![Gustave Doré - The Holy Bible - Plate I, The Deluge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Gustave_Dor%C3%A9_-_The_Holy_Bible_-_Plate_I%2C_The_Deluge.jpg)
A flood myth or a deluge myth is a
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
in which a great
flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
, usually sent by a
deity
A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...
or deities, destroys
civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
Ci ...
, often in an act of
divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
s and the primaeval
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
s which appear in certain
creation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for the
cleansing of humanity, in preparation for
rebirth
Rebirth may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Film
* ''Rebirth'' (2011 film), a 2011 Japanese drama film
* ''Rebirth'' (2016 film), a 2016 American thriller film
* ''Rebirth'', a documentary film produced by Project Rebirth
* ''The Re ...
. Most flood myths also contain a
culture hero, who "represents the human craving for life".
The
flood-myth motif occurs in many cultures, including the
Mesopotamian flood stories, Native American in North America, the
Genesis flood narrative, ''
manvantara
A ''manvantara'', in Hindu cosmology, is a cyclic period of time identifying the duration, reign, or age of a Manu, the progenitor of mankind. In each ''manvantara'', seven Rishis, certain deities, an Indra, a Manu, and kings (sons of Manu) ar ...
-sandhya'' in
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, and
Deucalion
In Greek mythology, Deucalion (; grc-gre, Δευκαλίων) was the son of Prometheus; ancient sources name his mother as Clymene, Hesione, or Pronoia.A scholium to ''Odyssey'' 10.2 (='' Catalogue'' fr. 4) reports that Hesiod called Deucal ...
and
Pyrrha
In Greek mythology, Pyrrha (; Ancient Greek: Πύρρα) was the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora and wife of Deucalion of whom she had three sons, Hellen, Amphictyon, Orestheus; and three daughters Protogeneia, Pandora II and Thyia. Accordi ...
in
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
.
Mythologies
One example of a flood myth is the ''
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...
''. Many scholars believe that this account was copied from the
Akkadian ''
Atra-Hasis'', which dates to the 18th century BCE. In the
Gilgamesh flood myth, the highest god,
Enlil
Enlil, , "Lord f theWind" later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Bab ...
, decides to destroy the world with a flood because humans have become too noisy. The god
Ea, who had created humans out of clay and divine blood, secretly warns the hero
Utnapishtim
Ut-napishtim or Uta-na’ishtim (in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''), Atra-Hasis, Ziusudra ( Sumerian), Xisuthros (''Ξίσουθρος'', in Berossus) ( akk, ) is a character in ancient Mesopotamian mythology. He is tasked by the god Enki (Akkadian: ...
of the impending flood and gives him detailed instructions for building a boat so that life may survive. Both the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and ''Atra-Hasis'' are preceded by the similar
Sumerian creation myth
The earliest record of a Sumerian creation myth, called The Eridu Genesis by historian Thorkild Jacobsen, is found on a single fragmentary tablet excavated in Nippur by the Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania in 1893, and first recognized ...
(c. 1600 BCE)—the oldest surviving example of such a flood-myth narrative, known from tablets found in the ruins of
Nippur
Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian language, Akkadian: '' ...
in the late 1890s and translated by
Arno Poebel
Arno Poebel (1881–1958) was a German Assyriologist. He studied theology and classical philology in Heidelberg, Marburg, Zürich and Jena. In 1905/6, he worked with Sumerian documents at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology an ...
.
Yi Samuel Chen analyzed various texts from the
Early Dynastic III Period through to the Old Babylonian Period, and argues that the flood narrative was only added in texts written during the
Old Babylonian Period
The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty ...
. With regard to the
Sumerian King List
The ''Sumerian King List'' (abbreviated ''SKL'') or ''Chronicle of the One Monarchy'' is an ancient literary composition written in Sumerian that was likely created and redacted to legitimize the claims to power of various city-states and king ...
