Floods are the symbolic entity of the cleansing process; it can be seen in all mythological and religious stories that the flood is used to end a time of evil and bring about one of good, and general prosperity. This flood archetype can be witnessed in both the book of Genesis, as well as the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both the similarities and the diversity of the floods that occur, as well as the order that they are depicted in, very much reflect upon our own lives, our own refinement process that everyone goes through at one point of their life or another.
The flood of Genesis and that in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and also the characters of Noah in the bible and Utnapishtem, have many things in common. In both of these stories, the god(s) grew angry with the people of the world and decide to eradicate them with a flood. Also, in each of the stories the gods choose one man and his family to survive the flood; in Genesis, Noah and his family are chosen, and Utnapishtem and his family in the Epic of Gilgamesh. On both occasions these men were instructed to build a boat, with very specific instructions, using cubits to describe the dimensions the boats should be. In Genesis, "the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits" (Gene. 6:15). In the Epic of Gilgamesh, "each side of the deck measured one hundred and twenty cubits, making a square" (pg. 109). The gods also commanded both men to bring one female and one male of each animal onto the boat with them. When the storms stopped in the Gilgamesh's flood, "on the mountain of Nisir the boat held fast" (pg. 111), and in Genesis, the ark rested upon a mountain as well, as stated in verse 8:4, "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." In both of these stories, birds were sent out to find dry land, particularly the raven and the dove.
