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The Flood Story—Lily Caswell

I can’t remember exactly how old I was when I started reading Greek mythology but I was probably somewhere between 10 and 12 years old. I got to the point where I started reading and studying it and other mythology for fun. Something I noticed while reading about what other cultures believe is that they all have some version of the flood story. In Greek and Roman mythology, Zeus/Jupiter vows to destroy the world with water after being disgusted with the evil in the world. As I got older and started reading about other versions of the flood story, I began to realize that this proves the fact that there was a global flood. The chances of every culture having some version of a story and it not being true is extremely rare.

Jupiter vows to flood the world after Lycaon, king of Arcadia, basically pulled a Hannibal Lecter by offering Jupiter the entrails of a Molossi hostage. (And no, I have not seen Silence of the Lambs in case anyone wonders.) Isn’t this incredibly similar to how God reacted with disgust to the world in Noah’s day and prepares to flood the entire earth? In the story of Gilgamesh, the whole world was flooded. If the whole world wasn’t flooded, then why does almost every culture have a flood story in their mythology?

I’d love to hear people’s comments or thoughts on this!

I commented on Rachael’s and Jamie’s posts.

Comments

  1. Caroline TuckerOctober 19, 2020 at 8:52 PM

    The fact that other religions also have a flood story that is interestingly similar to the Biblical flood was not something I knew about until a few years ago. I find it very interesting how other religions have a global flood story. I believe it shows the impact the Christian religion has on other cultures and religions. I did not know this fact until I went to the Ark Encounter a few years ago. It had an exhibit about the different global floods in other religions the cool thing was that they had a television playing simulations of the different arks and how they would compare to the Biblical ark. It was very enlightening and fun!

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  2. Hailey MorganOctober 20, 2020 at 1:37 AM

    My entire “education” on Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse mythology all came from good ‘ol Rick Riordan, so I am most definitely at the kindergarten level when it comes to knowing the basics! Still, I find it super cool that the flood is a part of most every cultures history of the world. If nothing else, this totally proves that the world was, at one point in time, plagued by a horrible monsoon. For such a similar sounding story to be found in so many different cultures and places practically solidifies the truth of it all.

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