “it will be more convenient for me.”
Vishnu then warned Manu about the coming flood. He sent him a large ship and ordered him to load a pair of all living creatures and the seeds of all plants into it, and then sit there himself.”
Before Manu had time to carry out these orders, the ocean rose and flooded everything; nothing was visible except the god Vishnu in his fish form, only now it was a huge one-horned creature with golden scales. Manu drove his ark to the horn of the fish, and Vishnu towed it across the boiling sea until it stopped at the peak of the “Mountain of the North” sticking out of the water.
"The fish said, 'I saved you. Tie the ship to a tree so that the water does not carry it away while you are on the mountain. As the water subsides, you can go down." And Manu went down with the waters. The flood washed away all creatures, and Manu was left alone."
With him, as well as with the animals and plants that he saved from death, a new era began. A year later, a woman emerged from the water, declaring herself the “daughter of Manu.” They married and produced children, becoming the progenitors of existing humanity.
India
India suffered greatly during the flood; it was all flooded. The wave leaves behind huge piles of sand, stones and clay. This entire mixture is evenly distributed throughout the entire territory. It is usually a grayish-beige or dark coating. If there are mountains, then this plaque is located between the mountains and then looks like frozen streams. In such deposits, archaeologists always dig up ancient objects, animals, people, etc. For example, clay Sumerian tablets. The first written monuments were discovered among the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk (biblical Erech). In 1877, an employee of the French consulate in Baghdad, Ernest de Sarjac, did not make a discovery that became a historical milestone in the study of Sumerian civilization. In the area of Tello, at the foot of a high hill, he found a figurine made in an unknown style. Monsieur de Sarjac organized excavations there, and sculptures, figurines and clay tablets, decorated with previously unseen ornaments, began to emerge from the ground. During excavations, tens of thousands of tablets were found in the archives of Sumerian cities. How could an entire library consisting of clay tablets end up under a layer of earth?
North America
Among the Inuit of Alaska there was a legend about a terrible flood, accompanied by an earthquake, which swept so quickly across the face of the Earth that only a few managed to escape in their canoes or hide on the tops of the highest mountains, petrified with horror.
Alaska
The Eskimos, living along the coast of the Arctic Ocean from Cape Barrow in the west to Cape Bathers in the east, as well as in Greenland, tell of several floods that periodically destroyed almost the entire population. One of the floods was the result of a hurricane wind, which drove sea waters onto the land and turned it into a desert. The few survivors then escaped on rafts and boats. Another flood was caused by a terrible earthquake. Another flood was caused by a huge tidal wave:
A long time ago, the ocean suddenly began to rise higher and higher until it flooded the entire earth. Even the mountain peaks disappeared under water, and the ice floes beneath them rushed downstream. When the flood stopped, the blocks of ice gathered together and formed the ice caps that still cover the mountain peaks. Fish, shellfish, seals and whales were left lying on the dry ground, where their shells and bones can still be seen.
The entire northern coast of Alaska, Canada and Siberia is completely covered with lakes and swamps, and most of the territory is the so-called “Permafrost”. Kilometer-long accumulations of bones of extinct animals discovered in Alaska - mammoths , mastodons, super bison and horses. These animals disappeared at the end ice age . Here, in this mass, the remains of existing species were discovered - many millions of animals with broken and severed limbs, mixed with trees uprooted.
The Louisens of lower California have a legend about a flood that drowned the mountains and destroyed most of humanity. Only a few escaped by escaping to the highest peaks, which did not disappear, like everything around them, under water. Further north, similar myths were recorded among the Hurons.
An Algonquin mountain legend tells how the Great Hare Michabo restored the world after the flood with the help of a raven, an otter and a muskrat.
In Lind's History of the Dakota Indians, the most authoritative work of the 19th century, which preserved many native legends, the Iroquois myth is set out about how “the sea and waters once swept over the land, destroying all human life.”
The Chickasaw Indians claimed that the world was destroyed by the waters, “but one family and a couple of animals of each species were saved.” The Sioux also spoke of a time when there was no dry land left and all the people disappeared.
Easter Island
Woke, the formidable god and ancestor of the Easter people, belongs to the same series of culprits of the flood. According to them, “the land of Easter Island was once much larger, but since its inhabitants committed crimes, Walke shook the earth and broke it, (lifting it) with a stick.”
The most famous Easter statues are the moai. There are hundreds of them, and they are scattered throughout the island. The weight of the statues is mostly 10-20 tons, but there are also giants that reach 80-90 tons. The height of the statues ranges from 3 to 21 meters. Many of the statues are not finished. The overall picture gives the impression of a sudden cessation of work, either by the will of their creators, or due to some kind of cataclysm. The second version is supported by one of the local legends, which says that a huge flood occurred, “lightning fell from the sky and from within the earth, “big water” came, and nothing was visible around.” The version of the cataclysm is also consistent with the fact that the vast majority of the statues were toppled over or partially covered by loose layers of soil. Those that stand at full height near the coast were restored quite recently - in the second half of the twentieth century.
On land, sedimentary rocks are unusually thick. Such heterogeneity is as inexplicable as the formation of fossils. But both of these phenomena can be explained by catastrophic events in the past. (Earth in upheaval)
Siberia, Altai and Alaska
Many years have passed, and missionaries discover that the Altai people have their own version of the legend about the global flood. In it, a ship built by a man named Nama moored at two mountains, standing close to one another, Chomgoda and Tulutty. But the story became so popular that residents of different places began to dispute the location of the ark. In the south they claimed that a fragment of the ark lay on a mountain near the mouth of the Chemal River; the northern Altai saw huge nails from the ark on the snowy peak of Ulu-Tag - the Great Mountain. Tunguska explosion why they are dug out of the ground.
Flood in South America:
Several versions of flood legends circulated among the ancient Peruvians. Ethnographers said: “When the Tiaguanaco complex was discovered by Europeans, local residents could only tell fantastic legends about its creators. One of them said that the gods, angry with the ancient builders, sent plague, famine and a terrible earthquake, which destroyed the creators of Tiaguanaco, and their main city disappeared in the waters of Titi-caca.” Let me remind you that Titi-kaka is the largest high-altitude salt lake in the world.
Mountain peaks protrude from mudflow deposits
When water mixed with soil, rocks and other debris flows into the ocean, it leaves behind a thick layer of earth.
Such traces of the flood are found everywhere, they are in Europe, North and South America, Africa, India, China, Japan and many other places in the world.
In Ecuador, the Canary Indian tribe has an ancient story about a flood from which two brothers escaped by climbing a high mountain. As the water rose, the mountain also grew, so the brothers managed to survive the disaster.
