A Comparison of the Flood of Gilgamesh and the BiblePeople grow up hearing the story of Noah and the flood. They remember very clearly the length of the flood, the dove and the rainbow. However, most people don't realize that the story is told in many different cultures and with accounts older than the biblical version of Genesis. Although each of the stories tells of the flood, there are many variations. Such a story can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Although the Epic of Gilgamesh is similar to the Genesis version, there are some differences in the days before, during and after the flood. The days leading up to the flood are different and similar in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis version. of the flood. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods decided to send a flood because the people on Earth were noisy. A man, Utnapishtim, received a dream from one of the gods because of an oath. In contrast, in Genesis, God sent a flood to destroy man-made evils. He warned Noah about the flood because Noah was good. Utnapishtim and Noah built boats to survive the flood. Utnapishtim's boat measured 120 cubits and was a perfect cube. It was completed by seven bridges divided into nine sections each. On the other hand, Noah's ark measured three hundred cubits in length, fifty cubits in width, and thirty cubits in height. There was a skylight and a door on the side. It was only three stories high. After the boat was built, Gilgamesh “loaded into it all that I had of gold and living beings, my family, my relatives, the best of the fields, wild and tame, and all the artisans” (p. 37) . Noah, in the same way, loaded his family, food and a male and female pair from each... middle of paper ...... both men were informed of the flood. They both built boats and filled their boats with animals and their families. Then they released birds to test the waters, and both made sacrifices. However, the boats were of different construction. The number of days differed depending on the duration of the flood, when the waters receded, and when each man left his boat. The birds that did not return to their boats were also different. It is very easy to see that the flood story can be true based on these two accounts because it is easy to see how two different cultures, the Samarians and the Hebrews, shaped the flood story for the adapt to their cultures. Although the stories are different, there seems to be a major common thread, the flood.ResourcesMack, Maynard, ed. Masterpieces of the world. The Norton Anthology. Expanded edition. WW Norton and company: New York, 1995.