Reply #38: You mean Utnapishtim's ark?

[mzteris]

This is a Babylonian myth.

From the (Sumerian) Epic of Gilgamesh (incorporating the Babylonian legend predating THAT):

Gilgamesh meets with Utnapishtim and his wife. Utnapisthim tells Gilgamesh the story of the flood and how he survived. Enlil became angered with mankind and decided to send a flood to destroy them all. Enki, however, warned Utnapishtim of the gods plans and instructed him to build a boat to save himself, his family, friends, artisans, precious metals, and the animals.

What I had, I loaded thereon, the whole harvest of my life
I caused to embark within the vessel; all my family and relations, the beasts of the field, the cattle of the field, the craftsmen, I made them all embark.
I entered the vessel and closed the door....
When the young dawn gleamed forth from the foundations of heaven a black cloud arose; Adad roared in it, Nabu and the King march in front....Nergal seizeth the mast, he goeth, Inurta leadeth the attack...The tumult of Adad ascends to the skies.
All that is bright is turned into darkness, the brother seeth the brother no more, the folk of the skies can no longer recognize each other.
The gods feared the flood, they fled, they climbed into the heaven of Anu, the gods crouched like a dog on the wall, they lay down....for six days and nights wind and flood marched on, the hurricane subdued the land. When the seventh day dawned the hurricane was abated, the flood which had waged war like an army; The sea was stilled, the ill wind was calmed, the flood ceased.
I beheld the sea, its voice was silent and all of mankind was turned into mud! As high as the roofs reached the swamp! I beheld the world, the horizon of sea; Twelve measures away an island emerged; Unto mount Nitsir came the vessel, mount Nitsir held the vessel and let it not budge...
When the seventh day came I sent forth a dove, I released it; It went, the dove, it came back, as there was no place, it came back. I sent forth a swallow, I released it; It went, the swallow, it came back, as there was no place, it came back. I sent forth a crow, I released it; It went, the crow, and beheld the subsidence of the waters; It eats, it splashes about, it caws, it comes not back.


<* Mount Nisir, where Utnapishtim's Ark is said to have grounded was, in Sumerian, called Mount Mashu ("Twin", for its twin peaks). It was a sacred mountain was located in Mesopotamia east of the Tigris river, about 350 miles south of the biblical "mountains of Ararat" in modern south-eastern Turkey. In some later Semitic records it was also called Mount Nimush. >


There was a "major flood" around 2900 BCE in southern Mesopotamia - (localized - not world-wide)