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Greek Mythology - Noah's Ark

skills101

Vicar of Christ
In Chapter Three: How the World and Mankind Were Created in Mythology(Greek), by Edith Hamilton, lies something I found quite interesting. I'll summarize the section for you.



In a third account of how mankind came to be, it is said that men descended from a “race of stone.” This account begins with a great flood delivered by Zeus and Poseidon to earth to rid the wicked of the world. On the earth’s topmost peak were the means by which mankind would survive. On that spot, a man and a woman, Deucalion and Pyrrha (Prometheus’ son and niece), occupied a wooden chest. Prometheus warned his son of the great flood and told to build the chest and embark on it with his wife.

Zeus was not offended, for the two were worshippers of the gods. Zeus drained the world, and allowed the pair to disembark. Deucalion and Pyrrha then found a temple in which to give thanks for their escape and pray for strength. They heard a voice telling them to “Veil their heads and cast behind them the bones of their mother.” Stricken at first, Deucalion later recognized the bones to be that of the earth, mother of all. They threw stones behind their head, and as they fell, begot the Stone People.
Notice the similarities between the Greek myth and Noah's Ark? What's your take?

If you have another story in Greek Mythology that I've not read or noticed, feel free to tell me about it!
 
I don't have any to add of the top of my head sry... you are on to something though.

many people have made the claims that Christianity is based off of other sects, such as the cult(s) of mithras and so forth... this would just be another supporting argument. I'd probably want to check out the book myself though before I jump to anything.
 

linwood

Well-Known Member
I`d never heard that story but Greek mythology has never been something I`ve studied in depth.

The parallels are to many to be ignored though.
 

skills101

Vicar of Christ
This is actually the full story as written by Edith Hamilton, taken chiefly from Aeshylus in the fifth century.

There is still another account of the creation of mankind. In the story of the five ages men are descended from the iron race. In the story of Promotheus, it is uncertain whether the men he saved from destruction belonged to that race or the bronze race. Fire would have been as necessary to the one as to the other. In the story, men are descended from a race of stone. This story beings with Deluge.
All over the earth men grew so wicked that finally Zeus determined to destroy them. He decided to mingle storm and tempest over boundless And make an utter end of mortal man.
He sent the flood. He called upon his brother, the God of the Sea, to help him, and together, with torrents of rain from heaven and rivers loosed upon the earth, the two drowned the land. The might of water overwhelmed dark earth, over the summits of highest mountains. Only towering Parnassus was not quite covered, and the bit of dry land on its very topmost peak was the means by which mankind escaped destruction. After it had rained through nine days and nine nights, there came drifting to that spot what looked to be a great wooden chest, but safe within it were two human beings, a man and a woman. They were Deucalion and Pyrrha -- he Prometheus' son, and she his niece, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora. The wisest person in all the universe, Prometheus had well been able to protect his own family. He knew the flood would come, and he had bidden his son build the chest, store it with provisions, and embark in it with his wife.
Fortunately, Zeus was not offended, because the two were pions, faithful worshipers of the gods. When the chest came to land and they got out, to see no sign of life anywahere, only a wilde waste of waters, Zeus pitied them and drained off the flood. Slowly, like the ebbing tide the sea and rivers drew back and earth was dry again. Pyrrha and Deucalion came down from Parnassus, the only living creatures in a dead world. They found a temple all slimy and moss grown, but not quite in ruins, and there they gave thanks for their escape and prayed for help in their dreadful loneliness. They heard a voice. "Veil your heads and cast behind you the bones of your mother." The command struck them with horror. Pyrrha said, "We dare not do such a thing." Deucalion was forced to agree that she was right, but he tried to think out what might lie behind the words and suddenly he saw their meaning. "Earth is the mother of all," he told his wife. "Her bones are the stones. These we may cast behind us without doing wrong." So they did, and as the stones fell they took human shape. They were called the Stone People, and they were a hard, enduring race, as was to be expected and, indeed, as they had need to be, to rescue the earth from the desolation left by the flood.
Oh boy... hope i didn't get any typos.
 