, observations by experts have always indicated that the portion of the Sumerian King List talking about before the flood differs stylistically from the King List Proper. Essentially Old Babylonian copies tend to represent a tradition of before the flood apart from the actual King List, whereas the
Ur III
The Third Dynasty of Ur, also called the Neo-Sumerian Empire, refers to a 22nd to 21st century BC ( middle chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state which some historians consider t ...
copy of the King List and the duplicate from the Brockmon collection indicate that the King List Proper once existed independent of mention of the flood and the tradition of before the flood. Essentially, Chen gives evidence to prove that the section of before the flood and references to the flood in the Sumerian King List were all later additions added in during the Old Babylonian Period, as the Sumerian King List went through updates and edits. The flood as a watershed in early history of the world was probably a new historiographical concept emerging in the Mesopotamian literary traditions during the Old Babylonian Period, as evident by the fact that the flood motif didn't show up in the
Ur III
The Third Dynasty of Ur, also called the Neo-Sumerian Empire, refers to a 22nd to 21st century BC ( middle chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state which some historians consider t ...
copy and that earliest chronographical sources related to the flood show up in the Old Babylonian Period. Chen also concludes that the name of "
Ziusudra
Ziusudra ( Old Babylonian: , Neo-Assyrian: , grc-gre, Ξίσουθρος, Xísouthros) of Shuruppak (c. 2900 BC) is listed in the WB-62 Sumerian King List recension as the last king of Sumer prior to the Great Flood. He is subsequently r ...
" as a flood hero and the idea of the flood hinted at by that name in the Old Babylonian Version of "
Instructions of Shuruppak
__NOTOC__
The Instructions of Shuruppak (or, ''Instructions of Šuruppak son of Ubara-tutu'') are a significant example of Sumerian wisdom literature. Wisdom literature, intended to teach proper piety, inculcate virtue, and preserve community st ...
" are only developments during that Old Babylonian Period, when also the didactic text was updated with information from the burgeoning Antediluvian Tradition
In
Hindu mythology, texts such as the
Satapatha Brahmana
The Shatapatha Brahmana ( sa, शतपथब्राह्मणम् , Śatapatha Brāhmaṇam, meaning 'Brāhmaṇa of one hundred paths', abbreviated to 'SB') is a commentary on the Śukla (white) Yajurveda. It is attributed to the Vedic ...
( 6th century BCE) and the
Puranas contain the story of a great flood, "''
manvantara
A ''manvantara'', in Hindu cosmology, is a cyclic period of time identifying the duration, reign, or age of a Manu, the progenitor of mankind. In each ''manvantara'', seven Rishis, certain deities, an Indra, a Manu, and kings (sons of Manu) ar ...
-sandhya''", wherein the
Matsya
Matsya ( sa, मत्स्य, lit. ''fish'') is the fish avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. Often described as the first of Vishnu's ten primary avatars, Matsya is described to have rescued the first man, Manu, from a great deluge. Matsya ...
Avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...
of the
Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...
warns the first man,
Manu, of the impending flood, and also advises him to build a giant boat. In
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...
Mazdaism
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...
,
Ahriman
Angra Mainyu (; Avestan: 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀⸱𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎 ''Aŋra Mainiiu'') is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism's hypostasis of the "destructive/evil spirit" and the main adversary in Zoroastrianism either of th ...
tries to destroy the world with a drought, which
Mithra
Mithra ( ae, ''Miθra'', peo, 𐎷𐎰𐎼 ''Miça'') commonly known as Mehr, is the Iranian deity of covenant, light, oath, justice and the sun. In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seein ...
ends by shooting an arrow into a rock, from which a flood springs; one man survives in an ark with his cattle. Norbert Oettinger argues that the story of
Yima and the Vara was originally a flood myth, and the harsh winter was added in due to the dry nature of Eastern Iran, as flood myths didn't have as much of an effect as harsh winters. He has argued that the mention of melted water flowing in
Videvdad 2.24 is a remnant of the flood myth, and mentions that the Indian flood myths originally had their protagonist as Yama, but it was changed to Manu later.