Peru is especially rich in flood legends. A typical story tells of an Indian who was warned about a flood by a lama. The man and the lama fled together to the high mountain of Vilka-Koto: “When they reached the top of the mountain, they saw that all kinds of birds and animals were already fleeing there. The sea began to rise and covered all the plains and mountains, with the exception of the peak of Vilka-Koto; but even and the waves swept there, so that the animals had to huddle in a heap on the “patch”... Five days later, the water subsided, and the sea returned to its shores. But all the people, except one, had already drowned, and it was from him that everyone went peoples of the earth."
In pre-Columbian Chile, the Araucanians preserved a legend that once there was a flood from which only a few escaped...
SOURCE ONE.
From the Epic of Gilgamesh. Flood myth
Below is an excerpt from the Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh (2nd millennium BC) - one of the best works of fiction of the peoples of Mesopotamia. Early songs and tales about Gilgamesh appeared in the 3rd millennium BC. The discovered legends were written in cuneiform in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian, and Hittite languages. The epic recounts the exploits of Gilgamesh. Wanting to find the flower of eternal youth for his people, after the death of his friend Enkidu and a long search, he meets Utnapishtim, who escaped the flood and, by the will of the gods, gained immortality with his wife. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh about the flood.
The myth tells about a flood that actually took place, as proven by the English archaeologist Leonard Woolley, who excavated the city of Ur in the south of Mesopotamia.
Utnapishtim tells him, Gilgamesh:
"I will reveal, Gilgamesh, the secret word
And I will tell you the secret of the gods,
Shurippak, the city you know
What lies on the banks of the Euphrates, -
This city is ancient, the gods are close to it.
Their hearts inclined the great gods to arrange a flood.
Their father Anu, Ellil, the hero, their adviser, conferred,
Their messenger is Nipurta, their mirab is Ennugi.
Bright-eyed Ea swore with them,
But he told their hut a word:
"Hut, hut! Wall, wall!"
Listen, hut! Wall, remember!
Shurippakian, son of Ubar-Tutu,
Demolish the house, build a ship,
Leave abundance, take care of life,
Despise wealth, save your soul.
Load all living things onto your ship.
The ship that you build
Let the outline be quadrangular,
Let the width and length be equal,
Like the ocean, cover it with a roof!”
I put six decks in the ship,
Dividing it into seven parts,
Its bottom was divided into nine compartments,
He hammered water pegs into it,
I chose the steering wheel, packed the equipment...
Loaded it with everything I had
I loaded it with all the silver I had,
I loaded it with everything I had, gold,
I loaded it with everything that I had as a living creature,
He brought my whole family and kin onto the ship,
Steppe cattle and animals, I raised all the masters.
Shamash appointed me the time:
"It will rain in the morning, and at night
You will see the rain of grain with your own eyes, -
Enter the ship and tar its doors."
The appointed time has arrived:
It started to rain in the morning, and at night
I saw the rain of bread with my own eyes.
I looked at the face of the weather-
It was scary to look at the weather.
I entered the ship, tarred its doors...
The morning light had barely set,
A black cloud rose from the base of the heavens...
What was light has turned into darkness,
The whole earth split open like a bowl.
The first day the South wind rages,
It came quickly, flooding the mountains,
Like a wave, overtaking the earth.
One does not see the other
And you can't see people from heaven.
The wind blows for six days, seven nights,
The storm covers the earth with a flood.
When the seventh day comes
Storm and flood stopped the war,
Those who fought like an army.
The sea calmed down, the hurricane subsided, the flood stopped,
I opened the vent - the light fell on my face,
I looked at the sea - it was calm,
And all of humanity became clay!
The plain became flat, like a roof.
I fell to my knees, sat down and cried,
Tears ran down my face.
I brought out the dove and released it;
Having set off, the dove returned:
I couldn’t find a place, so I flew back.
I brought the swallow out and let it go;
Having set off, the swallow returned:
I couldn’t find a place, so I flew back.
I took the raven out and let him go;
The raven, having set off, saw the decline of the water,
Didn't return; croaks, eats and shits.
Sources:
Poetry and prose of the Ancient East.-M., 1973.-P. 212-215.
SOURCE TWO.
GREEK MYTH ABOUT THE FLOOD.
DEUCALION AND PYRRHA (POPOP)
The people of the Copper Age committed many crimes. Arrogant and wicked, they did not obey the Olympian gods. The Thunderer Zeus was angry with them; Zeus was especially angered by the king of Lykosura in Arcadia, Lycaon. One day Zeus, disguised as a mere mortal, came to Lycosurus. So that the inhabitants knew that he was a god, Zeus gave them a sign, and all the inhabitants fell on their faces before him and honored him as a god. Only Lycaon did not want to give Zeus divine honors and mocked everyone who honored Zeus. Lycaon decided to test whether Zeus was a god. He killed a hostage who was in his palace, boiled part of his body, fried part of it and offered it as a meal to the great Thunderer. Zeus was terribly angry. With a lightning strike, he destroyed Lycaon's palace, and turned him into a bloodthirsty wolf.
People became more and more wicked, and the great cloud destroyer, the aegis-powerful Zeus, decided to destroy the entire human race. He decided to send such a heavy rain to the earth that everything would be flooded. Zeus forbade all winds to blow; only the humid southern wind Noth drove dark rain clouds across the sky. The rain poured onto the ground. The water in the seas and rivers rose higher and higher, flooding everything around.
The cities with their walls, houses and temples disappeared under the water, and the towers that rose high on the city walls were no longer visible. Gradually, the water covered everything - both forested hills and high mountains. All of Greece disappeared under the raging waves of the sea. The top of the two-headed Parnassus rose lonely among the waves. Where the peasant had previously cultivated his field and where the vineyards were rich in ripe grapes, fish swam, and herds of dolphins frolicked in the forests covered with water. This is how the human race of the Copper Age perished. Only two were saved amid this general death - Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha. On the advice of his father Prometheus, Deucalion built a huge box, put food supplies in it and entered it with his wife. For nine days and nights, Deucalion’s box rushed along the waves of the sea that covered the entire land. Finally, the waves drove him to the double-headed peak of Parnassus. The rainfall sent by Zeus stopped. Deucalion and Pyrrha came out of the box and made a thanksgiving sacrifice to Zeus, who preserved them among the stormy waves. The water subsided, and the land again appeared from under the waves, devastated, like a desert.
Then the aegis-power Zeus sent the messenger of the gods Hermes to Deucalion. The messenger of the gods quickly rushed over the deserted land, appeared before Deucalion and said to him:
The ruler of gods and people Zeus, knowing your piety, ordered you to choose a reward; express your desire, and the son of Kropa will fulfill it.
Deucalion answered Hermes:
Oh, great Hermes, I only pray to Zeus for one thing, let him again populate the earth with people.
