We encounter one of the first flood narratives in recorded history; why do you think imagery of a flood–seen perhaps more famously in modern America through Noah’s story in the Old Testament–were so powerful and pervasive for people living in the ancient world? Think that most civilizations grew up around rivers and oceans where floods and tidal events were among their greatest dangers and fears.
What details in Utnapishtim’s tale sticks out to you, especially knowing that the Hebrew Bible would be composed/constructed from earlier texts centuries later?
In Greek Mythology (which came well after Mesopotamian stories and cultures were developed from them as well as Egyptian and other sources), the god Poseidon was given dominion over of the oceans, the tides, tsunamis/tidal waves, and earthquakes and the people feared him nearly as much as they feared Zeus, Poseidon’s brother and King of the Gods–how might we see mythic figures Poseidon (or Neptune as the Romans would call him) as following from such stories as this one in Gilgamesh?
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