The Sumerian Great Flood Myth

We have always tried to understand ourselves and cope with all the things that happen to us from birth, to happiness, to disease, to death. Thousands of years ago, as soon as we reached a level of consciousness that caused us to be curious about ourselves and our environment, we started inventing magic, myths and gods. Ancient tribal shamans, spiritualists, and scribes collected ideas and stories and formulated them into what became creation myths and rules for living. They then either promulgated them as true stories, or in time, the stories came to be believed as true by members of the tribe or cultural group.

It is as if we invented the gods then endowed them with the best of our wisdom, then worshiped them and sought their wisdom when it was actually our own wisdom to start with. The problem we had was that we saw our faults and did not trust ourselves. So, we imbued our best traits into beings that we believed to be above and beyond ourselves and, who therefore, were more trustworthy. These gods then represented our wisdom, our morality, and our rules for conduct. The many gods became our guides and our comforters because we were afraid of putting our trust in ourselves.

Today we generally think of myths as stories created by past cultures to explain the puzzling circumstances of people’s lives from birth, to death, to the Earth and stars. Although today we have science to answer most of our existential questions, some people think science does not yet have all of the answers to such mysteries as how life began or what happens to a person’s spirit after death. Thus, gods and myths are still considered reality by many people.

New discoveries about ourselves are being made daily, but science is a relatively recent human endeavor, and there are still people who question the ability of science to explain the basic mysteries of human existence. It seems that for some of us, until we get every question answered, we will still need our myths and gods to assuage our comfort-seeking minds.

Most myths are now seen as old fantasies about heroes who go on quests to seek wisdom and the villains who try to thwart them. Or they are about gods who allow people to function in their daily lives as long as the jealous gods are kept happy with submissiveness and sacrifices. Old myths are ingrained in us and many people find it hard to give them up. Bronislaw Malinowski in his book Magic, Science and Religion explains that a myth for some people: “…is not merely a story told but a reality lived. It is not of the nature of fiction, such as we read today in a novel, but it is a living reality believed to have once happened in primeval times, and continuing ever since to influence the world and human destinies.” Many of us take our mythical stories quite literally.

Some of the stories can be very complex and detailed such as the relationship of the plethora of Greek goods to humanity or the drama of Adam and Eve confronting the serpent at the ‘tree of life’ in the Garden of Eden and the tragedy of their son Cain killing his brother Abel. Many myths gave lessons in morality and described the good and bad aspects of our human interactions.

Although most myths are obviously the figments of overzealous imaginations trying to come to terms with the vicissitudes of life, some are actually based on real events. The story of the Sumerian great flood myth in the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, written some 4,000 years ago, occurs in myths from a number of later cultures and is apparently based on an actual historical event.

Located in the area called Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in today’s Iraq, the Sumerian culture is considered one of the oldest organized cultures in the world, dating back over 7,000 years. They were obviously an intelligent and innovative people who developed such things as the wheel, a sophisticated system of writing called cuneiform, advanced mathematics, knowledge of the movements of the known planets, and other scientific discoveries. Some of their writings indicate that the Sumerians developed the world’s first democratic government in which they elected their ruling officials, but that problems with aggressive neighbors brought on the need for strong military leadership and they were forced to establish a king or absolute ruler who could coordinate their defensive efforts.

Like other ancient cultures, the Sumerians developed a set of gods who controlled the major aspects of their daily lives. Their most powerful god who ruled the sky and all of the universe was Anu. Being omniscient and powerful, one could speculate that Anu was somewhat comparable to the later Greek god Zeus and the Judeo-Christian figure of God.

Anu had two sons, Enlil and Enki who had their own realms of power. Enlil, the older brother, was the god of air, wind, storms, and had authority over the elements. He was also the divine judge over the behavior of humans. His laws were strict and he demanded obedience.

Enlil’s younger brother, Enki was the god of fresh water, agriculture, and fertility, and as creator of humanity, he was the most connected with the everyday activities of people and was more lenient with them than his older brother or father. Both of these brothers were influential in the Sumerian great flood myth.

It is interesting that for centuries these three Sumerian gods lasted through other Mesopotamian cultures although with different names and different duties. They also influenced much later gods such as those of the Greeks and Romans, and possibly the Christian concept of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit wherein each member of the Trinity has a particular interaction with human beings. Also, the ancient Sumerian practice of worshipping the gods and making animal sacrifices to them is still carried on in some cultures.

The basic story of a great flood as told in the Sumerian Eridu Genesis, the Sumerian creation myth, no doubt started out as an oral tradition and was later written on clay tablets when the Sumerians developed cuneiform writing. It is interesting that some of the events in Sumerian great flood myth that are found in the Epic of Gilgamesh show up in other myths from a variety of cultures. The story tells how Gilgamesh, king of the city of Uruk on the east bank of the Euphrates River, after the death of his friend, Enkidu, went on a journey to seek the secret of immortality. Along the way he encountered a number of dangerous obstacles much like Homer’s Odysseus did in the Odyssey written centuries later.

