Noah and Utnapishtims Wild Ride Essay - 604 Words

Noah and Utnapishtim’s Wild Ride Almost every religion in the world has a story about the â€Å"Great Flood† which destroys the earth, and each teaches its followers a different story about this disaster. While the Babylonians have the story of Utnapishtim from the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Judeo Christians have Noah from the Bible. Both men save a few people and many animals. In these stories, Noah and Utnapishtim seem to have similar situations, but a further analysis shows how truly different the two stories are. The boats in each story are exceptionally different. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim’s boat was six stories high, had nine apartments in each story, had a flat bottom, and was one hundred and twenty cubits high as well as wide†¦show more content†¦When the waters started to recede, Utnapishtim sent out a dove first, and she came back finding no place to rest (par 16). He then sent out a swallow, which also returned (par 16). The third bird he sent out was a raven, and she did not return, for she had found a place to rest (par 16). The first bird Noah sent out was a raven (8:7). He sent out the dove next, but she returned with no place to rest (8:8-9). He waited for a week and sent the dove out again, and she brought back an olive branch (8:10-11). He waited yet another week and sent her out again, but this time, she did not return (8:12). In each story, the birds that let them know the water is gone are different. Noah and Utnapishtim seem to survive similar situations in each story, but they are a far cry from each other. Each of their boats is built in different dimensions, are made from varied kinds of materials, and structured differently. The storms in each story lasted for assorted periods of time, and they were inside the boats for different lengths of time as well. They both sent out different birds for various reasons in their stories. Each story clashes with the other in numerous distinctive