Mister Emu

Emu Extraordinaire
Staff member
Premium Member
Why do people automatically assume that because other cultures also had world flood stories that Judaism copied them?

I believe that there was a world flood, but that the Bible has the story right.

many people have made the claims that Christianity is based off of other sects, such as the cult(s) of mithras and so forth... this would just be another supporting argument.

One note, Noah originates in Judaism not Christianity.

On Christianity being based off pagan religions:

Early in Christian history when pagan religions were much more proliferate than now, the church leaders changed alot of things about it to help smooth conversions. I believe Mithra was born around Dec. 25, as well as it was the festival of Yule sometime around there.
 

linwood

Well-Known Member
Why do people automatically assume that because other cultures also had world flood stories that Judaism copied them?

the church leaders changed alot of things about it to help smooth conversions.

To me it seems the intent of these two statements contradict each other.

What do you mean by "changed alot of things about it"?
 

meogi

Well-Known Member
The ark was based on Judaism, but the question I want to know is, which wrote the story first? Both start at about 2000BC (The greek civiliation, and guess on when Abraham was born). As to when the story was written/conceived... I'm curious.

Or a better question... Were both based off an even earlier, yet un-recorded, flood story?
 

Mister Emu

Emu Extraordinaire
Staff member
Premium Member
To me it seems the intent of these two statements contradict each other.

What do you mean by "changed alot of things about it"?

Judaism is not Christianity.

Well, I will point a few out.

1. The celebration of Jesus's birth is now celebrated around the pagan belief in Mithra's birth, and Yule.

2. I believe they added prayers to saints and Mary, to help bring over pantheists and pagans who had always worshipped a Mother of God figure as female divine.

Meogi,

All the flood stories are based off of the truth of Noah. :)
 

Wleeper

Member
The Jewish nation began as the descendents of Jacob in in Egypt in approximately 1930 BCE. The practice of Mosiac Judism did not began until the Jewesh nation entered the "promised land" in approximately 1500 BCE. The great flood of Noah predated Judism by thousands of years. There are flood stories in vertually every civilization, including the American Indian. These flood stories were formulated without any knowledge of either the Old or New Testaments. Further, there is varifible evidence of of water laid geological strata in every part of the world. It is apparent that the source of these stories in the various cultures points to the same catestrophic event and has nothing to do with the teachings of Judism. The simple fact is that the Bible teaches the correct details of the event. How strange that cultures all over the world and geological evidence all point to the validity of the Biblical account.
 

linwood

Well-Known Member
Mister Emu said:
All the flood stories are based off of the truth of Noah. :)

Mr.Emu,

You claim to be an open minded person yet you can honestly say you have belief in this impossible story?

Have you read the arguments against it?

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html

Here`s an interesting story about a church being built to the specifications of the ark.

Please read it and note all the hardships these people have had even using vast modern resources that Noah never had.

http://www.godsark.org/html/the_construction.html

Modern man cannot build a wooden ship to those specs that will stay afloat today.

How did Noah get ahold of 2 penguins?
Two Koalas?
Two Polar Bears?
They weren`t exactly hanging out in the Mid-East

How did Noah fit 2 of every animal/beast alive at the time onboard..including the dinosaurs?

Now did Noah keep all those T-Rexes and Raptors from eating all the other animals...and him?

Where did Noah store all the food necessary for every kind of animal there is, Especially when much of the food for those animals were other animals ?
Not only did he have to feed the animals..he had to feed the food.

What about the waste?
Can you imagine the weekly droppings of two T-Rexes and a couple of elephants and so on and so on?

8 people cared for and kept alive all of these animals plus took care of the ship?

How?
 

Mister Emu

Emu Extraordinaire
Staff member
Premium Member
Linwood,

1. Talk Origins is an extremley biased site.

2. With God all things are possible. :)
 

linwood

Well-Known Member
Mister Emu said:
Linwood,

1. Talk Origins is an extremley biased site.

Yes it is, it seems biased towards verifiable possibilities.
Why not refute some of their bias?