Quick Hermes rushed back to bright Olympus and conveyed Deucalion’s plea to Zeus. The Great Zeus ordered Deucalion and Pyrrha to collect stones and throw them without turning over their heads. Deucalion fulfilled the command of the mighty Thunderer, and from the stones that he threw, men were created, and from the stones thrown by his wife Pyrrha, women were created. So the earth received a population again after the flood. It was populated by a new kind of people who came from stone.
SOURCE THREE.
(Vladimir Shcherbakov.)
Almost all coastal peoples in their legends and fairy tales preserve memories of a terrible flood that destroyed everything. This flood is a great milestone in history: it is from it, in fact, that history takes its beginning, for everything that was before the flood was swallowed up by foamy waves.
This is how the South American Mayans imagined the origins of man (a legend recorded in the 16th century by Francesco de Bobadillo):
“Before those people who live now, water devastated the whole world, and everything turned into a sea. Only two gods were saved from the flood because they lived in heaven. After the flood they came down to earth and created everything anew. And we also come from them, because all the people who lived before drowned in the water.”
A similar story existed in a completely different part of the Earth, but it - unlike the American version - had a huge number of readers. We are referring to the report on the flood included in one of the books of the Bible - “Genesis”, or “The First Book of Moses”. This report, however, cannot be considered an original work - it is merely a reworking of an earlier work.
Archaeologists stumbled upon this earlier version of the legend of the Flood in the fifties of the last century - on the banks of the Tigris, just opposite the oil fields of Mosul, now densely overgrown with drilling rigs. Almost fifty years passed before scientists working in one of the small rooms of the British Museum were able to decipher the cuneiform writings on clay tablets - The Tale of Gilgamesh.
Somewhat later, on the banks of the Euphrates, in the ruins of the capital of King Hammurabi - ancient Babylon, another copy of this story was discovered. It further turned out that the legend of Gilgamesh was translated into their own languages by both the Hittites and the Egyptians. Scribes from the banks of the Nile marked in red those places where they encountered language difficulties during translation. Consequently, everything suggests that the epic of Gilgamesh belongs to the cultural treasures common to ancient peoples.
The story of Gilgamesh itself is very long and complicated. As events unfold, he seeks out his ancestor, Utnapishtim (Utnapishtim), to learn from him the secret of immortality. Utnapishtim does not give a direct answer to his question, but with the slowness and thoroughness characteristic of old people, he talks about his life. Once upon a time he lived in Shurippaka and was a faithful servant of the god Ea. One day the celestials decided to flood the Earth with water. Ea, however, wanted to save his faithful servant and addressed him with words of warning.
Utnapishtim built a ship and escaped. The Bible adds some moral teachings to this story: “But the earth was corrupted before God, and the earth was filled with evildoings... And God said to Noah: The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with evildoings from them. And so I will destroy them from the Earth. Make yourself an ark from gopher wood: make compartments in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and outside... Also bring into the ark two of every animal and every flesh, so that they remain alive with you: male and female let them be "
Further, the story of Noah roughly repeats the story of Utnapishtim. In both cases, ships are being built that would dwarf the most modern ocean liners. Then the abysses of heaven open up and water floods the earth; in the words of the epic, people turn to mud. The ship of Utnapishtim is carried by the storm for six days, and Noah's ark for forty days, until, finally, the first one lands safely on Mount Nitsir, the second on Arartu. ;
Science has long considered the global flood to be the fruit of generous popular imagination. Imagine everyone's amazement when the findings of the English archaeologist Leonard Woolley confirmed the reality of this event.
Woolley conducted excavations near one of the Baghdad railway stations. The shovels of archaeologists extracted things from the ground that were one more interesting than the other. The excavations went deeper and deeper, but the number of ancient monuments did not decrease. At a depth of twelve meters, archaeologists came to a layer of sandy clay, similar to what is usually deposited by a river in its lower reaches. The chemical content of the mixture did not differ at all from the sediments in the Euphrates delta. No objects of material culture were found in this layer.
Nevertheless, Woolley ordered the pit to be deepened. Three meters below, the clay layer ended, as suddenly as it began. Monuments of human culture reappeared in the sandy soil that replaced it. However, the new finds differed sharply from those found above the clay layer. The newly discovered ceramic vessels were made without the aid of a potter's wheel using only one's hands. Metal tools were no longer found - only flint ones. So, the people from whom this lowest cultural layer remains lived back in the Stone Age!
Woolley's sensational discovery gave rise to various theories, each more fantastic than the other. The three-meter thick clay layer, according to some, proved that in very distant times - but after the appearance of man - the surface of the Earth was covered with the waters of a gigantic flood. This flood was associated with the death of the legendary continent of Atlantis, with the icing of the Earth and even with the formation of the Moon!
The truth, in all likelihood, is much simpler. On the coast of any sea there were terrible floods, the memories of which were kept for a long time by the local tribes and peoples, passing them on from generation to generation. The biblical flood, which carried both Noah's ark and the ship of Utnapishtim on its waves, from today's point of view, was just a small, local attack of the sea on land. Geologists believe that the area affected by the disaster extended north of the Persian Gulf for 630 kilometers, being only 160 kilometers wide. On the map of the Earth this is a tiny speck, but for those who lived here, it was the whole world. ;
More recently, a storm that broke out in another bay of the Indian Ocean caused devastation, in all likelihood, much greater than the biblical flood. This was off the coast of Bengal in 1876. A powerful cyclone, coinciding with the high tide, sent waves 15 meters high. Water invaded the land and claimed 215,000 lives.
Many legends tell of the Great Flood.
The Syrian legend reproduces the Greek myth. This takes us back to the time of Deucalion (then the flood happened).
According to legend, the people of the first generation of our planet committed many crimes and trampled on the customs and laws of hospitality. They were punished and... died in the disaster. Water suddenly fell on the ground: the rivers left their beds, and the sea flooded the shores. Only Deucalion remained alive: he was spared for his virtue, and he began another, second generation of people. He put his children, wives, animals and birds in a large wooden ark. The ark rushed along the waves until the water covered the earth.
Residents of Heropolis complement the Syrian legend: a huge crack appeared in the ground, water gushed out... Deucalion built a temple to the goddess Hera next to the crack. Twice a year, clergy and pilgrims gathered in the temple from all over Syria and Arabia, and even from countries outside the Euphrates, bringing sea water to the temple to appease the gods.
Seeing a small fish in his hands while washing his face in the morning, an Indian myth tells, Manu, at her request, fed it and took it out and released it into the ocean. For this, the fish promised to save Manu, and she predicted him the exact year of the flood.
