![]() ![]() However, why was the discovery so sensational considering the prior knowledge of ancient Greek flood myths, in particular the Deucalion deluge? Or is it simply that the flood story in the Epic of Gilgamesh is just much more similar to the Biblical flood story? For instance, both the Gilgamesh and Genesis stories mention large ships filled with animals, while Deucalion and Pyrrha just bobbed around in a chest for nine days and nights, presumably with little to no spare room for wildlife. Indeed, in his A History of the World in 100 Objects, Neil MacGregor recounts the story that upon translating the tablet, George Smith was so overwhelmed by what he had discovered that he took his clothes off. ![]() In 1872 George Smith translated the famous Flood Tablet (tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh), causing a sensation due to its striking similarity to the story of Noah's Ark in the Book of Genesis (see David Damrosch's comments here, for example). ![]()
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