Further Reading

Friday, 1 January 2010

Atlantis and The Deluge

The Noah flood myth from the Bible was attributed to Zisudra and Atrahasis in Sumerian/Mesopotamian culture three thousand years earlier. In Aztec mythology only Coxcoxtli and his wife Xochiquetzal were forewarned of the flood by God and survived by building a huge boat. They wandered for 104 years before landing in “Antlan.” The Mechoacanesecs of Central America say Tezpi built a large boat, loaded it with animals, grains, seeds, and escaped the flood with his wife and children. The Maya say “the great mother and great father” survived and repopulated the world after the flood. The Chickasaw native Americans say only one family and two animals of every kind were saved from the flood. The same basic story is found in almost 600 cultures around the world.

From almost every culture around the world there emerge more than five hundred strikingly similar legends of a great Flood? These legends all share a common theme - of mankind being swept away with the exception of one man and his family who survived. We in the West generally know the survivor’s name as Noah, but to the Aztecs he was Nene, whilst in the Near East he was Atra-Hasis, Utnapishtim or Ziusudra. As for his means of escape, the Bible describes an ‘ark’ or boat, Mesopotamian records describe a submersible vessel, and the Aztec version refers to a hollowed-out log. According to the Aztec legend, men were saved by turning into fish. Ancient texts from the Near East speak of the Flood as a major catastrophe - not a local or trivial event, but a great time divider.” -Alan F. Alford, “Gods of the New Millennium – The Shattering Truth of Human Origins” (74)

There are flood myths from the Inuits of Alaska to the Canarians of Ecuador; From the Tupinamba of Brazil and the Araucnaians of Chile to the Pehuenche and Yamana of Tierra del Fuego; From the Sumerians and early Mesopotamians to the Hopi, Iroquois, and Sioux Indians of North America. Thailand, Laos, Australia, Japan, China, Greece, Egypt, India, North, South and Central America. The story is found all the world over, but the claims are quite difficult to swallow. Is the flood just a story, a myth with metaphorical meaning, or a literal account of global flooding? (Read More ...)