In
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
's
''Timaeus'', written 360 BCE,
Timaeus describes a flood myth similar to the earlier versions. In it, the
Bronze race of humans angers the high god
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
with their constant warring. Zeus decides to punish humanity with a flood. The
Titan Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning " forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, kn ...
, who had created humans from clay, tells the secret plan to
Deucalion
In Greek mythology, Deucalion (; grc-gre, Δευκαλίων) was the son of Prometheus; ancient sources name his mother as Clymene, Hesione, or Pronoia.A scholium to ''Odyssey'' 10.2 (='' Catalogue'' fr. 4) reports that Hesiod called Deucal ...
, advising him to build an ark in order to be saved. After nine nights and days, the water starts receding and the ark lands on a mountain.
The theme of
divine punishment
Divine judgment means the judgment of God or other supreme beings within a religion.
Ancient beliefs
In ancient Sumerian religion, the sun-god Utu and his twin sister Inanna were believed to be the enforcers of divine justice. Utu, as t ...
in the form of a floodfor human wickedness recurs (
Vineta
Vineta (sometimes ''Wineta'') is the name of a mythical city at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. The myth evolved around the tradition about the medieval emporium called Jumne, Jomsborg (with which Vineta is sometimes identified), Julin or s ...
, Genesis). Floods may appear local (
Kitezh
Kitezh (russian: Ки́теж) is a legendary and mythical city beneath the waters of Lake Svetloyar in the Voskresensky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in central Russia. Reference to Kitezh appears for the first time in ''Kitezh Chronicle ...
) or global.
Like many other
folk-tale elements from around the world, the story of flood survival and human restart (motif A 1021.0.2 and associated elements) appears in
Stith Thompson
Stith Thompson (March 7, 1885 – January 10, 1976) was an American folklorist: he has been described as "America's most important folklorist".
He is the "Thompson" of the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index, which indexes folktales by type, and the ...
's ''
Motif-Index of Folk-Literature
The ''Motif-Index of Folk-Literature'' is a six volume catalogue of motifs, granular elements of folklore, composed by American folklorist Stith Thompson (1932–1936, revised and expanded 1955–1958). Often referred to as Thompson's motif-index ...
''.
The
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...
, a North American
Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
tribe, believe in a flood which altered the course of their history, perhaps occurring in the
Missouri River Valley
The Missouri River Valley outlines the journey of the Missouri River from its headwaters where the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers flow together in Montana to its confluence with the Mississippi River in the State of Missouri. At long th ...
.
Historicity
Floods in the wake of the
Last Glacial Period are speculated to have inspired myths that survive to this day. Plato's allegory of
Atlantis
Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...
is set over 9,000 years before his time, leading some scholars to suggest that a
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...
society which lived close to the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
could have been wiped out by the rising
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
, an event which could have served as the basis for the story.
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
, like other early sites of
riverine civilisation, was flood-prone; and for those experiencing valley-wide inundations, flooding could destroy the whole of their known world. According to the excavation report of the 1930s excavation at
Shuruppak (modern Tell Fara, Iraq), the
Jemdet Nasr and
Early Dynastic layers at the site were separated by a layer of sand and silt that was interpreted as a flood layer. However, more recently it has been suggested that the nature of this deposit is more like that being created by
river avulsion, a process that was very common in the
Tigris–Euphrates river system
The Tigris–Euphrates river system is a large river system in Western Asia which discharges into the Persian Gulf. Its principal rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates along with smaller tributaries.
From their sources and upper courses in the mou ...
. Similar layers have been recorded at other sites as well, all dating to different periods, which would be consistent with the nature of river avulsions.
![Post-Glacial Sea Level](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Post-Glacial_Sea_Level.png)
The geography of the Mesopotamian area changed considerably with the filling of the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
after sea waters rose following the last glacial period. Global sea levels were about lower around 18,000
BP and rose until 8,000 BP when they reached current levels, which are now an average above the floor of the Gulf, which was a huge () low-lying and fertile region in Mesopotamia, in which human habitation is thought to have been strong around the
Gulf Oasis
In geomorphology, an outburst flood—a type of megaflood—is a high-magnitude, low-frequency catastrophic flood involving the sudden release of a large quantity of water. During the last deglaciation, numerous glacial lake outburst floods were ca ...
for 100,000 years. A sudden increase in settlements above the present-day water level is recorded at around 7,500
BP.
