The document discusses myths of a great flood from several ancient cultures around the Mediterranean Sea. It summarizes flood myths from the biblical story of Noah, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Greek myths of Pyrrha and Deucalion, and an Egyptian myth of Hathor's wrath. The document then compares and contrasts elements of the myths before discussing geological evidence that a catastrophic flood did occur in the region around 5600 BC, when melting ice caused water to rush into the Black Sea. This flood may have inspired the widespread flood myths across cultures in the area.

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Melissa Maack
Dr. Kumar
Greek Mythology
7 May 2016
Mythology and Geology: Evidence of a Catastrophic Flood in the Mediterranean
Imagine if you will that you are on the gorgeous beach of the Mediterranean, It is hot and
the cicadas are buzzing. You are going about your regular activities when suddenly, a dead,
silent calm. The animal and insects go dead silent, this is entirely unsettling and you pause. Then
as suddenly as it started the air fills with the sounds and screams of insects and animals, you hear
a deafening roar as you watch helplessly as you see water coming in at a massive pace, you run
to your home only to be overtaken by this flood. The last thought in your mind before it goes
black? Maybe those crackpots who built the massive “boats” for a flood were right. The gods are
angry, and you were not on the “list” to be saved.
Myths according to the Ancient History Encyclopedia states that myths, “was used as a
means to explain the environment in which humankind lived, the natural phenomena they
witnessed” (Ancient History Encyclopedia http://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Mythology/). In this
literature review we will be discussing the mythologies main points, the similarities between the
different myths, the differences between the myths, and the geological evidence for a flood in the
Mediterranean at such a time that would make sense for the myth to have been created in the first
place.
The commonly held theory is that it was one story that perpetuated itself in an
extraordinarily large version of the children’s game “telephone” My theory however, is that it is
ONE myth and each culture adapted this one event that spanned for them all into their own story.

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The Flood of Noah:
 “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he
walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9 Women’s Devotional Bible NIV ed.2)
 The earth was corrupt and “full of violence” (Genesis 6:9 Women’s Devotional
Bible NIV ed.2)
 God says to Noah that he has decided to end it all and begin again with Noah.
 God tells Noah to build a boat
 God tells Noah to gather animals in pairs to bring with him
 “on that day all the springs of the deep burst forth and the floodgates of the
heavens were opened and rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights”
(Genesis 7:11-12) Everything and everyone else perishes
 The waters remained for 150 days (5 months)
 According to the story, the tops of the visible mountains were covered and then
had 20 feet of water on top of that
 2 more months passed before the boat landed on Mount Ararat
 10 months pass before mountain tops were visible
 40 days after Noah sends out a raven, then a dove, the dove could not find a good
place to land, and returns to the boat
 7 days after this and sent out the dove again, this time an olive branch is in its
mouth upon return
 7 days after this he repeats and this time the dove didn’t return.
 This time frame was 11 months 21 days
 Sacrifice is made to God

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The Epic of Gilgamesh- “The Flood”
 The city of Shurrupak grew old as did the gods in it.
 People multiplied and apparently made a lot of noise
 Enlil went to the gods council and said, “The uproar of mankind is intolerable and
sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel.” (The Epic of Gilgamesh pg
108)
 So the gods decided to kill mankind.
 Ea went to Utnapishtim and said that they gods were going to kill mankind and to
build a boat. Ea did this because of an oath.
 He also took into his boat all living things, family and apparently the shipbuilders
 It rained here as well and the springs apparently were also opened
 Day turned to night
 The land lit with flames (lightning? It is referring to a tempest here)
 A total of 7 days and night pass
 14 leagues distant was a mountaintop which they went to Mount Nisir
 He loosed a dove after 7 days on Mt. Nisir
 later a swallow is released and comes back
 later a raven is released and doesn’t come back
 Sacrifice is made to the gods
 Enlil is angered that someone survived but is stopped by the god of the wells and
canals and is given wise council
 Utnapishtim and his wife are blessed and made immortal by Enlil

