Dr. Vess's World Civilization Virtual Library

The Great Flood:

Excerpts from Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh

Passage 1:Genesis 8:15-9:17
Then God said to Noah, "Come out of the ark ... Then Noah built an altar to YHWH and, choosing from all the clean animals and all the clean birds he presented burnt offerings on the altar. YHWH smelled the pleasing smell and said to himself, "Never again will I curse the earth because of human beings ... Never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done ... I am now establishing my covenant with you ... and I shall maintain my covenant with you ... And this is the sign of he covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature ... I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and earth. him and there in his beak was a freshly picked olive leaf! So Noah realized that the waters were receding from the earth. After waiting seven more days, he released the dove, and now it returned to him no more.

Passage 2: Gilgamesh

Then I threw everything open to the four winds, I made a sacrifice and poured out a libation on the mountaintop ... When the gods smelled the sweet savor, they gathered like flies over the sacrifice. The at last Ishtar came, she lifted her necklace with the jewels of heaven that once Anu made to please her. "O you gods here present, by the lapis lazuli around my neck I shall remember these days as I remember the jewels of my throat; these days I shall not forget." ... When Enlil came, when he saw the boat, he was wrath and swelled with anger ... "Has any of these mortals escaped?"