Beowulf And Gilgamesh Research Paper

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The Israelites are far from being the sole creators in telling the flood that covered the entire earth. A story of a flood that covers the entire earth is found in almost every culture. There are many similarities and differences between the stories. The different cultures determine the details of the story. This paper will do a comparison of three of these stories. Many of these stories have different versions, including the ancient Mesopotamian Gilgamesh epic, several Greek versions, and even the Torah flood story has different versions.
First, the flood in the Torah will be used as a reference in comparing the other two flood stories. The basic story of the Torah flood story is Noah builds an Ark. He boards the ship with seven relatives …show more content…
Utnapishtim (the main character) tells his relatives that the gods created humans, but soon discovered they had made an error. Humans had become so overpopulated the noise started to bother the gods. The gods met in a meeting and decided to get rid of all the noisy humans by using a flood. The highest god commanded that no gods would tell the plan to the humans. “Ea, one of the minor gods who was earlier engaged in creating the humans, alerts Utnapishtim, a king, by not talking to him directly, as required by the highest god, but by talking to Utnapishtim’s wall while Utnapishtim was in a room. He tells him to build a boat and bring all living animals into it. (Drazin, 2013)” Utnapishtim loads the boat with gold and silver, his wife, and all living …show more content…
Utnapishtim sent a dove to check whether the water receded, but the dove comes back, showing that the flood still covered the land. He then sends a swallow with the same outcome. Finally, he sends out a raven, which does not return to the boat. The raven is proof that the water receded. (Dalley, 1991) (Drazin, 2013)”
“Utnapishtim offers a sheep as a sacrifice to the gods and a wine offering immediately after he leaves the boat. (Drazin, 2013)” The gods enjoyed the sacrifices very much that they felt regretful that they had destroyed almost all of the humans. As an act of regret, they give Utnapishtim and his wife the gift of immortal life.
There are many parallels between the Gilgamesh myth and the Bible. These stories have very close descriptions of the flood. In these descriptions, both main characters were saved from the flood. Both the ark and the boat came to rest upon a mountaintop. Both accounts stated that birds were sent out at three different times to check whether the flood had receded and were sent by the ark/ boat occupant. “In addition, Noah and Utnapishtim offer a sacrifice when they leave their ark/boat. (Hays, 2014)” This paralleling makes one ponder the idea of a flood and many of its details were shared by many people in ancient times. When one understands that, the Gilgamesh story is only one of many non-biblical tales
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