Historicity of The Flood

[Michael Rabe]

In reply to Paolo Magnone, Thu, 3 Jun 1999 00:43:44 :

>...while the biblical accounts are undoubtedly dependent on (or at
>least related to) the Akkadian and Sumerian versions
>... the Indian accounts appear to share with the Near-Eastern versions only
>such very
>generic traits as must needs belong to any flood myth...
>
>This means that it is at least improbable that all three traditions
>should refer to one and the same historical occurrence -- if they at
>all point to a real event.
>
While I agree that it may be impossible to connect literary traditions
about a universal flood with geological evidence for actual events,  I
wouldn't want Brian or anyone else to overlook striking similarities that
also exist between the Matysa-avatar stories and the Middle Eastern
references to an ark:

e.g, from the Matys purana, as translated by Cornelia Dimmitt and J.A.B.
van Buitenen:

...Oh lord of earth, those who are sweat-born, egg-born, plant-born and
live-born.  Put all these creatures into the boat, O faithful one, and save
them!" _Classical Hindu Mythology: a Reader in the Sankrit Puranas (Temple,
Univ. Press, 1978) , p. 72.

MRabe
SXU/SAIC/Chicago