On the advice of the fish, Manu builds a ship. When the flood broke out, Manu boarded the ship, tied a rope to the horn of a fish, and it led the ship to the northern mountain (in the Himalayas). Then Manu went down following the receding water, and thus only one remained alive. This is the simplest legend - Satapata Brahmana.
In the description given in the Mahabharata, a fish came out of the depths of the ocean and asked for the same. Manu treated her as a relative, raised her in a jar, then in a large pond, then took the fish to the Ganges at her request. The fish predicted that soon everything that lives and moves will disappear from the face of the earth, and advised him to build a ship and take on it all the seeds that the brahmanas spoke about. Manu was sailing on a ship and, seeing a huge horn of a fish, like a mountain, he tied the ship to it with a rope. The fish quickly led him to the top of the Himalayas, which is now called Nabandana (“Tethered Ship”). The fish turned out to be an incarnation of Projapati Brahma, who appeared in the form of a fish. She inspired him to create anew all living things: gods and people - everything that can move.
In later accounts, Manu is introduced into the narrative as the son of the sun, who abdicated the throne in favor of his son in order to devote himself entirely to divine activities. The fish falls into his hands during the ritual. What follows is more or less the same.
According to the beliefs of the Brahmins, this is how the stages of human development changed. And here history meets mythology.
Tales of the end of times.
CLUB SEVENTEEN
- Tell me, Gamayun, bird of prophecy, about the birth of the Russian family, about the laws given by Svarog!
- I won’t hide anything that I know...
As the first light ended - all sins were washed away from the Damp Earth, the world was revived by the clear god Dazhbog with the light-winged Living Swan.
They planted dark forests, they populated the blue seas. They released flocks of songbirds into the skies, and ferocious animals into dark forests, and whales into the seas, and snakes into the swamps.
Dazhbog established in this world - Rule, Dazhbog separated Reality from Navi. He became the god of Rule and Reveal.
Dazhbog and the Living Swan accepted Svarog's golden crowns and played a joyful wedding.
And the heavenly gods gathered for the wedding of the good Dazhbog. And they asked the bride-to-be:
What did you come on, dear? Are you alive?
I’m on a perch, on a furrow, on an oat spike, on a wheat pie!
And Zhiva Svarogovna was spinning: if she waves her right hand, a forest and a river will appear; with her left hand, birds fly under the clouds.
Will I go to the green garden, will I go out to the green garden. If I look far away - the mountains there are high, the lakes there are deep!
A tall oak tree rose up a steep hill. And the oak tree has damask roots, its branches are all crystal, its acorns are gilded, and its crown is all pearl. On its branches the birds sing a song,
in the middle - bees build nests.
How Zhiva and Dazhbog are sitting under that tall oak tree, Zhiva and Dazhbog are sitting and talking:
Oh, what a fish tank this is, such a green one! Oh, what kind of azure flowers are these! Oh, what a sweetheart, what an affectionate one!
And soon the children went to Zhiva Svarogovna with the young Dazhbog Perunovich: Prince Kisek, father Orey. And father Oreius gave birth to sons - Kiy, Shchek and Khoreb the younger.
Zemun fed them with her milk, the cradle was rocked by the god of winds Stribog, Semargl warmed them, Khors illuminated the world for them.
They also had grandchildren, and then great-grandchildren appeared - either the descendants of Dazhbog and Zhiva and Rosya - the beautiful mermaid, then a great and glorious people, a tribe called Rus'.
In the holy garden, in the bright Iria, after three years of the Great Flood, fiery tongs fell from the sky - before the good Tarkh - God willing, before his own sons.
Forefather Oreius received those Svarog pincers - Oreius began to forge iron. Then Gromovik Perun showed the ancestor Orey how to forge swords.
Here are your swords and mighty arrows! - that’s what the Thunderer told him. - We will defeat all the enemies of Rus' with this weapon!
At that time, Forefather Orey was delighted with the formidable forging power of Perunov.
In the holy garden, in bright Iria, after three years of the Great Flood, golden objects fell - a plow with an ax and a deep bowl.
The great cue approached those objects, picked up the golden cue that had fallen from the sky, and he began to plow the ground with the plow.
The wise Shchek approached those objects - he picked up a deep bowl, he poured antimony into the bowl, he made sacrifices to the great gods.
The mighty Horeb took the ax - he became a formidable warrior and a great prince.
In the holy garden, in bright Iria, after three years of the Great Flood, a stone fell from the vault of heaven. He fell before the good Dazhbog, before his own sons.
That stone was small and very cold, and there was great darkness on the Earth. And no one could recognize that stone, and no one could lift it from the Earth.
Tsars and princes gathered and gathered to that stone, and kings and princes also gathered
wise men. They gathered, gathered, sat down in rows around him, and glorified the gods for three days and three nights.
And the stone split into two halves - an inscription was found inside the stone.
Who whipped her? Is Kiy the Grand Duke? Shchek - the wise sorcerer? Horeb - warrior-prince? Forefather Ouray? Or Tarkh Dazhbog?
Svarog carved those words in the flesh - he learned them from the Heavenly Family.
Rivers of the heavenly God:
“You are My children! Know that the Earth walks past the Sun, but My words will not pass you by!
And about ancient times, people, remember! About the Great Flood that destroyed people, about the fall of fire on Mother Earth! Know that there will be last years - hard and cowardly years! The end of the white world is coming soon! The svarog circle will turn!
It will be the last day! And the Sun in the darkness! And the Eagle, the heavenly ornament, will not give you any consolation! And the Svarozhichi will descend to Earth - human souls will be horrified!
Contrition will come from Rod! And everyone’s hand will weaken, and children and elders will be confused, and fire will change their faces.
The currents of the sea that flow throughout the entire breadth of the earth will be indignant. And the Spirit will rise here against the Force - and Stribog will calm the sea . Veles will open the doors to Iriy. But only the righteous light will shine! And Svarog will only let him through!
Children of the Heavenly Family! Relatives! Know, people, My laws! Listen to the teaching of My words!
You are the descendants of Svarog - Svarozhichi! You, descendants of Perun, are mermaids
Roshi! Russian people, Russians, listen!
Honor each other, son - mother and father, husband and wife live in harmony. A husband must encroach for one wife - otherwise you will never know salvation!
Run away from Falsehood and follow the Truth, honor your family and the Heavenly Family.
Read three days a week - Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Honor the great holidays.
On Wednesday, Veles and Burya Yaga conferred on how they could meet Dazh-God Perunovich when he was following the cows. On Wednesday we conferred with Marena Kashcha on how to kill Dazhbog Perunovich.
Perun himself met with Ros on Friday, and the great and glorious Dazhbog was born. Also on Friday, he was nailed by Madder and hanged on rocks in the Caucasus Mountains. Also on Friday Mother Makosh
The Great Flood was predicted to Dazhbog.