One hypothesis suggests that a
meteor
A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space.
Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...
or
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
crashed into the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
around 3000–2800 BCE, creating the undersea
Burckle Crater, and generating a giant
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...
that flooded coastal lands.
Historian
Adrienne Mayor
Adrienne Mayor (born 1946) is a historian of ancient science and a classical folklorist.
Mayor specializes in ancient history and the study of "folk science", or how pre-scientific cultures interpreted data about the natural world, and how these ...
theorizes that global flood stories may have been inspired by ancient observations of seashells and fish fossils in inland and mountain areas. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans all documented the discovery of such remains in such locations; the Greeks hypothesized that Earth had been covered by water on several occasions, citing the seashells and fish fossils found on mountain tops as evidence of this idea.
Speculation regarding the
Deucalion
In Greek mythology, Deucalion (; grc-gre, Δευκαλίων) was the son of Prometheus; ancient sources name his mother as Clymene, Hesione, or Pronoia.A scholium to ''Odyssey'' 10.2 (='' Catalogue'' fr. 4) reports that Hesiod called Deucal ...
myth has postulated a large tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea, caused by the
Thera eruption
The Minoan eruption was a catastrophic volcanic eruption that devastated the Aegean island of Thera (also called Santorini) circa 1600 BCE. It destroyed the Minoan settlement at Akrotiri, as well as communities and agricultural areas on near ...
(with an approximate geological date of 1630–1600 BCE), as the myth's historical basis. Although the tsunami hit the South
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...
and
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
, it did not affect cities in the mainland of Greece, such as
Mycenae
Mycenae ( ; grc, Μυκῆναι or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos; and south of Corinth. Th ...
,
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, and
Thebes, which continued to prosper, indicating that it had a local rather than a region-wide effect.
The
Black Sea deluge hypothesis
The Black Sea deluge is the best known of three hypothetical flood scenarios proposed for the Late Quaternary history of the Black Sea. It is one of the two of these flood scenarios which propose a rapid, even catastrophic, rise in sea level of t ...
offers a controversial account of long-term flooding; the hypothesis argues for a catastrophic irruption of water about 5600 BCE from the Mediterranean Sea into the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
basin. This has become the subject of considerable discussion. The
Younger Dryas impact hypothesis
The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (YDIH) or Clovis comet hypothesis is a speculative attempt to explain the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) as an alternative to the long standing and widely accepted cause due to a significant reduction or shut ...
offers another proposed natural explanation for flood myths; this idea is similarly controversial.
Comets
![John Martin - The Eve of the Deluge - WGA14146](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/John_Martin_-_The_Eve_of_the_Deluge_-_WGA14146.jpg)
The earliest known hypothesis about a comet that had a widespread effect on human populations can be attributed to
Edmond Halley
Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.
From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, H ...
, who in 1694 suggested that
a worldwide flood had been the result of a near-miss by a comet. The issue was taken up in more detail by
William Whiston
William Whiston (9 December 166722 August 1752) was an English theologian, historian, natural philosopher, and mathematician, a leading figure in the popularisation of the ideas of Isaac Newton. He is now probably best known for helping to inst ...
, a protégé of and popularizer of the theories of
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
, who argued in his book ''
A New Theory of the Earth
''A New Theory of the Earth'' was a book written by William Whiston, in which he presented a description of the divine creation of the Earth and a posited global flood. He also postulated that the earth originated from the atmosphere of a comet ...
'' (1696) that a comet encounter was the probable cause of the Biblical Flood of
Noah in 2342 BCE. Whiston also attributed the origins of the atmosphere and other significant changes in the Earth to the effects of comets.
In
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar and polymath whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. He summarized ...
