Last week as I was relaxing and re-reading my collection of earlier Mythological books that were mainly bought from the bargain bin in Times Book
store; I begun to wonder out loud,o why and what do these many, many 'Fire
& Water Creation Myths' (some
listed below), that all say the same thing, tells us about
“our Creation”?
Flood Stories from Around the World
The stories below are
flood stories from the world's folklore.
I have included stories here if :
(1) they are stories;
(2) they are folklore, not historical accounts
or fiction by a known author; and
(3) they involve a flood.
 |
| Michelangelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti |
The ground we stand on is merely a skin covering an abyss of
water. Long ago, Pirman, the deity, broke up this skin, flooding and destroying
the world. However, Pirman had created a man and woman and placed them in a
completely closed ship of pulai wood. When at last this ship
came to rest, the couple nibbled their way out through its side, and they saw
land stretching to the horizon in all directions. The sun had not yet been
created, so it was dark; when it grew light, they saw seven small rhododendron shrubs
and seven clumps of sambau grass. The couple bemoaned their
lack of children, but in time the woman conceived in the calves of her legs, a
male child coming from the right calf and a female from the left. That is why
offspring from the same womb may not marry. All mankind are descended from that
first pair.
Hindu Lore:
At the end of the past kalpa, the demon Hayagriva
stole the sacred books from Brahma, and the whole human race became corrupt
except the seven Nishis, and especially Satyavrata, the prince of a maritime
region. One day when he was bathing in a river, he was visited by a fish which
craved protection and which he transferred to successively larger vessels as it
grew. At last Satyavrata recognized it as the god Vishnu, "The Lord of the
Universe." Vishnu told him that in seven days all the corrupt creatures
will be destroyed by a deluge, but Satyavrata would be saved in a large vessel.
He was told to take aboard the miraculous vessel all kinds of medicinal herbs,
food esculant grains, the seven Nishis and their wives, and pairs of brute
animals. After seven days, the oceans began to overflow the coasts and constant
rain began flooding the earth. A large vessel floated in on the rising waters,
and Satyavrata and the Nishis entered with their wives and cargo. During the
deluge, Vishnu preserved the ark by again taking the form of a giant fish and
tying the ark to himself with a huge sea serpent. When the waters subsided, he
slew the demon who had stolen the holy books and communicated their contents to
Satyavrata.
Allah sent Noah
to warn the people to serve none but Allah, but most of them would not listen.
They challenged Noah to make good his threats and mocked him when, under
Allah's inspiration, he built a ship. Allah told Noah not to speak to Him on
behalf of wrongdoers; they would be drowned. In time, water gushed from
underground and fell from the sky. Noah loaded onto his ship pairs of all
kinds, his household, and those few who believed. One of Noah's sons didn't
believe and said he would seek safety in the mountains. He was among the
drowned. The ship sailed amid great waves. Allah commanded the earth to swallow
the water and the sky to clear, and the ship came to rest on Al-Judi. Noah
complained to Allah for taking his son. Allah admonished that the son was an
evildoer and not of Noah's household, and Noah prayed for forgiveness. Allah
told Noah to go with blessings on him and on some nations that will arise from
those with him.
Source: [Koran 11:25-48]
When the god
Kaboniyan sent a flood to cover the earth, fire hid itself deep inside bamboo,
stone, and iron. Men later learned how to retrieve it from these places.
The earth once
rested on the three horns of the giant snake Naga Padoha, who grew tired of its
burden and shook it off into the sea. The god Batara Guru, to recover it from
the abyss, sent his daughter Puti-orla-bulan (who had requested the mission).
She came down on a white owl and accompanied by a dog, but they found no place
to rest. Batara Guru let Mount Bakarra fall from heaven for her abode; from it,
the rest of the habitable earth gradually arose. Puti-orla-bulan had three sons
and three daughters from whom the human race is descended. Later, the earth was
replaced onto the head of the snake, and there has been a constant struggle
between the snake, wanting to be free of its burden, and the deity. Batara Guru
sent his son Layang-layang-mandi ("Diving Swallow") to bind Naga
Padoha's hands and feet, but the serpent still struggles and causes
earthquakes, and it will again throw the earth into the sea when it breaks its
fetters. When this happens, men will either be transported to heaven or cast into
a flaming cauldron; the sun will approach close to our world, and its flame
will join with the cauldron's fire to consume the material universe. [Frazer, pp. 217-218; Kelsen, p. 133]
Debata, the
Creator, sent a flood to destroy every living thing when the earth grew old and
dirty. The last pair of humans took refuge on the highest mountain, and the
flood had already reached their knees, when Debata repented his decision to
destroy mankind. He tied a clod of earth to a thread and lowered it. The last
pair stepped onto it and were saved. As the couple and their descendants
multiplied, the clod increased in size, becoming the earth we inhabit today.
