William chiu

Both stories encompassed the use of a flood over the world as a means to extinguish life upon earth. The two origin and creation myths have their similarities and their differences. The differences between the Epic of gilgamesh and genesis could be based on the time period which the stories were told. Gilgamesh was told in 2700 B.C. while genesis was not created till much later. The early time frame of Gilagamesh reminds me of Greek mythology where there are many gods all of whom have loose relations with on another. The gods rarely see eye to eye with one another and often quarrel to the point of violence. In Gilgamesh the many gods come to an agreement to flood the Earth to cease the overproduction of living things. Genesis however follows a monotheistic path with one god who feels the need to cleanse the earth. The morality in genesis differs vastly compared to Gilgamesh. Once again I feel the time frame makes all the difference. In Gilgamesh the gods and people do not follow codes of conduct and exhibit the sinful characteristics of human beings. Clearly genesis promotes the people to live and act the way Noah had done because genesis was written for the bible.
One similarity I found interesting was how both stories paid great detail to the dimensions of the boat. The reasoning behind which I can only guess as to the purpose. Both stories also use a dove and a raven to scout for land. However it is the raven which is able to carry out its task in Gilgamesh. This I found very fittings for the tone of the story because the raven is associated with bad omens in folklore.