Apart from the Mythical Deluge, whose truth is argued to this day, we have had 25 scientifically accepted mass extinction events on earth, since life began (not including this 26th current one which is happening to animals because of human interference with nature). Apart from the Current Holocene Extinction, i believe perhaps the flood was the last cataclysm. Before this we had the three Quaternary Mass Extinction Events, 640,000, 74,000, and 13,000 years ago, which may indeed also be one of the possible times from which the Myth of the Deluge originated. be it the Vedic Manu Myth or the Frostgiant Vidgelmir, or the Egyptian Setmet.. the Myth reoccurs again and again
FRONTISPIECE TO GUSTAVE DORE’S ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF THE BIBLE, 1866.
This would imply that Civilisation had already previously developed enough to tell the story, and for the story to be transported across aeons, surviving the rise and fall of religions and empires, remaining contained within each culture and religion’s sacred texts, as a Myth which reflects an actual event.
As in biographical movies, most grimoires and recorded works are ‘works based on real events, which have fictional content to assist the telling of the story according to the current times’ My below podcast talks about the role of Myths in surviving cataclysms, and their purpose as a method of transmitting knowledge of the past.
Whereas empires and religions don’t survive, but the Myths contained within their literature and folk beliefs do, and the stories are told from generation to generation, slowly distorting like the game of Chinese Whispers, but with the core essence of the Truth remaining intact within each version of the myth.
, which is the only one we have recorded, and was about perhaps 5000 – 12000 years ago, before which we know little about Human Life, except from mythologies.
The Chaldean Mythology says Xisuthrus was warned of a coming flood by the god Chronos, who ordered him to build a boat in which to carry family, friends, and two of every kind of animal. Birds were used to find land…
Hihking; The Chinese classic Great Flood of Gun Yu record details one family survived a great flood by gathering their sons and sons’ wives together in a large boat, whereupon they repopulated the earth afterwards. Birds were used to find land.
Babylonia; Epic of Gilgamesh – The god Ea warned Utnapishtim of the imminent destruction of the earth; the ark built was cube-shaped, and held his family, friends, and all animals, Birds were used to find Land.
Download and Read Epic of Gilgamesh English Translation PDF Epic of Gilgamesh by N. K. Sanders, released by Assyrian International News Agency Books Online (www.aina.org)
Assyria; King Ashurbanipal, who lived in the seventh century B.C., recorded, “I have read intricate tablets inscribed with obscure Sumerian or Akkadian…inscriptions on stone from before the Flood.” Birds were used to find land.
King Ashubanipal
Sumer; Eridu Genesis: the god Enki warns Ziudsura to build a large boat due to the coming destruction of the earth. After a flood lasting seven days, Ziudsura sacrifices to the gods. (untranslated if birds were used or not to find land).
Greek Myth; Deucalion and Pyrrha were warned by Prometheus about the flood and told to build a chest; they survived when the chest landed on a high mountain – animals were involved in the exodus.
The Myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha, Niccolò Giolfino, 1550
Deucalion constructs an ark for him and his wife, Pyrrha. They then sail to Mount Parnassus, upon arriving to the mountain top, they solicit permission to recreate the human race. They were subsequently ordered to cast behind them the bones of their mother. Deucalion and Pyrrha interpreted their message to throw stones on the mountain or mother earth. Deucalion’s stones became male children and Pyrrha’s female.
African Masai; God resolved to destroy mankind, as the people were sinful. God commanded Tumbainot, the only righteous man, to build an ark and enter it with his two wives, six sons and their wives, and some of animals of every sort. God caused a great flood, and all other men and beasts drowned. When the water receded the ark grounded and its occupants disembarked…..
The Choktaw People; The Great Spirit destroyed a corrupt and wicked human race and all life on earth, except a prophet who went in vain to warn the people to repent or die. The prophet survived by building a raft of sassafras logs… The Tamanakis Tribe; A man and woman escaped to the highest peak after being warned of a flood. Afterward, the tossed coconuts behind them, which became the next race of man.
Enjoy a Lecture about the Choktaw Nation
Recommended Link; Geology, Mythology, and the World’s Ancient Wisdom
Myths of the Flood Are Far Older Than the Bible (Time Magazine).
The below talk delves into more possibilities of the origins of the Deluge Myth, and how Myths seems to survive empires, religions, cultures and cataclysms with mass extinctions.
Conclusive Thought;
As Rudyard Kipling Said “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”
We have had 25 Quaternary Mass Extinction Events in the past on Earth, (26 including the current Mass Extinction of Animals caused by Human Influence on the Environment). Are Myths such as that of the deluge, more likely than historical documents to be transmitted across the extinctions, and resurgence of civilisation which follows each mass extinction?
