ahweh as the only true divinity. This story is one of a number from the Bible that acts to illustrate his absolute power over the earth. However, Babylonian religious beliefs do not take this monotheistic view. The Babylonian story also states that the flood was so frightful that even the gods of the heavens were in fear of what the gods of the Underworld were doing, and that they retreated to the highest level of the heavens. In the Hebrew description of the flood it was God's fury that man was suffering, Lucifer was in no way involved, as man had brought this punishment upon himself with his own iniquity.In the Babylonian myth, on the seventh day of the flood, the rains finally came to a halt and the waters grew still. Utnapishtim searched for land, and saw only the peak of Mount Nisir. It is here that he set his boat aground and waited a week before beginning to look into the level of the waters. First he let a dove loose to see if the flood had receded, but it returned when it found nowhere to land. Utnapishtim then let a swallow loose, but it too returned. He then set a raven free. The raven discovered that the water had since withdrawn and did not return. In the Christian story Noah lands his boat atop Mount Ararat. He first let a raven loose, it did not return. Noah then let a dove free, it returned but only because it found nowhere to land. He then waited seven days and released the dove yet again. This time it came back with an olive leaf. Noah waited seven more days, and released the dove a third time. This time it did not return because it had found land. The parallels between the discoveries of land in both of the stories are intriguing. The use of birds, the time spent waiting for their return, and the discovery of a mountainous summit are seemingly analogous. The only evident disparity regarding this aspect of the story would be the birds used and the length of time required for the waters of the flood to recede. As man re...
