Flood Myth

A starting point for looking at the nature of myths is to say that myths are stories shared by a group, and which are a part of their cultural identity, but it is a debated issue for those whose truths are scorned as myth and for scholars of various backgrounds.

Deucalion and Pyrrha survive the great deluge in the Greek myth to land upon Mt. Parnassus and to try to repopulate the world by interpreting a strange instruction.

Find a comparison of some of the world's flood stories and studies, both mythologically focused and scientific.

Myths, legends, folktales and fairy tales are all stories with more or less truth behind them. Bingley looks at the difference between the ancient stories of gods and mortals.

Bulfinch retells much of Greek mythology. Here he takes on the Greek flood myth, the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha: "So saying he [Jupiter] took a thunderbolt, and was about to launch it at the world, and destroy it by burning; but recollecting the danger that such a conflagration might set heaven itself on fire, he changed his plan, and resolved to drown it. "

This collection of flood stories includes the Chinese (Zhuang era): "Bubo, though, rode the waves floating on an inverted umbrella."

This Hungarian paper compares natural catastrophes with religion. "It seems likely that all these floods took place during the last deglaciation period, during the transition from Pleistocene to Holocene. The most likely time for the biblical Flood is about 8,250 B.C. (10,200 B.P.), the end of the Younger Dryas cold episode."

A large collection of flood stories from around the world.

From Morgana's Observatory, a large collection of flood stories from around the world.

From "National Geographic." Dr. Ballard, the stories and theories of the flood, and current exploration.

Addresses problems in the logistics of outfitting Noah's ark.