The legend about a flood on a planetary scale - a global catastrophe sent down by divine power in time immemorial to destroy human civilization - is widespread among many peoples of the world. This disaster is known to everyone as global flood. The most famous of these legends is the Biblical narrative. The Hindu legend of Manu, the tale of Deucalion's flood in Greek mythology, and the Babylonian myth of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh also deserve close attention.
Ancient Sumerians about the Flood
One of the earliest existing legends about the Great Flood was composed in Ancient Sumer. The text of a Sumerian flood poem dating back to the 17th century BC was found during excavations in the city of Nippur. In 1914 it was published by Arno Pöbel. The poem tells how the god Enki warned the priest-king Ziusudra about the gods' decision to destroy humanity by sending a flood. Enki ordered the king to build a large boat. The flood lasted seven days and seven nights, after which Ziusudra left his ship and sacrificed bulls and sheep. Next, the hero received instructions to repopulate the earth. The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh tells a similar story about the gods' decision to exterminate humanity. The hero Gilgamesh, in search of immortality, finds Utnapishtim, and he tells him the story of the flood. Utnapishtim says that the god Ninigiku warned him of the gods' plan to destroy all life in a flood and ordered him to build a ship on which his family, friends, property and livestock could be saved. The ship was a square structure with a flat bottom, six decks, high sides and a roof. Utnapishtim loaded his belongings, family and relatives, as well as various masters (they were keepers of knowledge and technology), livestock, animals and birds onto the ship. The doors of the ship were tarred on the outside. The wind raged for six days and seven nights and covered the entire earth with flood waters. On the seventh day the water calmed down, and Utnapishtim was able to go out on deck. All humanity by that time had already been destroyed. Like the biblical account, this legend contains information about how Utnapishtim released birds from his ship to check whether the waters had subsided. After the flood, the gods repented of what they had done and made Utnapishtim immortal, settling him far from people in an inaccessible place at the source of the rivers.
Biblical Flood
Of course, the most famous legend about the flood is the biblical Book of Genesis. The global flood, according to the Bible, is God's punishment for the moral fall of humanity. The Lord saw that the man he created had taken the path of incorrigible evil, and decided to destroy him and all living things in general, since “all flesh has perverted its path.” God decided to save the life only of the only righteous man at that time, Noah, and his family, for which he ordered him to build an ark and take there a couple of “of all flesh.” There was continuous rain of unprecedented force for 40 days, and water continuously flowed from underground sources for 150 days. As a result, the peaks of even the highest mountains disappeared under water. After 150 days, the water began to subside, and finally the ark landed on Mount Ararat. Noah sent out a raven, and then a dove, to find out if there was a place free of water, after which his family and animals left the ark. Noah made a sacrifice to God, and God created a rainbow in the sky as a sign that He would never again destroy the Earth in a flood. The Lord blessed Noah, his descendants and everything on earth.
In addition to the Bible, the story of the flood is contained in two non-canonical books of the biblical tradition - the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. The first of them not only retells the story of Noah, but also speaks in more detail about the causes of the flood. According to the Book of Enoch, the angels who fell from Heaven taught people magic and witchcraft, making weapons and astrological observations, and even married the daughters of people, which led to the appearance of giants - giants (Nephilim). Before the flood, the world was shaken by wars, and an unprecedented decline in morals occurred. The Books of Enoch and Jubilees are believed to have been compiled later than the Book of Genesis, during the Hellenistic period.
Hindu mythology about the Flood
A version of the flood similar to the Biblical one is also contained in the Koran. However, there are differences between the two stories. According to Islamic tradition, one of Noah's four sons and his wife refused to enter the ark, thinking that the flood would not affect them. According to this version, the ark landed near one of the mountains near the city of Mosul in the territory of modern Iraq.
Hindu mythology talks about the flood in a very peculiar way. The seventh of the ancestors of the human race, Manu, Vaivasvata, while swimming, accidentally caught a tiny fish, which promised to save him from the coming flood if he helped it grow. In the Mahabharata, this fish is the incarnation of Brahma; according to other legends, the fish is an avatar of Vishnu. The hero placed the fish, as it grew, into ever larger water tanks, and eventually the grown fish had to be released into the ocean. She warned Vaivasvata that the flood would begin in a week, and on her advice Vaivasvata built a ship and tied it to the horn of a fish. The fish led the ship to the mountain, where the hero of the story survived the flood. When the waters subsided, Vaivasvata made a sacrifice to the gods, and then a girl appeared who became his wife. Hindu religious tradition places this text at the beginning of the Kali Yuga, that is, around 3100 BC.
Deucalion Flood
The ancient Greeks believed that there were three floods: in ancient Greek mythology they are known as Ogygov, Deucalion and Dardan. Plato believed that there were many floods. The first of the floods, Ogigov, occurred during the reign of King Ogygas, one of the kings of Thebes in Central Greece, and the founder of Eleusis, a city in Western Attica. The result of this global catastrophe was the devastation of Attika and the destruction of its cities. A period of anarchy began in the country, which lasted about two hundred years and ended only with the accession of the Athenian king Kekrops. According to the 3rd century Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus, the Ogigov flood occurred during the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.
The next flood, Deucalion, occurred due to the king of Arcadia Lycaon and his sons, who sacrificed a boy to the god Zeus. The supreme god Olympus turned Lycaon into a wolf for this, and decided to exterminate humanity in the waters of the flood. However, the son of the Titan Prometheus, Deucalion and Pyrrha, his wife escaped in an ark built on the instructions of his father. After nine days of the flood, the ark landed on Mount Parnassus.
The Dardanian flood is named after Dardanus, the son of Zeus and the galaxy of Electra, who was the ancestor of the Dardanian tribe. During his time, a flood also occurred, but Dardanus crossed on an inflated leather wineskin from Samothrace to the opposite shore of Asia Minor, where he married the daughter of a local king and founded the city of Dardanus. His grandson built a city which was named Troy. However, Plato in his “Laws” singles out from a number of different floods “the greatest flood of all” and claims that it occurred 10,000 years before his time (Plato lived in the 5th-4th centuries BC).
Legends and myths about the flood have been recorded among the peoples of Babylonia, Palestine, Syria, Phrygia, India, China, Burma, Vietnam, Taiwan, the islands of Indonesia, the Philippines, the Andaman Islands, Kamchatka, New Guinea, Australia, the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, among Indian tribes from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska. But, interestingly, legends about such a global catastrophe are almost never found among the peoples of Africa.
