Motif in which a great flood destroys civilization
"Great Flood" redirects here. For other uses, see Great Flood (disambiguation).
A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeval waters which appear in certain creation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for the cleansing of humanity, in preparation for rebirth. Most flood myths also contain a culture hero, who "represents the human craving for life".[1]
The flood-myth motif occurs in many cultures, including the manvantara-sandhya in Hinduism, Deucalion and Pyrrha in Greek mythology, the Genesis flood narrative, the Mesopotamian flood stories, and the Cheyenne flood story.
^Leeming, David (2004). Flood | The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195156690. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
A floodmyth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution...
Floodmyths are common across a wide range of cultures, extending back into Bronze Age and Neolithic prehistory. These accounts depict a flood, sometimes...
The Gilgamesh floodmyth is a floodmyth in the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is one of three Mesopotamian FloodMyths alongside the one including in the Eridu...
The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is a Hebrew floodmyth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre-creation...
Eridu Genesis, also called the Sumerian Creation Myth, Sumerian Flood Story and the Sumerian Deluge Myth, offers a description of the story surrounding...
The Finnish floodmyth is recorded in the Kalevala rune entitled Haava (The Wound, section 8). Väinämöinen attempts a heroic feat that results in a gushing...
floodmyth, Enlil rewards Ziusudra with immortality for having survived the flood and, in the Babylonian floodmyth, Enlil is the cause of the flood himself...
Many Mesoamerican floodmyths have been documented in written form or passed down through in oral tradition. Some clearly have Torah influences, but others...
Indian and Greek flood-myths also exist, although there is little evidence that they were derived from the Mesopotamian flood-myth that underlies the...
order to cause flash flooding or flooding on larger water basins. A floodmyth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity...
mother as Clymene, Hesione, or Pronoia. He is closely connected with a floodmyth in Greek mythology. According to folk etymology, Deucalion's name comes...
statue, or sometimes tortoise statue. A less widespread floodmyth involves the goddess Magu: this myth involves the cyclic rise and fall of the ocean level...
recurring myths such as ascending a mountain, the axis mundi, myths of combat, descent into the Underworld, accounts of a dying-and-rising god, a floodmyth, stories...
and refute the existence of the flood, while the theory that it is the basis of later floodmyths is not proven. Flooding of this area scattered peoples...
Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Comparative mythology...
one of several mythic characters who are protagonists of Near Eastern floodmyths, including Atrahasis, Utnapishtim and the biblical Noah. Although each...
the Earth in accordance with a literal belief in the Genesis flood narrative, the floodmyth in the Hebrew Bible. In the early 19th century, diluvial geologists...
after an earthquake. The flood is suggested [by whom?] to possibly be the disaster that gave rise to the Gun-Yu floodmyth,[citation needed] which preceded...
Another local myth says that Yu created the Sanmenxia in the Yellow River by cutting a mountain ridge with a divine battle-axe to control flooding. This is...
and Indian myth guard Hell with the help of two four-eyed dogs. Oettinger, when talking about how the story of Yima was originally a floodmyth, and how...
immortality after surviving the flood sent by the gods to wipe out humanity. Immortality is also touched on in the myth of Adapa. Adapa’s accidental refusal...
the saviour of the scriptures. The tale is ascribed with the motif of floodmyths, common across cultures. The deity Matsya derives his name from the word...
sometimes also the name of a king of the city, legendary survivor of the Flood, and supposed author of the Instructions of Shuruppak". The earliest excavated...
possibility that the myth is newer than the other Chinese great flood mythologies, because the oldest recorded sources about this myth were from Six Dynasties...
and how to live a good life. The story of Utnapishtim, the hero of the floodmyth, can also be found in the Babylonian epic of Atra-Hasis. The Standard...