Yu Dug, Noah, Deucalion

[PolskiKing]

Noah is of course the flood survivor in the biblical story.
Yu Dug is a flood survivor and later founder of the mythical Shing
(or Xiang) dynasty
Deucalion is the son of Prometheus from the Greek Myths who
survived a great flood.

All these stories are about the same;
God was angry with man because they were sinful and sent a
flood to destroy all people xcept [b]Noah[\B] who was rightous and
God warned him about the flood. Noah built a boat and it rained
for 40 days and 40 nights and finally came to rest on top of
mount sianai.
The gods were angry with mankind because they were lazy so
they sent a flood to destroy them. OnlyYu-Dug was hard working
enough to build ditches and canals around his home and crops
to survive the flood.
The gods were angry with manking because they stoped making
sacrifices and Zeus ordered Posieden to make a flood that would
kill man. Xcept the son of prometheus, Deucalion, who still
offered up sacrifices. He built a boat and it rained for 9 days and
9 nights until it came to rest on Mt Olympus. He then threw a
buncha rox over his shouldur and they formed people.

All these stories are remarkably similar and yet the cultures are
remarkebly different. Is it possible that a true event inspired
these stories? If anyone can tell me of other cultures that have
developed a flood story, please do write!

[PolskiKing]

sorry messed up with the bold tags owell

[Johanna]

Don't forget the Sumerian granddaddy of them all, Utnapishtim.

[MC Master of Ceremonies]

Wasn't Gilgamesh one of those who appeared in a deluge legend, or did one just appear in his epic?

[Some Guy]

The Gilgamesh Epic is where we know Utnapishtim from - Gilgamesh himself wasn't in a flood.

[C K Dexter Haven]

Archaeologists believe that floods were fairly common in the Tigris-Euphratis basic, the so-called "cradle of civilization." Most buildings were made of mud (sun-dried brick), so flooding would be disastrous. A particularly bad year of massive floods would cause most of the people of the area to think that "the whole world" had been drowned, and could easily be the source of the legends.

This would NOT require that the entire globe had been flooded, only a large area of Mesopotamia. The story could easily have then spread east to China, and west to Canaan and Greece. The biblical recored is very, very similar to the flood in the Gilgamesh epic -- almost word for word, in some sections -- altered to reflect a monotheistic perspective.

[Atreyu]

Since many ancient societies developed near rivers, it would make sense that stories about flooding would be fairly widespread.

Personally, I would have been a little suspicious if only one ancient culture had a flood story tucked away somewhere in their mythology, especially if other cultures developed on or near riverbanks.

[Johanna]

The Mayan creation epic Popol Vuh also tells of a primeval flood sent by the creator who repented of his work and decided to start creation over again.

You want to see flood myths? There are tons of 'em...
http://www.shamanist.com/files/flood_myth.htm

[cmkeller]

PolskiKing:

and finally came to rest on top of mount sianai.

Nitpick: Noah's ark alit on Mount Ararat (actually, "mongst the mountains of Ararat), not Mount Sinai.

[CalMeacham]

And don't forget Ziusudra, the hero of the Sumerian epic.

IFRC, Archaeologis Wooley thought that the Sumerian/Babylonian/Biblical epic were all rooted in a huge historical flood in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. More recently, some people have suggested that the sudden flooding of what became the Black Sea may have occurred in human memory, and that the disaster impressed itself upo people's mind enough to inspire these flood stories.

Myself, I think that Floods are a great an universal disaster, and that huma imagination and fear is enough to allow everyone to imagine the story of a world-encompassing flood.