Three Flood Stories

Even though the flood story in "Gilgamesh" was thought as a pioneer related to many other flood myths, the reason why the Gods inflicted the flood and how the heroes were selected to survive were quite different in these three epics. In "Genesis", the God decided to destroy human mainly due to his dissatisfaction of the sinners, and Noah was selected because of his faith. "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9) Compare with this, the reason for the occurrence of the flood in "Gilgamesh" was explained as the overpopulation. Unlike Noah, Utnapishtim survived just depended on a random selection. When it came to "Metamorphoses", Ovid explained that the flood was the consequence of human and giants' irreverences. "They, like the seed from which they sprung, accurst, Against the Gods immortal hatred nurst, An impious, arrogant and cruel brood." In my opinion, Deucalion and his wife finally survived should just be another random selection. "But, two, the best of either sex, surviv'd" somehow implied that their survival was not that random enough as I thought. By noticed that Deucalion was a son of Prometheus, he probably had been warned and aided by his father.