's book ''Exposition Du Systême Du Monde'' (''The System of the World''), first published in 1796, he stated:
A similar hypothesis was popularized by Minnesota congressman and
pseudoarchaeology
Pseudoarchaeology—also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, cult archaeology, and spooky archaeology—is the interpretation of the past from outside the archaeological science community, which rejects ...
writer
Ignatius L. Donnelly
Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (November 3, 1831 – January 1, 1901) was an American Congressman, populist writer, and fringe scientist. He is known primarily now for his fringe theories concerning Atlantis, Catastrophism (especially the idea of an a ...
in his book ''
Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel'' (1883), which followed his better-known book ''
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World'' (1882). In ''Ragnarok'', Donnelly argued that an enormous comet struck the Earth around 6,000 BCE to 9,000 BCE, destroying an advanced civilization on the "lost continent" of
Atlantis
Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...
. Donnelly, following others before him, attributed the Biblical Flood to this event, which he hypothesized had also resulted in catastrophic fires and
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. Shortly after the publication of ''Ragnarok'', one commenter noted, "Whiston ascertained that the deluge of Noah came from a comet's tail; but Donnelly has outdone Whiston, for he has shown that our planet has suffered not only from a cometary flood, but from cometary fire, and a cometary rain of stones."
Art
Image:Matsya Avatar, ca 1870.jpg, Matsya-avatara
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
of Lord Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...
pulls Manu
Manu may refer to:
Geography
* Manú Province, a province of Peru, in the Madre de Dios Region
**Manú National Park, Peru
** Manú River, in southeastern Peru
* Manu River (Tripura), which originates in India and flows into Bangladesh
*Manu Tem ...
's boat after having defeated the demon
Image:Manabozhointheflood.png, Nanabozho
In Anishinaabe ''aadizookaan'' (traditional storytelling), particularly among the Ojibwe, Nanabozho (in syllabics: , ), also known as Nanabush, is a spirit, and figures prominently in their storytelling, including the story of the world's creat ...
in Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
flood story from an illustration by R. C. Armour, in his book ''North American Indian Fairy Tales, Folklore and Legends'' (1905)
Image:Anoniem - De zondvloed.jpg, ''The Great Flood'', by anonymous painter, ''The vom Rath bequest'', Rijksmuseum
File:Francis Danby deluge.jpg, ''The Deluge'', by Francis Danby
Francis Danby (16 November 1793 – 9 February 1861) was an Irish painter of the Romantic era. His imaginative, dramatic landscapes were comparable to those of John Martin. Danby initially developed his imaginative style while he was the centr ...
, 1840. Oil on canvas. Tate Gallery
See also
*
List of flood myths
Flood myths are common across a wide range of cultures, extending back into Bronze Age and Neolithic prehistory. These accounts depict a flood, sometimes global in scale, usually sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divin ...
References
Footnotes
Citations
Sources
*
Further reading
* Bailey, Lloyd R. ''Noah, the Person and the Story'', University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
* Best, Robert M. ''Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic, Sumerian Origins of the Flood Myth'', 1999,
* Dundes, Alan (ed.) ''The Flood Myth'', University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988.
* Faulkes, Anthony (trans.) ''Edda'' (Snorri Sturluson).
Everyman's Library
Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division of Weidenfeld & N ...
, 1987.
* Greenway, John (ed.), ''The Primitive Reader'', Folkways, 1965.
* Grey, G. ''Polynesian Mythology''. Whitcombe and Tombs, Christchurch, 1956.
* Lambert, W. G. and
Millard, A. R., ''Atra-hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood'', Eisenbrauns, 1999.
* Masse, W. B. "The Archaeology and Anthropology of Quaternary Period Cosmic Impact", in Bobrowsky, P., and Rickman, H. (eds.) ''Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach'' Berlin, Springer Press, 2007. pp. 25–70.
* Reed, A. W. ''Treasury of Maori Folklore'' A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1963.
* Reedy, Anaru (trans.), ''Nga Korero a Pita Kapiti: The Teachings of Pita Kapiti''. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, 1997.
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Catastrophism
Comparative mythology
Megafloods
Mesopotamian myths
Jemdet Nasr period