Great Flood Myths

In countless cultural myths and religions there seems to be a common thread of a Great Flood.  While some of them are the result of colonization and conquering of the various civilizations it is still too common for it to be completely disputed as myth.

In Celtic mythology the story is that Heaven and Earth were great giants, and Heaven lay on the Earth their children were gathered between them, and the children and their mother were sad in the darkness. The bravest sons led his brothers in cutting up Heaven into pieces. His blood caused a great flood which spurted in waves and killed all humans except for one single pair, who were saved in a ship made by a compassionate Titan. The waters settled in hollows to become the oceans. The boldest son who had led in the destruction of Heaven was a Titan and became the king, the Titans and gods hated each other, and the king was driven from his throne by his son, who was born a god. The Titan went to the land of the departed. The Titan who built the ship also went there.

The Welsh believed that the lake of Llion ruptured, flooding all lands. Dwyfan and Dwyfach escaped in a ship with pairs of every living creature. They landed in Britain and proceeded to repopulate the world.

In Lithuanian the myth is that from his heavenly window, the supreme God saw nothing but war and injustice among mankind. He sent two giants, water and wind, to destroy the earth. After twenty days and nights, the earth was more or less destroyed. The supreme God, Pramzimas, watched the progress. While at his window he sat eating nuts and he discarded the shells by throwing them down. One landed on the peak one of the tallest mountains, where a few people and animals had found refuge. They climbed into the shell and in this way survived the flood. God's wrath lessened and, he ordered the wind and water to subside. The people scattered, except for one elderly couple who stayed where they landed.  God then sent the rainbow and told them to jump nine times over the bones. When they did nine other couples bounded up and from this came the nine Lithuanian tribes and their descendents.

In Grecian myth, Zeus sent a flood to destroy the men of the Bronze Age. Prometheus counseled his son Deucalion to build a chest. All other men perished except for a few who escaped to high mountains.  The entire world beyond the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overcome. Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha  after floating in the chest for nine days and nights, landed on Parnassus. When the rains ended, he sacrificed to Zeus.  Zeus ordered that he should throw stones over his head; they became men, and the stones which Pyrrha threw became women.

The first race of people was completely destroyed because they were extremely wicked. The waters of the deep opened, the rain fell in torrents, and the rivers and seas rose to cover the earth, killing all of them. Deucalion survived due to his goodness and faithfulness and  was the link to the first and second race of men. He loaded his wives, children and all animals into a great ark. The flood waters overflowed into a chasm opened in Hierapolis. 

This common theme of Great floods in the past civilizations suggests to some that the story of a universal beginning of life on the earth is a fact and not just a conjectuire.