In the Sumerian great flood section of the Gilgamesh epic, Enlil was annoyed that humans were so noisy that he could sleep and that they did not show the proper amount of supplication to him and the other gods. He decided to wipe out all life by a flood. Enki did not want this to happen, so he went to to a man named Ziusudra who was king of the city of Shuruppak to warn him that Enlil was unhappy with humanity and planned to flood the Earth and drown all of its inhabitants.

Enki advised Ziusudra to build a large boat so that he and his family as well as many animals would be safe and survive Enlil’s storm. Ziusudra took Enki’s advice and built a boat large enough to carry himself, his family, a few craftsmen who would be needed to rebuild the houses destroyed by the flood, and several animals.

The rain poured down for seven days and nights. When the storm passed, Ziusudra sent out a dove to find land. But the dove returned to the boat. The next day he sent out a swallow, but it too came back. On the third day, a raven was released and it did not return. It had found dry land. Ziusudra stopped the boat on top of a mountain and opened it so his family, the craftsmen, and the animals could leave. A few days later, in respect for Ziusudra bravery and obedience to Enki, Enlil, changed his mind about destroying humanity, and granted Ziusudra immortality.

While on his journey, Gilgamesh decided to visit Ziusudra to see if he could be granted the secret of immortality. He found Ziusudra, but after more trials and still not achieving immortality, Ziusudra advised Gilgamesh to return home and enjoy his earthly life.

The flood story in Genesis in the first book of the Hebrew Torah, although written centuries later, shares several similarities with the Sumerian great flood myth in the Gilgamesh epic. In Genesis, God feels as if humans have become corrupt and disobedient, and he decides to eliminate them and start over. But God sees Noah as a wise and true servant and decides to save him and his family. So, just as Enki had come to Ziusudra, God came to Noah, and advised him to build an ark to save himself, his family, and a number of animals.

The Sumerian great flood myth and the flood account in Genesis were written several centuries apart, and even though the basic story is the same in both renditions, there are a few differences. For example, the number of days of rain differs from 7 for Ziusudra to 40 for Noah perhaps reflecting numbers that each culture considered sacred. When the storm had subsided, both men sent out birds to locate dry land. A dove that Noah sent out found an olive branch. A raven Ziusudra sent out found dry land.

After the flood, both men were rewarded for their faithfulness. Ziusudra in the Sumerian great flood myth was granted immortality by Enlil whereas in the Genesis version of the flood myth, Noah and his sons were blessed by God and told to be fruitful and replenish the earth.

Other cultures around the world have flood stories in their mythology, and geologists say there is evidence of widespread flooding following the last ice age when glaciers which had covered much of the Northern hemisphere began to melt. Around 10,000 to 11,000 years ago the melting caused sea levels to rise around the world and to flood areas that had been dry for many centuries. Since, by that time, most of the northern hemisphere was inhabited by several groups of Homo sapiens, it is not surprising that tribal shamans and storytellers would create a rich variety of tales about the large floods that displaced many people.

For many centuries, the stories would have been passed orally from generation to generation and no doubt the stories were embellished over time. By the time the Epic of Gilgamesh was written, at least 3,000 years after the Sumerian great flood event, the myth had been embellished to involve a number of gods and superheroes who made the story much more interesting than merely a discussion of heavy rain and rising water levels.

Over the years, the gods involved in the flood stories reflected the religion and mores of the various cultures. For example, the Sumerian great flood myth had three gods: Anu, Enlil, and Enki, whereas in the Torah or Old Testament there was only one God but he had angels to assist him and was opposed by Satan.

Other cultures around the world had flood myths as well. For example, a Greek story tells of how Zeus, king of the gods, wanted to destroy humanity, but that the god Prometheus, warned his son and his daughter-in-law, Deucalion and Pyrrha. They built a large boat and filled it with enough provisions to last for several days. Zeus flooded the earth and killed all of humanity except Deucalion and Pyrrha. After the flood, Zeus relented and allowed Deucalion and Pyrrha to restore life on earth.

The Chinese had a story describing how the goddess Nuwa became angry at humans and had the Yellow River overflow it’s banks and drown the people. She later changed her mind and created more people. The Maya in Mesoamerica also had a flood myth which described how the first humans, which were made out of wood and not very intelligent, were destroyed by a flood and replaced by more intelligent people made of corn.

These and other myths lend credence to the idea that there were probably several localized floods rather than one big one as the Gilgamesh and Noah stories would imply. Since most of the northern hemisphere was covered with ice for thousands of years, a large amount of water was released over a long period of time.

It is interesting that even though the cultures with flood myths were spread around the world, all of the myths seem to have the same progression of anger at disobedient people, mass death by flood, then compassion and even regret, and finally the restoration of living people. This is quite a coincidence considering that some of these cultures were thousands of miles apart.

We Homo sapiens all evolved with the same emotions, invented similar gods and had them react to our human idiosyncrasies in similar ways. At our basic humanity, all of us are more alike than we are different.

Ted McCormack