2. With God all things are possible. :)

An appeal to God is hardly convincing.
 

Linus

Well-Known Member
The gist of things as they seem to me:

1. God didn't reveal the true flood account until some time after Noah died. Moses is the one who is normally given credit with writing the book of Genesis, and he didn't live until a few few generations later. It's no wonder other variations of the story came out. Many cultures had time to devise and pass down their own versions of the story (incuding the Babylonians, whose story is differrent still from the Greek and Jewish) God didn't reveal it until a few hundred years later.

2.God didn't instruct Noah to go and get all the animals, He merely told Noah to build the ark and bring the animals on to it. Obviously it would be impossible for Noah to go round up all those animals from all over the world.

3. It is easier to fit animals on the ark if they are babies, isn't it? Less food, less waste, and less room needed for each animal.
 

The Voice of Reason

Doctor of Thinkology
Wleeper said:
The simple fact is that the Bible teaches the correct details of the event. How strange that cultures all over the world and geological evidence all point to the validity of the Biblical account.
Wleeper -
I realize that you, Emu, and Linus are all of the Christian faith. I also understand that you choose to believe that the Bible is correct, and everyone else in the history of earth is wrong. I ask you this - what makes the Biblical account a fact? Any or all of you are welcome to respond. You do realize that just because you choose to believe it, that does not make the Biblical account fact, don't you?

Emu -
The reply that "with God, all things are possible" is an excellent answer - if we all accept the premise that your God and Bible are legitimate. However, in view of the fact that not all of us accept that (Linwood and myself), is there an answer to the question put forth by Linwood?

Thanks,
TVOR
 

Wleeper

Member
We three are the only ones on the earth who believe that the Bible is true? I think that you need to try and convince the other approximately 1 billlion Christians. If you want to include all the people of the world who believe in the concept of a god, that number is considerably increased. You sir and a few others, particularly on this forum are the ones who are in the vast minority, yet believe that you are right and the rest of us are wrong. Come on, I know that you don't really believe what you have written. You have already displayed a much higher level of intelligence.
 

true blood

Active Member
The Voice of Reason said:
Wleeper -
I realize that you, Emu, and Linus are all of the Christian faith. I also understand that you choose to believe that the Bible is correct, and everyone else in the history of earth is wrong. I ask you this - what makes the Biblical account a fact? Any or all of you are welcome to respond. You do realize that just because you choose to believe it, that does not make the Biblical account fact, don't you?
TVOR

Question: You acknowledge that many other cultures have a "world flood" story but why do you make the choice of opposing the Old Testament accounts of the event? Unless you have some hardcore facts of what happened thousands of years ago of an event that is spoken of in hundreds of cultures, what does it matter to you if someone chooses to believe in the Old Testament history? The fact that hundreds of cultures share same stories of like events should speak volumes that something, indeed is up.
 

true blood

Active Member
linwood said:
Mr.Emu,

You claim to be an open minded person yet you can honestly say you have belief in this impossible story?

Have you read the arguments against it?

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html

Here`s an interesting story about a church being built to the specifications of the ark.

Please read it and note all the hardships these people have had even using vast modern resources that Noah never had.

http://www.godsark.org/html/the_construction.html

Modern man cannot build a wooden ship to those specs that will stay afloat today.

How did Noah get ahold of 2 penguins?
Two Koalas?
Two Polar Bears?
They weren`t exactly hanging out in the Mid-East

How did Noah fit 2 of every animal/beast alive at the time onboard..including the dinosaurs?

Now did Noah keep all those T-Rexes and Raptors from eating all the other animals...and him?

Where did Noah store all the food necessary for every kind of animal there is, Especially when much of the food for those animals were other animals ?
Not only did he have to feed the animals..he had to feed the food.

What about the waste?
Can you imagine the weekly droppings of two T-Rexes and a couple of elephants and so on and so on?

8 people cared for and kept alive all of these animals plus took care of the ship?

How?