Evidence of the Flood
Scientists have been trying for hundreds of years to understand such widespread legends about the flood. After all, evidence of the Flood has been found in large quantities. To date, very significant layers of clay have been discovered, which may be associated with sediments made by the waters of the flood. Based on their radiocarbon dating, it can be assumed that a huge flood occurred around the time that Plato spoke about. However, as for timing, there is a significant problem. The radiocarbon dating method that scientists use today to date events assumes that the amount of carbon did not change abruptly. However, a number of data obtained indicate a sharp change in the amount of carbon during certain periods. Authors of the book “The Cycle of Space Disasters. Cataclysms in the History of Civilization” Richard Fairstone, Allen West and Simon Warwick-Smith provide evidence of a global catastrophe that occurred in the past, causing climate change, destroying a large part of animals and changing the carbon content. Thus, without taking into account global catastrophes, the dating produced is incorrect. Meanwhile, the discovery of remains of marine flora and fauna in ancient sediments high in the mountains confirms the flooding of the entire surface of the earth with water. Seashells and fossilized fish prints are quite common in mountainous areas, which irrefutably proves that there was once a column of water above these mountains.
As for other floods that were local in nature, they are trying to connect them with floods that are known. Scientists associate the Greek story of the Deucalion Flood with a major tsunami that occurred in 1800-1500 BC. There was also speculation about a large tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea, which was caused by a volcanic eruption dating back to approximately 1630-1600 BC. The tsunami hit the southern Aegean Sea and the island of Crete, but did not affect the cities in mainland Greece (Mycenae, Athens and Thebes), which continued to prosper.
The famous deep sea explorer Robert Bollard used underwater robots to explore sunken settlements off the coast of Northern Turkey. Analysis of the data showed that the flooding of these settlements was the result of a sudden global catastrophe, and the dating of this event is close to the Biblical one. A theory has also been put forward about the fall of a giant asteroid or even a group of asteroids to the earth, which provoked the Great Flood. An impact of such force could cause a fracture in the earth's crust, from where lava and water from underground sources began to erupt to the surface. On its own, this could cause waves of such magnitude that they could drown almost anything. In addition, the evaporation of a large mass of water into the atmosphere resulted in unprecedented rains. Another theory is that it was a meteorite or comet that crashed into the Indian Ocean around 3000-2800 BC, creating the 30-kilometer underwater Barkle Crater and causing a giant tsunami that flooded vast areas. Jews, Christians and Muslims unanimously recognize the Flood as a historical fact. Stories about him recorded in the mythology of various peoples of the world indicate that they are in fact based on a real event. Some differences and features in the stories are quite understandable due to their long transmission from mouth to mouth, starting from the time of the flood and ending with our time.
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Who doesn’t know the story of the global flood from the Old Testament! But who would have thought that it is distributed all over the world and is presented in more than 250 versions? The origin of the myth of Noah's Ark is unclear. Was the original version of the Epic of Gilgamesh from the land of the Sumerians, written down almost 1000 years earlier than the Old Testament? And is this just a myth, or did Mesopotamia really suffer a devastating flood? And was the flood limited to a certain region, or was it a universal catastrophe?
O Lord, he repented that he created people in whom there is so much evil. "I will destroy them from the earth."
All the springs of the great deep... and rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.”
“The waters increased and greatly increased on the earth,” says the Old Testament.
The earth plunged into darkness, and all people drowned in torrents of rain.
Prehistoric ships, similar to the saving Noah's Ark, are still being built on the Tigris.
Noah's task was to restore fertility to the soil destroyed by the flood.
In a Mexican valley there lived a God-fearing man named Tapi, to whom one day the creator appeared. “Build an ark,” the Lord told him, “and make it your dwelling. Bring your wife there and a couple of all the animals you have. But hurry up, because the hour is near!” Tapi obeyed, not paying attention to the insults and ridicule of his neighbors. He had barely finished his work when it started to rain. He walked for a long time and continuously, the valley disappeared under water, people and animals sought refuge in the mountains, but the water overwhelmed them too. Only Tapi's ark sheltered living beings in the endless ocean. When the rain stopped, the sun shone again and the water subsided, the man released a dove from the ark. He did not return, and Tapi’s heart was filled with joy, for this meant that the bird had found a piece of land on which it could land.”
If in this story we put Noah in the place of Tapi, we will get a brief summary of the three Old Testament chapters of the “First Book of Moses,” with the exception of the words “in a Mexican valley.” However, these words should not be surprising, because we are not talking about a passage from the Old Testament, but about the religious tradition of the Mayans, the people who inhabited the territory of what is now Mexico. About 1,200 years before Columbus discovered the New World, the Maya people created a high culture in ancient America that lasted more than 1,000 years. The Mayan sacred books, the main one of which is Po-Vuh (which means “Book of Dominion”), detail the creation of the world and contain the above description of the great flood.
Surprisingly, Po-Vuh also contains New Testament elements, for example, the symbol of the cross or belief in a divine, messianic savior, who was called Kukulkan here and was depicted as a serpent with a human head.
And here is the abbreviated biblical account of the flood (“The First Book of Moses,” 6-8): “And the Lord saw how great was the wickedness of man on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was evil continually. And the Lord repented that he had created man on earth, and was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said: I will destroy from the face of the earth man whom I have created, from man to beast, and I will destroy the creeping thing and the bird of the air; for I repented that I created them. Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord... And God said to Noah: ...make yourself an ark from gopher wood... I will bring a flood of water on the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life under the heavens; everything on earth will lose life. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives will come into the ark with you. Also bring into the ark two of every animal and every flesh... Take for yourself all the food that they eat, and gather it to you; and it will be food for you and for them. And Noah did everything; as God commanded him, so he did... In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of heaven were opened; and the rain poured on the earth for forty days and forty nights... But the water increased and greatly increased on the earth; and the ark floated on the surface of the waters... The waters rose fifteen cubits, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh that moved on the earth lost its life, and birds, and cattle, and wild beasts, and every creeping thing that crawled on the earth, and all people... Only Noah remained, and that which was with him in the ark. The water increased on the earth for one hundred and fifty days.
Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord
And God remembered Noah, and all the beasts, and all the livestock... and the rain from heaven ceased... And the ark stopped in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat... After forty days Noah opened the window of the ark he made and released a raven, which, flying out, flew away and flew back until the earth was dried up from the water. Then he sent out a dove from him to see if the water had disappeared from the face of the earth, but the dove did not find a resting place for its feet and returned to him in the ark... And he delayed another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ark. The dove returned to him in the evening; and behold, a fresh olive leaf was in his mouth: and Noah knew that the waters had departed from the earth. He delayed another seven days, and sent out a dove; and he returned no more to him... And Noah opened the roof of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the earth was dry..."
This Old Testament story appeared between the 10th and 5th centuries. BC e. in Judea. He could hardly get to America through the Atlantic Ocean, but perhaps through Siberia and Alaska? If this were so, then the legend of the great flood would have left traces along its path in other places. However, there is precisely no shortage of them.
