Flood stories have been admired for years, especial "The Flood" story of the Bible and the "Story of the Flood" in Gilgamesh. The Utnapishim's "Story of the Flood," a part of Gilgamesh was rediscovered and published in 1872 (Gilgamesh p.16). People began to think that the story of Noah and the Great Flood was not the first (Gilgamesh p.16). Some people have never heard one or the other flood story, and do not know how similar the two stories are. Moses wrote the story of Noah and the "Great Flood", it is unknown who wrote Gilgamesh. The writers point out whom, why, and how the flood is brought about. You"ll be wondering which story came first or if they are the same story, just with different names. .
In the Utnapishim's "Story of the Flood," there were many gods as if one god could not control everything. Gods and mortals interacted on an everyday basis. Gods could take the mirrored image of humans. Gods were very self motivated and things centered on them. If things did not go their way there would be punishment to pay. As when the gods got together and decided to destroy mankind just because they could not sleep and mankind was not acting as the gods wanted them to. Enlil one of the gods brought destruction by creating a flood. Enlil wanted all humans and every living creature destroyed merely because they disturbed him. Not all the gods wanted the flood to completely destroy humankind especially Ea. Ea tells Utnapishtim about the flood as if he likes Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim lets us know this when he tells us " Ea because of his oath warned me in a dream." Ea tells every detail of what to do and how to build an ark in order to prepare Utnapishtim for the flood. Ea wants everything perfect as to assure human life. Of course, Utnapishtim survives the flood. When Enlil finds out that Utnapishtim survived the flood he is upset because no one was to survive the destruction. Enlil may have realized that he is one god out of many and does end up giving his blessing to Utnapishtim.
