“Noah” wasn’t the first: 5 flood stories you may not know

[DonViejo]

The Flood is one of the most ancient and oft-recycled stories on the planet -- and was told long before the Bible

INGRID LILLY, RELIGION DISPATCHES

Noah did its job. It brought an ancient biblical story about a cataclysmic flood to life for audiences today. Was it biblical? Was it the least biblical Bible movie ever made? These questions flare up in what is frankly a flat and over-rehearsed debate about the Bible in American life. Honestly, does it matter whether a movie is biblical? Do the spiritual-but-not-religious care? Do those evangelicals who grow tired of the stereotype made of them in the media care? Do secular liberals who have no use for the Bible really care about these questions?

America, we can ask a better question, a more crucial and more meaningful question, “Why does The Flood continue to work as a powerful cultural story?” Indeed, The Flood is one of the most ancient and oft recycled stories in world cultures. In looking at The Flood today, we participate in thousands of years of meaning-making. We connect ourselves to world literature, to ancient civilizations, and to a perennial story about a cataclysm that changed the world.

Long before the Bible was written, The Flood was a blockbuster of the ancient Mesopotamian and Mediterranean worlds. It originated in Sumer over 4000 years ago. New versions were deposited in the greatest imperial libraries of the Mesopotamian empires (Babylonia and Assyria). The Biblical authors fashioned their own versions of the tale, and post-biblical authors continued to ruminate on its potential for meaning-making. The Flood found its proper place in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and flood stories crop up in Hindu, American Indian, and African story-telling as well.

The first known flood story comes from Sumer in the tale of Atra-hasis (19th century, BCE). This story sets the basic elements of the ancient genre: gods try to eradicate humanity, while a flood hero builds a boat to save the animals. A tragicomedy about polytheism starring petty gods who complain like tired parents annoyed by their noisy children. With plans to destroy a boisterous humanity, they are thwarted not once but three times by the flood hero’s personal god and eminent trickster, Enki. With each divine attempt at total genocide, Enki gives the flood hero secret knowledge about which god to appease with a sacrifice. This worked against the first two rounds of disease and drought. However, Enki had to get creative for the third and final attempt. For the deluge, Enki instructs the flood hero to build a boat for family and fauna.

In this Sumerian version, the gods, like bickering politicians, provide plenty of comic relief. But two characters communicate the tragedy of the flood event: (1) the womb goddess who fashioned humanity cries: “How could I join the gods and command total destruction? I am locked in a house of lamentation.” (2) The flood hero, with scant few lines, cries: “How long will the gods make us suffer…will they make us suffer forever?” Cruel and petty powers govern human fate, and with the exception of Enki, the gods could care less about the plight of humanity upon the earth.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/12/noah_wasnt_the_first_flood_story_partner/

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Kicking for Enki nt