A star in terrible brilliance
Apparently at the end of the 9th century. the Persian “Bundahishn” appeared, a book whose title can be translated as “The Creation of the Foundation,” that is, as the story of creation, and thus quite comparable with the “First Book of Moses.” The Bundahishn is largely based on the Avesta, the sacred book of the Parsis (fire worshipers), recorded in writing from 226 to 642. About the universal succession, the Bundahishn reports: “When Ahura Mazda (the supreme deity, literally “the wise Lord”) fought and Angro Mainyu (spirit of evil), the star Tistar appeared above the earth in terrible brilliance; successively turning into a man, a bull, and a horse, she set out to drown the earth in streams of rain, because the earth was then inhabited by creatures that brought evil. In each of its forms, the star Tistar shed rain for ten days..."
In this text, written one and a half millennia after the “First Book of Moses,” attention is drawn to the connection between the global flood and the appearance of a bright star in the sky.
Continuing further east, we will stop in India, where the great flood is reported in the Rig Veda. This sacred text for Hindus - like other Vedas - was passed down from mouth to mouth for centuries and was created a thousand years BC. e. It reads: “Oh, saint, you have always protected me, now listen to what you must do when the hour comes. The day is not far off, O holy man, when everything living and inanimate in this world will perish. The fateful time is approaching when the human race will sink into the water, and therefore I want to tell you how you can be saved.
Noah's Ark has always been one of the favorite themes of Christian art. The Ark acts as a symbol of the church, where Christ will finally find the grace that he sought in vain in the vanity and destruction of a sinful world.
The Sumerian epic Gilgamesh told about the global flood long before the Bible.
The dove with an olive branch returns to the ark as a messenger of new life on earth.
The Ark is a symbol of God's caring love, calling for faith and obedience.
Seven is not understood here as a specific number, but is symbolic. It is considered mystical and religious, symbolizing the desire for knowledge and intuitive wisdom. The creation of the world took seven days. This number is sacred to the Universe.
Magic number seven
However, we will continue moving east. The myth of the great flood was also known in China. For the first time, it allows us to date this catastrophe, since it was precisely during the flood that the unification of the Chinese into one great empire began on the banks of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. And this empire arose in the 3rd millennium BC. e.
The Eskimos could have transferred the legend from Asia to North America. Their ancient legends tell of an ark with seven bridges, on which the Tlingit, a large Indian tribe in Alaska, escaped death during the flood.
Assuming that the legendary legend of pre-Jewish times spread throughout Asia and eventually reached America. Over the course of many centuries, here and there new motifs were woven into the text, such as, for example, a horn growing on the head of a Hindu god, or the seven bridges of an Eskimo ark. In the myth of the Haida Indians, natives of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the west coast of British Columbia, the place of Noah is taken by a man with a steelhead, whom the gods turn into a salmon to save during the flood. In addition to the catastrophic flood that destroys all living things, the original myth here is reminded of the task set by the Almighty to renew the human race, as stated in the ancient Chinese legend. The ninth chapter of the First Book of Moses begins with the words: “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”
Next we come across a legend in the Algonquian language, widely spoken among the North American Indians, which is also very close to the biblical one: “Manitou (the supreme deity personifying magical power, supernatural forces) loved people very much. However, they were very guilty. And then the great spirit sent a man who was supposed to warn people: a terrible punishment will befall you if you do not improve. But the people continued to persist in their delusions. Then in the fall something incredible happened: the sun did not rise during the day, the moon and stars did not appear at night. The world plunged into impenetrable darkness. It became very cold, and the animals left their forests to find warmth and light near the fire that people had lit. The voices lost their sound. Everything was drowning in silence and cold until a terrible thunderclap shook the earth. Then the voices began to sound again, and a great cry of horror was heard from everywhere, as torrents of rain fell upon the world.
Of the entire human race, only one person was saved, and that was a prophet. Following the advice of the Great Spirit, he built a huge raft from tree trunks."
The world has plunged into pitch darkness
We find similar legends among many other Indian tribes of North America. Legends about the global flood also exist in Mexico, this has already been mentioned. Surprisingly, the descendants of the Peruvian Incas also talk about the flood that broke out after 5 days of darkness and a terrible earthquake. These Indian tribes lived in the Andes at an altitude of several thousand meters, where such destructive floods simply could not happen.
The Ugha-Mongulala Indian tribe, living on the border of Venezuela and Brazil, has a legend about the appearance of “a huge star, the red trace of which stretched across the entire sky.” After this cosmic phenomenon, there was torrential rain for 13 months, which flooded the world and destroyed all life. Only one man named Madus managed to escape on the raft he built, and numerous animals, two of each species, also survived the flood.
Given this striking coincidence of the plots of the Old Testament and the Mayan legends from the Book of Vuh, many ethnologists continue to be of the opinion that the legend of the Flood, transmitted from mouth to mouth, made its way through all of Asia to the west coast of America. However, this version is very controversial, since today there are at least 250 local versions of the great flood in the world! Only ancient Greek and Roman legends go back directly to the Old Testament plot.
This is what the ancient Greeks said. “People became more and more wicked. Zeus called the gods and held council with them. And then he decided to destroy the entire human race and send such a strong wind to the earth that everything would be flooded. Zeus forbade all winds to blow; only the humid southern wind Noth drove dark rain clouds across the sky. The rain poured onto the ground. The water in the seas and rivers rose higher and higher, flooding everything around. The cities with their walls, houses and temples disappeared under the water, and the towers that rose high on the city walls were no longer visible. Gradually, the water covered everything - both forested hills and high mountains. All of Greece disappeared under the raging waves of the sea. The top of the two-headed Parnassus rose lonely among the waves... Only two escaped amid this common death - Deucalion, the son of Poseidon, and his wife Pyrrha. On the advice of his father, Deucalion built a huge box, put food supplies in it and entered it with his wife. For nine days and nights the box rushed across the sea until the waves drove it to the top of Parnassus. Deucalion and Pyrrha came out of the box and made a thanksgiving sacrifice to Zeus."
Zeus held council with the gods
Here is the Roman legend. “Since ancient times, evil on earth has flourished so much that Justice rushed to heaven, and the king of the gods ordered the extermination of the human race... Jupiter’s wrath spread to the entire heavenly kingdom. His brother Neptune, the ruler of the seas, sent his waves to help him. Neptune stuck his trident into the ground, and the earth began to tremble and shake... And soon it was no longer possible to distinguish where the land was and where the sea was... Almost all the people drowned. Those few who managed to escape the flood did not find food for themselves and died of hunger.”