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Pyrrha and Deucalion
 Zeus heard evil rumors about mankind and decided to investigate
 After an incident in Arcadia with King Lycaon whom he turned into a wolf Zeus
decided that all of mankind was too wicked.
 Deucalion was the son of Prometheus (prior to his betrayal) was in good standing
with the gods and warned his son of the upcoming flood, and told him to build a
boat with his wife
 The myth says that they were blameless in the sight of the gods
 NO ANIMALS were brought with them. This myth mentions the animals dying
 Rivers were opened and allowed to run freely about the land and rain poured
 When everyone that was wicked was dead and Zeus saw only the two in the boat
he stopped the flood
 Flood waters receded
 Mt Parnassus is where this took place and the boat landing
 They went to an alter to pray
 They were helped by the gods to restore humanity

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The Flood of Egypt Hathor’s Wrath
 Ra becomes enraged at the evil and wickedness of mankind as well as poking fun
of him for growing old
 He calls his daughter, Hathor and asks her to go and kill of mankind
 Hathor takes on the form of Sekmet the lioness and she goes to her task eagerly
 Hathor gains a taste for blood as she goes out for killing
 She also destroys cities and towns ripping out fields causing destruction before
going home to her father who was pleased with her work
 The other gods become concerned about that and council Ra saying that Sekmet
will indeed kill all humans and his rule would be unopposed, but he would also
have no one to worship him.
 Ra takes pity on the humans but knows Hathor will only stop on her own by her
choice.
 He orders the goddess of beer to make a really strong batch of beer and orders it
dyed red as blood and deliver it to the place where Hathor will go next to kill
 When she arrives the place is already flooded with red and no humans are around,
she assumes they are already dead and thinking that the beer is blood drinks
heavily of it.
 She becomes drunk, falls asleep, and wakes up as Hathor the benevolent and
becomes the greatest benefactor of mankind.
 Mankind now placates her with beer every year near the Nile’s annual flood time

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Now that we have examined the myths themselves, it is time to do a comparison and
contrast of the myths. For my comparisons, three of the four myths will be discussed, for the
contrasts all myths will be discussed. There will also be given a possible theory of the authors as
to why the fourth myth stands out among flood myths.
In three of the four myths that were chosen, several reoccurring themes came out of it. In
all of the myths, humanity has angered the gods by their actions. In three, One family has been
“chosen” for being “good”. The family is visited by the god to be warned about the disaster and
to build a boat to save themselves. The floods always seem to release a terrible rainstorm and
river and seas flooding out of control. The family usually finds themselves on a mountain.
Animals are usually taken but not always. Birds are generally released to see if they return or
not, if not the storyteller usually knows it is then safe to go outside. The storytellers usually
prepare an alter or go to one to seek out the favor or pray to the gods. All myths in this case share
this feature. They receive a blessing from the gods in all the myths.
Examining all the myths, one can see differences. Geological location, names of the gods
involved, variations on time frame for the waters recession, the one myth that stands out the most
however, is the Egyptian myth. The author has a theory that perhaps it is due to the Nile flooding
so often that even a heavier flood would not be of note to the Egyptians.
Now that we have looked at the myths, the comparison and contrasts for the myths it is
time to look at a possible scientific explanation for this. We have already discussed that myths
are rational explanations for naturally occurring phenomenon. So what could this phenomenon
be? A real flood that happened in the Mediterranean thousands of years ago. Scientists believe it
to be what is known to them as the “Black Deluge” (Ryan et al. 1997, Dr. Andrew
Snelling2010). What has been found by geologists is that the normal sedimentary layer of that

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time seems to have suddenly been disrupted by marine life that is salt water specific, the Black
Sea was at the time freshwater. They have also discovered that animals that were specifically
land mammals were mixed into the same layer. This indicates that a massive amount of water
had to have swept through the region fairly quickly. Scientists are still debating as to the level of
the water that has come but Dr. Snelling’s research indicates that it was a rapid rush of water and
it flooded the area before any could escape due to the debris left behind and what appears to be a
stronger than usual erosion at a certain point in the rocks that comprise the area. This paper goes
on to say that this same erosion is seen in different areas and countries around the Mediterranean
The deposit for this sediment was also of note as it was thick and appeared to be very rapidly
deposited (Snelling 2010). Another scientist said that it was enough to submerge “more than
100,000 km2 of its exposed continental shelf.” (Ryan et al. 1997). Honorary Doctor of Science
Robert Ballard found in 1999 an ancient shoreline from 7000 years ago and many remains that
were remarkably well preserved under 400 feet of water. 100,000 square miles were flooded.
They found land species, human remains, stone tools, shards of pottery, apparently as well as
saltwater species which didn’t exist in the Black Sea a freshwater sea (Ballard 1999, 2000,
Krause 2000). All of this evidence gathered by multiple scientists for many years says there was
indeed a catastrophic flood in the area.
The Black Sea Deluge theory is a sudden rise of water around 5600 BC thousands of
gallons came into the Black Sea after an ice dam melted. (Turney et al. 2007) “A catastrophic
flooding of the Black Sea basin was proposed to have occurred during its reconnection to the
ocean in the early Holocene” (Goisan et al. 2008). What scientists do not debate is IF a flood
occoured and now too much evidence suggests that it was rapid filling, what is not debated is
HOW MUCH? Turney states “Our results indicate that up to 72,700 km2was flooded when the

