FLOOD MYTHOLOGY

A flood myth or deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval waters which appear in certain creation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for the cleansing of humanity, in preparation for rebirth. Most flood myths also contain a culture hero, who “represents the human craving for life”. The flood-myth motif occurs in many cultures as seen in: the Mesopotamian flood stories, the Genesis flood narrative, Nuh (Noah) in Islam, manvantara-sandhya in Hinduism, the Gun-Yu in Chinese mythology, Deucalion and Pyrrha in Greek mythology, Bergelmir in Norse mythology, the arrival of the first inhabitants of Ireland with Cessair in Irish mythology, in parts of Polynesia such as Hawaii, the lore of the K’iche’ and Maya peoples in Mesoamerica, the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa tribe of Native Americans in North America, the lore of Unu Pachakuti (Inca mythology), the Muisca and Cañari Confederation in South America, Africa, and some Aboriginal tribes in Australia.

ANCIENT NEAR EAST

MESOPOTAMIAN

Sumerian creation myth (The Flood Narrative was written during the Old Babylonian Period and added into existing texts such as the Sumerian King List[16])
Atra-Hasis
Gilgamesh flood myth

Emperor Yu’s Great Flood

China’s Great Flood May Be No Myth

This flood myth explains what happens when the balance in nature is disturbed. In order to fix the world, Nu Gua must bring back order. The Chinese people often told stories that taught the listener about their land. This flood myth explains what happens when the balance in nature is disturbed. In order to fix the world, Nü Gua must bring back order.

THE FUHI FAMILY
(CHINESE FLOOD MYTH)

The Miao tribes, who live in inland China, talk about how God created the heavens and the earth, and created man and woman. They also talk about the wickedness of humanity and God sending a flood. Immense flooding covered the entire earth, and only one family, “the family of Fuhi” was saved.

This family consisted of a man, his wife, 3 sons and 3 daughters, who were all saved alive in a boat. It says that it poured 40 days, then it flooded and then 45 days of misting and drizzle.

The righteous person who was saved was called Nuah, and he built a boat very wide and vast. His family of 8 survived along with male and females pairs of animals. After the flood had receded, they offered sacrifices to God, and God gave them His good graces.

TAIWAN’S SAISIAT TRIBE

An old white-haired man came to Oppehnaboon in a dream and told him that a great storm would soon come. Oppehnaboon built a boat. Only Oppehnaboon and his sister survived. They had a child, they cut the child into pieces and each piece became a new person. Oppehnaboon taught the new people their names and they went forth to populate the earth.

List of flood myths

AMERICAS

NORTH AMERICA

Choctaw: A Choctaw Flood Story
Ojibwe: Great Serpent and the Great Flood
Ojibwe: Manabozho and the Muskrat
Ojibwe: Waynaboozhoo and the Great Flood
Menomini: Manabozho and the Flood
Other Algonquin-speaking peoples: Manabozho Stories
Mi’kmaq: Two Creators and their Conflicts
Anishinabe: Flood Myth – an Algonquin Story
Ottawa: The Great Flood
Cree: Cree Flood Story
Cree (Knisteneaux): Knisteneaux Flood Myth
Nipmuc: Cautanowwit

Hopi mythology: Entrance into the Fourth World
W̱SÁNEĆ peoples: flood myth
Comox people: Legend of Queneesh
Anishinaabe: Turtle Island
Inuit: flood myth
Nisqually – In the beginning of the Nisqually world.
Eskimo (Orowignarak, Alaska): “A great inundation, together with an earthquake, swept the land so rapidly that only a few people escaped in their skin canoes to the tops of the highest mountains.”

MESOAMERICA

Mesoamerican flood myths

Aztec

The Aztec believed that four worlds had existed before the present universe. Those worlds, or “suns,” had been destroyed by catastrophes, and humankind had been entirely wiped out at the end of each sun. The fourth sun, Nahui-Atl, “Four-Water,” ended in a gigantic flood that lasted 52 years. Only one man and one woman survived, sheltered in a huge cypress, but they were later turned to dogs. In Aztec mythology, Coxcox was the only male survivor of a worldwide flood. The Aztecs believed that only Coxcox and his wife, Xochiquetzal, survived the flood. They took refuge in the hollow trunk of a cypress, which floated on top of the water and finally banked on a mountain in Culhuacan. They had many children, but all of them were dumb. The great spirit took pity on them, and sent a dove, which attempted to teach the children how to speak. Fifteen of them succeeded and from these, the Aztecs believed, the Toltecs and Aztecs were descended.

