Gilgamesh vs Noah

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Gilgamesh v Noah The first difference that stood out was the boat building. Noah was given very specific instructions on what to build while Gilgamesh was basically just told “make it a square and make the roof look really cool”. And while Genesis was very specific about the timelines involved the Gilgamesh story was very specific with how it was made. It was like a step by step cook book. “First he mixed the tar, then applied the tar, then he took a break, then he hammered some nails.” Another difference was the crew. Noah just brought his family while Gilgamesh had a full boat crew in addition to his family. They both used a dove to test whether they would get some land soon but then Gilgamesh used other birds and it was finally the Raven that found land. The god element in these two stories was interesting. Noah’s god was essentially disgusted with himself for having made these sinful creatures and decided to kill everything. He was going to wipe the slate clean and let Noah start it all over. Over in Gilgamesh land they were having a big party and while Ea thought it was fun to listen in on, Enlil couldn’t sleep at night because his windows were always rattling. Enlil got with the neighborhood watch and they decided that the best way to handle the noise problem was to just kill everyone making noise. Ea felt bad so decided to warn Gilgamesh. I was pretty familiar with the Noah story having grown up with Christianity but it was good to reread it. I had heard about a story that reads very similar to the ark story but predated it by 1000 years but I had never read it. One thing I got from the stories culturally was that it seems like Noah’s people were much more modest and vengeful. Everyone freaked out that dad was sleeping naked in his tent and then dad got mad at his grandson for telling everyone he was naked. The Gilgamesh world seemed to be a little more
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