Danica Bickley
Classical Mythology
Professor Owens
O9/23/2014

For class we have read three different accounts/stories of the great flood, from Apollodorus, Gilgamesh, as well as the biblical account of Noah. Of all three of these Gilgamesh was the only one with a first person narrator, the other two being in third person narrative form, this changes the dynamics of the story greatly. Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtem, who is the figure in this story who most resembles the biblical Noah and Deucalion from Apollodorus. In the end Utnapishtem becomes immortal unlike Noah and I am unsure of whether Deucalion was mortal or immortal. While Noah only released one bird, three times over, Utnapishtem released many different birds, and Deucalion simply waited until he washed ashore. The vessels or ships they used were also different both Noah and Utnapishtem were given directions with which to build their vessels, Noah’s was called an ark, Utnapishtem’s was a barque, and Deucalion was simply told to build a chest. Both Noah and Utnaphishtem took animals with them onto their vessels, while Deucalion simply brought provisions for him and Pyrrha. In all three of the accounts the extent of the flood was global, affecting everyone. In Gilgamesh and the biblical account, the cause for the flood was the same: for man’s sin and wickedness. But in Apollodorus’ account the flood was to “eliminate the race of bronze” (Apollodorus 37). In the biblical account their was only one single God