Gilgamesh vs. Genesis
There are many things that can link the story of Gilgamesh and the main character of Genesis, Chapters 6-9. As well as numerous thing that set them apart. Both stories are historically significant and both have many individual strengths. Gilgamesh, a story of a half god-half human king who is in search of eternal life and builds a very big boat. Noah, a story of a man who builds an extremely large boat, also in search of eternal life. Each story contains a situation where a grand flood occurs because of how bad the rest of humanity is at the time. Overall they are two epic and ancient stories, both with remarkable similarities and stark differences.
The entire reason for Gilgamesh's story coming into existence was because the …show more content…
For instance, with the structure of the boats. They did have certain parts about them that were alike but also a part which was completely different; so being that the ark was a rectangular shaped vessel and Utnapishtim’s vessel was a more square shaped ship. Also along the lines of a similarity that has an aspect of contrast is the purpose of each flood. The intention of the flood in Gilgamesh's epic was to just destroy a city; in Noah’s story the purpose was to eliminate the evil in the world recreate the population. Another contrast would be that Noah only believed in a singular god and Gilgamesh held a belief in a collection of gods. Less of a difference in the story and more of a difference of presentation is that in the bible it takes 3 chapters to tell Noah’s story where as it takes up six or more stone tablets to tell Gilgamesh’s story. Lastly, the length of the voyage each went on was starkly different, for Noah the trip lasted 40 days and nights until they hit Mount Ararat and in Gilgamesh’s tale the boat was afloat for 6 days and night until striking land on Mount
There are many things that can link the story of Gilgamesh and the main character of Genesis, Chapters 6-9. As well as numerous thing that set them apart. Both stories are historically significant and both have many individual strengths. Gilgamesh, a story of a half god-half human king who is in search of eternal life and builds a very big boat. Noah, a story of a man who builds an extremely large boat, also in search of eternal life. Each story contains a situation where a grand flood occurs because of how bad the rest of humanity is at the time. Overall they are two epic and ancient stories, both with remarkable similarities and stark differences.
The entire reason for Gilgamesh's story coming into existence was because the …show more content…
For instance, with the structure of the boats. They did have certain parts about them that were alike but also a part which was completely different; so being that the ark was a rectangular shaped vessel and Utnapishtim’s vessel was a more square shaped ship. Also along the lines of a similarity that has an aspect of contrast is the purpose of each flood. The intention of the flood in Gilgamesh's epic was to just destroy a city; in Noah’s story the purpose was to eliminate the evil in the world recreate the population. Another contrast would be that Noah only believed in a singular god and Gilgamesh held a belief in a collection of gods. Less of a difference in the story and more of a difference of presentation is that in the bible it takes 3 chapters to tell Noah’s story where as it takes up six or more stone tablets to tell Gilgamesh’s story. Lastly, the length of the voyage each went on was starkly different, for Noah the trip lasted 40 days and nights until they hit Mount Ararat and in Gilgamesh’s tale the boat was afloat for 6 days and night until striking land on Mount