Source:[Gaster, p. 100]
The mountains
quarrelled over which of them was the highest. In vexation, their great
ancestor Baluga Luomewona caused the oceans to rise by throwing into a sea a
comb which became a giant crab which stopped up the ocean's outlet sluices. The
water rose to cover all but the tops of two or three mountains. The people who
had escaped to these mountains with their cattle survived.
Men once lived
forever and knew no troubles. The earth brought forth fine fruits, flesh grew
on trees, and milk and wine flowed in many rivers. One day, and old man came to
the country and asked for a night's lodging, which a couple gave him in their
cottage. When he departed the next day, he said he would return in nine days.
He gave his host a small fish in a vessel and said he would reward the host if
he did not eat the fish but returned it then. The wife thought the fish must be
exceptionally good to eat, but the husband said he had promised the old man to
keep it and made the woman swear not to eat it. After two days of thinking
about it, though, the wife yielded to temptation and threw the fish on the hot
coals. Immediately, she was struck dead by lightning, and it began to rain. The
rivers started overflowing the country. On the ninth day, the old man returned
and told his host that all living things would be drowned, but since he had
kept his oath, he would be saved. The old man told the host to take a wife,
gather his kinfolk, and build a boat on which to save them, animals, and seeds
of trees and herbs. The man did all this. It rained a year, and the waters
covered everything. After a year, the waters sank, and the people and animals
disembarked. They now had to labor to gain a living, and sickness and death
came also. They multiplied slowly so that many thousands of years passed before
people were again as numerous as they were before the flood.
Source: [Frazer, pp. 177-178]
God, upset at
mankind's wickedness, resolved to destroy it, but Noah was righteous and found
favor with Him. God told Noah to build an ark, 450 x 75 x 45 feet, with three
decks. Noah did so, and took aboard his family (8 people in all) and pairs of
all kinds of animals (7 of the clean ones). For 40 days and nights, floodwaters
came from the heavens and from the deeps, until the highest mountains were
covered. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days; then God sent a wind and
the waters receded, and the ark came to rest in Ararat. After 40 days, Noah
sent out a raven, which kept flying until the waters had dried up. He next sent
out a dove, which returned without finding a perch. A week later he set out the
dove again, and it returned with an olive leaf. The next week, the dove didn't
return. After a year and 10 days from the start of the flood, everyone and
everything emerged from the ark. Noah sacrificed some clean animals and birds
to God, and God, pleased with this, promised never again to destroy all living
creatures with a flood, giving the rainbow as a sign of this covenant. Animals
became wild and became suitable food, and Noah and his family were told to
repopulate the earth. Noah planted a vineyard and one day got drunk. His son
Ham saw him lying naked in his tent and told his brothers Shem and Japheth, who
came and covered Noah with their faces turned. When Noah awoke, he cursed Ham
and his descendants and blessed his other sons.
