turns to dry land he chooses to express thanks to the gods for safeguarding he and his family from the torrents of the flood. Utnapishtim and Noah both make a sacrifice to illustrate how thankful they are. In the Babylonian account of the myth, Utnapishtim makes a sacrifice to the gods after freeing all of the people and animals from the boat. All the gods came to his sacrifice. Ishtar proclaims that all of the gods should remember the anguish caused by the flood. She then calls all of the gods, except Enlil, to her side. Enlil was barred from the sacrifice because it is he that brought about the deluge. Enlil still manages to find the sacrifice and is infuriated that Utnapishtim and his family did not perish in his flood. Ea is able to quell his anger and convinces Enlil that their survival was for the best. Enlil then blesses Utnapishtim and his family and grants them all long life. In the Christian account, Noah releases all of the animals from the Ark, and then makes a sacrifice to God, just as Utnapishtim did. God comes to the sacrifice, blesses Noah, his family, and all the animals and birds, and tells them all to be fruitful and multiply in number. God then creates a covenant with Noah. He states that he will never again release the earth’s waters in such a destructive manner. As a symbol of this promise, God creates the first rainbow. He explains to Noah that in the future he will create a rainbow whenever clouds unleash rain onto the earth to act as a reminder that, although it may rain, he will never again destroy mankind. The Babylonian myth offers no such promise. These two stories are surprisingly similar. The floods both stem from an iniquity perceived by a deity and both lead to the destruction of almost all of mankind. Both accounts hold that one man was saved from the wrath of the gods, and that it is this man who then repopulated the earth. The survival of animals, and the use of birds to ascertain when it was sa...