I thought you did not read everything at face value. The Word of God teaches that Noah took 7 of every kind that was clean, male and female, totals 14. I think God expects the person who studies his word to do a little math. Also the Word of God teaches that Noah took 2 of every kind that was unclean, male and female, equals 4. Do some research on the word "kind" with the concept of evolution. Noah very possibly could have taken 7 types of "cats" from the feline kind. A panther, tiger, lion etc...14 of them, 7 males and 7 females. Same concept with the "unclean" kinds. And as for the dinosaurs, you should note that Genesis 1:1 should be its own chapter. Yes chapter. God created the heavens and the earths perfect. Yes perfect, as stated through out the Word of God that when he creates something it is perfect. Genesis 1:2 should be chapter 2. Yes chapter 2. Time and events occured between 1:1 and 1:2 which is explained throughout the Word of God, events which caused the heavens and the earths to become without form and void. I thought you said you have given great efforts in studying the bible?
 

Michelle

We are all related
true blood said:
Question: You acknowledge that many other cultures have a "world flood" story but why do you make the choice of opposing the Old Testament accounts of the event? Unless you have some hardcore facts of what happened thousands of years ago of an event that is spoken of in hundreds of cultures, what does it matter to you if someone chooses to believe in the Old Testament history? The fact that hundreds of cultures share same stories of like events should speak volumes that something, indeed is up.

The christian bible places the flood at around 2300 BC, the Septuagint places the flood at around 3250 BC. An interesting side note is that Jesus used the Septuagint as a source several times that we know of in the bible . The Septuagint is the First version of the bible, so to speak, and the Catholics copied and pasted as they wished to create the christian bible. Well actually, the process of the Canon of the Bible took many years, started many debates, and in many ways the debate continues to this day don't you think? But getting back on track, Christian scholars point to Moses as the author of Genesis and the flood. We now know that the Septaugint had ( rules that were added later and ) multiple authors. Notice the rules that were added later that I noted? That is how many people kept adding to the Septuagint and that kind of editing goes on in todays world so to speak with all of these versions floating around. The Christian bible places Moses birth around 1570 BC . How could Moses be so arrogant to claim that his story is nothing but the truth so help me God when at the time all the other religions and cultures allready had their flood story floating around? You give humans a thousand or so years to retale a simple little story about Noah's family going through a rain storm that caused area flooding well it could end up like what we see in the Christian bible. Now I am going to share a couple of of North American myths.

Origin of Light. Inuit

In the early times, there was only darkness; there was no light at all. At the edge of the sea a woman lived with her father. One time she went out to get some water. As she was scraping the snow, she saw a feather floating toward her. She opened her mouth and the feather floated in and she swallowed it.


http://www.angelfire.com/ca/Indian/OriginLight.html

First Fire .Cherokee

In the beginning of the world, there was no fire. The animal people were often cold. Only the Thunders, who lived in the world beyond the sky arch, had fire. At last they sent Lightning down to an island. Lightning put fire into the bottom of a hollow sycamore tree.

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/Indian/FirstFire.html

The creation of humans. Okanagon

Old-One, after transforming her, took some of the flesh and rolled it into balls, as people do with mud or clay. These he transformed into the beings of the ancient world.

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/Indian/MotherOfAllPeople.html
 

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
true blood said:
Unless you have some hardcore facts of what happened thousands of years ago ...
The Global Flood narrative fails for any number of reasons. Just picture the poor pair of Koalas swimming frantically from the ark's resting place on Mt. Ararat to their final home down under.

true blood said:
The fact that hundreds of cultures share same stories of like events should speak volumes that something, indeed is up.
But volumes do little for those who refuse to read.

Primitive cultures were dependent upon natural fresh water souces, hence the rise of civilization along the Nile, Tigres, Euphrates, Indus, Ganges, Yangtze, Amazon, etc. As is true today, on rare occasions these rivers and their tributaries suffer catastrophic flooding. These cultures could do little other than interpret these devastating natural acts in mythical terms. That flood narratives are common folkloric elements is hardly surprising.
 
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