It is unclear whether the ancient Germanic tradition comes directly from an Old Testament Greek or Roman source.
“And take seven of every clean animal, male and female, and two of every unclean animal, male and female.” The artist Daniel Ferrara depicts the unloading of Noah's Ark as a heavenly scene, as the rebirth of the world. Traditions similar to those contained in the Old Testament are also found in the mythology of various peoples of Africa, Asia, Australia and America. However, the origin and widest spread of the legend of the Flood is still shrouded in mystery.
The bizarre landscape, dissected by gorges, is like an illustration to the Old Testament: the prehistoric natural sandstone structures of Waltarka King Canyon in Australia are similar to Noah’s Ark.
Build a ship and save your life
In 1864-1865 his former assistant Hormuzd Rassam, a Chaldean Christian born in Mosul, found numerous clay tablets with cuneiform writing just 14 km north of the Nimrud Hill. These turned out to be large chunks of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The find so fascinated the curator of the British Museum, George Smith, that he not only deciphered the cuneiform, but also went to Mesopotamia and began searching for the missing parts of the epic.
Oddly enough, he was lucky. He found 384 fragments of clay tablets and was able to restore the famous epic poem of Gilgamesh into 12 cantos, of which the 11th contains the story of the flood. It tells the story of Utnapishtim, the pre-biblical equivalent of Noah. He reports to the Sumerian king Gilgamesh how “the lord with shining eyes, the god Ea,” warned him about the decision of the council of gods to flood the earth: “O man from Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu, break down your house, build a ship, leave your wealth and save own life! Take with you into the ship all the seeds of life, your entire family and all household members, artisans, livestock, wild animals and plenty of green fodder...”
Then Utnapishtim talks about the construction of the ship and finally about the flood itself: “I entered the ark and locked the door behind me... When it began to dawn, a black cloud appeared on the horizon... Suddenly the daylight faded into darkness. One did not see the other, people did not recognize each other. The gods in the sky were afraid of the flood and backed away, climbing across the sky to the abode of Anu. People crouched to the ground like dogs, huddled against the walls... For six days and six nights the wind raged; a flood and a thunderstorm devastated the land. On the seventh day, the thunderstorm, the downpour, and the storm that raged like an enemy army subsided. The sea calmed down and the water began to recede. I looked at the sea: there was silence on it, the entire human race had turned into clay again! Where there were fields, there were swamps... I looked at the world: everywhere there was a sea. An island appeared in the distance. The ship sailed to the land of Nizir, and the mountain did not let go of the ship... On the seventh day I released a dove. But the dove flew a little and, not finding shelter anywhere, returned back. Then I released the swallow and let it fly away.
On Mount Ararat, in eastern Anatolia, according to the Old Testament, Noah's ark finally landed on earth.
Was Mesopotamia, lying between the Tigris and Euphrates, the birthplace of legends about the global flood?
Impressive monuments to the history of the Earth: in the beginning there were seas and volcanoes.
The swallow circled a little and came back. Then I released the raven. He flew away and saw that the water had subsided; he pecked at the food, flew around, croaked and never came back.”
Isn't this the prototype of all the legends about the global flood? The “First Book of Moses” was written down in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. e., and the cycle of epic tales of Gilgamesh is almost a thousand years earlier! But perhaps this message was also a myth? No one can say when King Gilgamesh lived or whether he even existed. True, there were compiled around 2100 BC. e. in ancient Babylon there were royal lists, according to which the history of the Sumerians goes back centuries until the creation of the first people. The ten most ancient kings are mentioned in the lists from the time of the forefather of mankind. Then a great flood happened and destroyed all the people. The Bible mentions ten “forefathers” during this period of time. After the flood, as the ancient royal lists report, a new human race appeared, this time the offspring of Utnapishtim.
Is the Tale of Gilgamesh the basis of flood lore?
Historians up to the 20th century. These “royal lists” were denied any authenticity. A real sensation appeared in the 1920s, when the English archaeologist Charles Leonard Woolley began excavations in ancient non-Sumerian Ur, the biblical Ur in Chaldea, the homeland of Abraham. He systematically opened up deeper and deeper layers of the earth, discovered prehistoric burials and recovered many clay shards. Then, at a depth of 12 m from the surface of the earth, he came across a layer of clay that did not contain any signs of human activity. However, Woolley continued to dig. Having gone 2.5 m deeper, I again discovered a cultural layer. The archaeologist's wife was the first to suggest that the untouched layer could be soil that was deposited by a flood. Later, geologists confirmed that this was indeed alluvial clay. And this meant that there was a catastrophic flood here. It can be dated to the 4th millennium BC. e. Apparently, this was the same great flood, the description of which is contained in the Epic of Gilgamesh and in the Old Testament.
This explanation does not suit Bible researchers: the catastrophe in the kingdom of the Sumerians, naturally, could not cover the whole world, and powerful alluvial layers of clay were discovered in Mexico. Moreover, they turned out to be even older there.
There was also a bright star, which is present in some legends about the flood that arose in different parts of the globe. Among the scientists there were lovers of sensations for whom Woolley’s discovery did not seem fantastic enough; they believed and continue to believe that we are talking about a global, worldwide catastrophe. According to them, June 5, 8496 BC. e. A giant meteorite with a diameter of about 10 km and a mass of about a trillion tons collided with the Earth. It seemed to shake our planet and, along with other cataclysms, caused a catastrophic flood.
The Great Flood - 4000 BC
However, let's return to reality. The historical flood struck Mesopotamia - how does this relate to the biblical indication that Noah's ark eventually landed on Ararat? Mount Ararat, as you know, is located in Anatolia, in the extreme east of today's Turkey, 1000 km from ancient Ur. In principle, the ship can cover such a distance. After a Turkish peasant found dilapidated logs on the top of Ararat, in 1949 the first 3 expeditions went to this extinct volcano with a height of 5165 m - in search of the remains of the ark. However, all efforts were in vain: no evidence was obtained that Noah’s Ark had ever landed here. The reason may be an involuntary mistake by historians. The fact is that at the time when the Old Testament was created, Ararat was the name for the entire mountainous country south of Lake Van. Ararat of the Flood is a mountainous country, not a specific peak.
Here the Koran comes to the rescue, where, as in the Old Testament, it tells about the events of the pre-Jewish era. Although the canonical text of the Koran was formed only in the 7th century, it is based on numerous ancient copies. So, in the story of the global flood (Sura 11, verses 36-48), Noah’s ark (in the Koran the biblical Noah is called Nuh, and he is one of the Muslim prophets) ended up on Mount Judi, in the mountainous country of Ararat, in the territory of present-day Syria.
It is quite possible that future researchers of the Flood will be able to find the remains of the legendary Noah’s Ark here.