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Bosporus Sill was breached.” (Turney 2007). Goisan believes it to be less than 50m more along
the lines of 30 m (Goisan et al. 2008) While Ballard thinks it could have been 50+m (Ballard
2000). Still any m amount that floods an ancient city spells a BAD day.
In conclusion, Flood myths around the Mediterranean awe and thrill us. They have
inspired real scientists to make it their life’s work, the geological evidence for the flood shows
that a massive catastrophic flood did indeed take place in the Mediterranean. This in turn may
have been the reason for the flood myths. Every country around that area had them. Every
country would have had that as a stark reminder and permanent thought of what the gods could
do, and made sure to not forget that. Whereas we today choose to find the scientific meaning
behind it, humans of that time while wise in philosophy and various other subjects didn’t have
the capability to go down to the sea floor, to look at rooks and see the differences between them
on microscopic levels among other things, but what they did give us is a legacy that has inspired
many along their lives pathways. This was informative about the mythologies and the science
behind it. The commonly held theory is that it was one story that perpetuated itself in an
extraordinarily large version of the children’s game “telephone” My theory however, is that it is
ONE myth and each culture adapted this one event that spanned for them all into their own story.

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Works Cited
Ballard, Robert Ballard and the Black Sea. National Geographic. Last Update September 2000.
Web. 7 May 7, 2016
Cartwright, Mark. Ancient History Encyclopedia. NuSphere, TSOHOST, Uservoice. 29 July
2012. Web. 7 May 2016 http://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Mythology/
Liviu Giosan a, Florin Filip b, Stefan Constatinescu. Was the Black Sea catastrophically flooded
in the early Holocene? Quaternary Science Reviews 14 October 2008. Web. 7 May 2016
Krause, Lisa. Ballard Finds Traces of Ancient Habitation Beneath Black Sea. National
Geographic. September 13, 2000. Web. 7 May 2016
Mark, Joshua. Ancient History Encyclopedia. NuSphere, TSOHOST, Uservoice. 02 September
2009. Web. 7 May 2016 http://www.ancient.eu/Hathor/
Radford, Tim. Evidence found of Noah's ark flood victims. Science. 13 September 2000
Web. 7 May 2016
William B.F. Ryan, Walter C. Pitman IIIa, Candace O. Majora, Kazimieras Shimkusb, Vladamir
Moskalenkob, Glenn A. Jonesc, Petko Dimitrovd, Naci Gorüre, Mehmet Sakinçe, Hüseyin
Yücef. An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf. Marine Geology. Volume 138, Issues 1–2,
April 1997, Pages 119–126. Web. 7 May 2016
Sandars, N.K. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Pgs. 108-113 New York, New York: Penguin Books,
1972. Print
Schwab, Gustav. Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece. Pgs. 39-42 New York, New York:
Pantheon Books, 1946. Print

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Snelling, Andrew. The Geology of Israel within the Biblical Creation-Flood Framework of
History: 2. The Flood Rocks. Answers Research Journal Vol.3 5 December 2010 Web. 7
May 2016
Turney, Chris Brown, Heidi. Catastrophic early Holocene sea level rise, human migration and
the Neolithic transition in Europe. Research Gate Elsevier 11 July 2007. Web. 7 May 2016
Women’s Devotional Bible. NIV Ed. 2 Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Corporation, 1995.
Print. Genesis 6-9:29