Source:[Genesis 6-9]
Men lived at
ease before the flood; a single harvest provided for forty years, children were
born after only a few days instead of nine months and could walk and talk
immediately, and people could command the sun and moon. This indolence led men
astray, especially to the sins of wantonness and rapacity. God determined to
destroy the sinners, but in mercy he instructed Noah to warn them of the threat
of a flood and to preach to them to mend their ways. Noah did this for 120
years. God gave mankind a final week of grace during which the sun reversed
course, but the wicked men did not repent; they only mocked Noah for building
the ark. Noah learned how to make the ark from a book, given to Adam by the angel
Raziel, which contained all knowledge. This book was made of sapphires, and
Noah put it in a golden casket and, during the flood, used it to tell day from
night, for the sun and moon did not shine at that time. The flood was caused by
male waters from the sky meeting the female waters from the ground. God made
holes in the sky for the waters to issue from by removing two stars from the
Pleiades. He later closed the hole by borrowing two stars from the Bear. That
is why the Bear always runs after the Pleiades. The animals came to the ark in
such numbers that Noah could not take them all; he had them sit by the door of
the ark, and he took in the animals which lay down at the door. 365 species of
reptiles and 32 species of bird were taken. Since seven pairs of each kind of
clean animal were taken, the clean animals outnumbered the unclean after the
flood. One creature, the reem was so big it had to be tethered
outside the ark and follow behind. The giant Og, king of Bashan, was also too
big and escaped the flood sitting atop the ark. In addition to Noah, his wife
Naamah, and their sons and sons' wives, Falsehood and Misfortune also took
refuge on the ark. Falsehood was initially turned away when he presented
himself without a mate, so he induced Misfortune to join him and returned. When
the flood began, the sinners gathered around it and rushed the door, but the
wild beasts aboard the ark guarded the door and set upon them. Those which
escaped the beasts drowned in the flood. The ark, and the animals in it, were
tossed around on the waters for a year, but Noah's greatest difficulty was
feeding all the animals, for he had to work day and night to feed both the
diurnal and nocturnal animals. When Noah once tarried in feeding the lion, the
lion gave him a blow which made him lame for the rest of his life and prevented
him from serving as a priest. On the tenth day of the month of Tammuz, Noah
sent forth a raven, but the raven found a corpse to devour and did not return.
A week later Noah sent out a dove, and on its third flight it returned with an
olive leaf plucked from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, for the Holy Land had
not suffered from the flood. Noah wept at the devastation when he left the ark,
and Shem offered a thank-offering; Noah could not officiate due to his
encounter with the lion.
Aprocryphal
scripture tells that Adam directed that his body, together with gold, incense,
and myrrh, should be taken aboard the Ark and, after the flood, should be laid
in the middle of the earth. God would come from thence and save mankind.
Source[Platt, p. 66, 80 (2 Adam 8:9-18, 21:7-11)]
A woman
"clothed with the sun" gave birth to a man child who was taken up by
God. The woman then lived in the wilderness, where the Devil-dragon, cast down
to earth, persecuted her. At one time he cast a flood of water from his mouth
trying to wash her away, but the earth helped the woman and swallowed the
flood. Source:[Revelation 12]
In early times,
the earth was full of malign creatures fashioned by the evil Ahriman. The angel
Tistar (the star Sirius) descended three times, in the form of man, horse, and
bull respectively, causing ten days and nights of rain each time. Each rain
drop became as big as a bowl, and the water rose the height of a man over the
whole earth. The first flood drowned the creatures, but the dead noxious
creatures went into holes in the earth. Before returning to cause the second
flood, Tistar, in the form of a white horse, battled the demon Apaosha, who
took the form of a black horse. Ormuzd blasted the demon with lightning, making
the demon give a cry which can still be heard in thunderstorms, and Tistar
prevailed and caused rivers to flow. The poison washed from the land by the
second flood made the seas salty. The waters were driven to the ends of the
earth by a great wind and became the sea Vourukasha ("Wide-Gulfed").
[Carnoy, p. 270; Vitaliano, pp.
161-162; H. Miller, p. 288]
Yima, under
divine superintendence, reigned over the world for 900 years. As there was no
disease or death, the population increased so that it was necessary to enlarge
the earth after 300 years; Yima accomplished this with the help of a gold ring
and gold-inlaid dagger he had received from Ahura Mazda, the Creator.
Enlargement of the earth was necessary again after 600 years. When the
population became too great after 900 years, Ahura Mazda warned Yima that
destruction was coming in the form of winter, frost, and subsequent melting of
the snow. He instructed Yima to build a vara, a large square
enclosure, in which to keep specimens of small and large cattle, human beings,
dogs, birds, red flaming fires, plants and foodstuffs, two of every kind. The
men and cattle he brought in were to be the finest on earth. Within the
enclosure, men passed the happiest of lives, with each year seeming like a
day.
PS: The Purpose
of creating and destroying?
None. It's all at his whim
and fancy.
To quote Shakespeare:
We are but actors and the world a stage.
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