The Aztec flood story shares similarities with the story of Noah with some radical plot twists. In this story, Titlacauan warned the man named Note and his wife Nena, of a coming flood. Nata and Nena hollowed out a cypress tree, and Titlachahuan sealed them inside, telling them that they may only eat one ear of maize each. Here is where the story is wildly different from others.

The earth is flooded, but the people weren’t killed, instead, they were turned into fish. After the flood, Nata and Nena disobeyed Titlacauan and ate fish. So Titlacauan turned them into dogs. The story ends with the world essentially starting all over again only this time with a hearty fish population and a couple of dogs.

SOUTH AMERICA

Jipohan flood legend
Kaingang flood legend

Evidence of flood stories have been found in Aztec, Indian and Middle Eastern creation myths, where a Great Flood acts as a test of faith, a challenge, a new beginning. All pre-date the Noah’s Ark story, which suggests writers of the Old Testament were influenced by older cultures and texts.

WHEN DID THE FLOOD MYTHS BEGIN?

The oldest known recording of a global flood is the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh from the eighteenth century BC. Remember that being dated older than Moses’s writings only confirms that this tablet was written earlier, not that its contents are original or correct.

HAWAII

A man named Nu-u made a great canoe with a house on it and filled it with animals. In this story, the waters came up over all the earth and killed all the people; only Nu-u and his family were saved. Nu‘u is commanded by his god to build a large vessel with a house on top of it, which is referred to in chants as “he wa‘a halau o ka moku,” “the royal vessel.” In it he and his wife Lilinoe, his three sons and their wives, are saved. When the flood subsides, Nu‘u finds himself on the top of Mauna Kea. He names a cave there after his wife who is identified as one of the snow goddesses of the volcano, with the power to hold back eruptions by quenching them with snow.

In the Hawaiian group, there are several legends of the flood. One legend relates that in the time of Nuu, or Nana-nuu the flood came upon the earth and destroyed all living beings.

Nuu, by command of his god, built a large vessel with a house on top of it, which was called the royal vessel, in which he and his family, consisting of his wife, Lilinoe, his 3 sons and their wives, were saved. When the flood subsided, the 3 gods (Kane, Ku, and Lono) entered the vessel of Nuu, and told him to go out.

He did so, and found himself on the top of Mauna Kea (the highest mountain on the island of Hawaii). He named a cave there after his wife and it remains there to this day. Another version of the legend says that Nuu landed and dwelt in Kahiki-honua-kele, a large and extensive country. Nuu left the vessel in the evening of the day and took with him a pig, coconuts, and awa (some kind of juice) as an offering to the god Kane.

Aborigines

The Aboriginal culture has a history rich in storytelling, and their flood story has a noticeable lack of the common elements. No angry deity and no ark. But the story is so entertaining that there are several children’s books about the frog who flooded the world. A frog named Tiddalik was very thirsty and drank up all of the water in the land, which caused an incredible drought. Creeks were dry, plants withered, and watering holes dried up. After many animals had died, all the remaining animals got together in a great council to devise a plan. They decided that the only way to get the water from the frog was to make him laugh. All the animals took turns, the kangaroos, emus, bears, and possums, with no luck. Finally, an eel wriggled and shivered and folded himself into funny shapes and Tiddalik couldn’t hold back any longer. The frog started a low laugh that sounded like distant thunder, and when he opened his mouth, water came pouring out, flooding the land. The flood gradually subsided, and the land was verdant and peaceful again.

Everywhere around the globe, people have told stories about a Great Flood. You probably know the basics: an angry deity, a world gone underwater, and a chosen handful who survived. The Bible tells of Noah and his family on the high seas, clinging to life on a zoolike ark. The Aztecs imagined a couple waiting out the floodwaters sealed within a hollow cypress tree, with just two ears of maize to eat. An ancient Chinese flood myth pictures a brother and sister surviving the deluge inside of a giant, magical gourd. In Africa flood myths can be seen in the cultures of the Cameroon, Masai, Komililo Nandi, Kwaya, Pygmy, Ababua, Kikuyu, Bakongo, Basonge, Bena-Lulua , Yoruba, Ekoi, Efik-Ibibio, and Mandingo.

THEORIES ABOUT THEIR ORIGIN

It’s long been noted that flood myths are one of a handful of stories that seem to be common in almost every culture. This may be because floods are a common experience to the human race when heavy rains, monsoons, tropical storms, tsunamis, and other natural occurrences flood and destroy human habitations. It could also be part of our collective conscience, something strange in and of itself. Collective conscience is thought to be a throw-back memory from Paleolithic times. It’s one theory why many mythologies around the world have not only flood myths but also tales of water monsters and ape-men (possibly a memory of Neanderthals.) This theory is sketchy at best.