Flood myth

A flood myth is a story about a very big flood that covers the world. In many of these stories, the flood is sent by gods to punish people. The stories often say the flood cleans or refreshes the world, removing bad things before starting over. In many myths, there is a special person who helps save some people or shows that people want to keep living.

The oldest known flood story comes from the ancient Sumerian people in Mesopotamia, written down around 1800 BCE. Similar stories are found in many other cultures. For example, the Bible has a big flood story in the book of Genesis. Hinduism has its own version, and Greek mythology tells of a man named Deucalion. Some Native American cultures also have their own flood myths.

Mythologies

Ancient Near East

The Epic of Gilgamesh (around 2100–1800 BCE) tells a story about a huge flood. Only one family survives. This story is also told in the Atra-Hasis epic. The gods decide to send a flood to stop human noise. The god Enki warns a priest named Atrahasis to build a boat. The family survives and saves humanity.

The Eridu Genesis (around 1600 BCE) is another flood story from Nippur. In the Genesis flood narrative from the Hebrew Bible, God decides to flood the Earth because humans have become corrupt. He tells Noah to build an ark to save his family and pairs of animals. After the flood, God promises never to destroy the Earth this way again and makes the rainbow a sign of this promise.

South Asia

In Hinduism, stories like the Satapatha Brahmana and the Puranas tell of a great flood. The Matsya form of Vishnu warns a man named Manu to build a large boat. In Zoroastrianism, a drought turns into a flood, and one man survives in an ark with his cattle.

Ancient Greece

In Plato's Timaeus (around 360 BCE), the god Zeus sends a flood to punish humans for their wars. The Titan Prometheus tells his son Deucalion to build an ark. They survive on a mountain when the waters go down.

North America

The Cheyenne people have a tradition of a flood changing their history, possibly in the Missouri River Valley. The Blackfeet tell a story where a deity named Old Man gathers people on a mountain during a flood and gives them different colored water to drink, leading to different languages. The Hopi and other Puebloans also have flood legends.

Historicity

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia was often flooded because it was in a river valley. Big floods could destroy everything people knew. At a place called Shuruppak, scientists found a layer of sand and clay from around 2900 BCE, showing a big flood happened. In stories from that area, a king named Uta-napishtim built a boat to survive a flood.

Mediterranean Basin

Some historians think that old stories of big floods might come from people finding seashells and fish fossils far away from the sea. Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans found these and wondered if the Earth was once covered in water.

There are ideas about a big wave in the Mediterranean Sea caused by a volcanic eruption around 1630–1600 BCE. This wave affected islands but not mainland Greece, so it was not a huge, widespread flood.

Black Sea deluge hypothesis

One idea says that around 5600 BCE, a lot of water suddenly poured from the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea. This idea is debated among scientists.

Comets

A long time ago, some people thought a big flood might have been caused by a comet passing close to Earth. One scientist from the 1690s thought this, and later another scientist wrote a book saying a comet caused the flood described in stories. Another writer in the 1800s thought a comet hit Earth long ago, causing big changes.

Asteroid impact

One scientist thinks stories of big floods from many cultures might remember a time when a space rock hit the ocean between Africa and Antarctica. This could have created huge waves that flooded lands.

End of the Last Glacial Period

Some people think that big floods that happened when the last ice age was ending might have inspired stories that are still told today. One famous story about a lost land might remember a time when rising sea levels covered areas near the Mediterranean Sea.

Art

Here are some artworks about big floods from different cultures.

One shows the god Vishnu helping a man named Manu in a boat. Another shows a character from Ojibwe stories. There are also paintings like The Great Flood and The Deluge, and a picture of Noah's Ark from an old book.