Berossus has a flood too. A great flood, a warning, a boat, and birds sent out to find land.
Myths of the Near East · Similar and different
The Flood
Similarly, likewise, too, as well, whereas and while: how to say that two stories agree, and exactly where they part company, with a boat, a flood and three birds in each.
🌧️ Play the story too: in the gamebook, you are Xisuthros, the Babylonian Noah.Play the gamebook →
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
Like Noah! And the animals, two by two.
Two stories
After Berossus of Babylon, and Genesis 6–9
In Berossus, the god Kronos (the Babylonian god Enki) appeared to King Xisuthros in a dream and warned him that on a certain day, all people would be destroyed by a flood. He told him to bury all the writings of the world at Sippar, the city of the sun, and to build a boat and go into it with his family and his friends, and with animals and birds.
The flood came. When it began to go down, Xisuthros sent out some birds; they found no food or place to rest, and came back. He sent them out again, and they came back with mud on their feet. The third time, they did not come back. The boat had come to rest on a mountain in Armenia, and Xisuthros went out, built an altar, and made a sacrifice. Then he disappeared, and a voice said that because of his piety he had gone to live with the gods.
In Genesis, God saw that the earth was full of violence, and told Noah, a righteous man, to build an ark and to take his family and two of every kind of animal into it. The rain fell for forty days and forty nights.
When the waters went down, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah sent out a raven, and then a dove, which came back; seven days later he sent the dove again, and it came back with an olive leaf in its beak; the third time it did not come back. Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice, and God made a covenant with him and with every living creature, and set his rainbow in the clouds as its sign.
Berossus survives in quotations by later writers. Genesis is quoted from the Septuagint.
What we know today
In 1872, George Smith, a young man working at the British Museum, was reading a clay tablet from Nineveh when he realised it told a flood story: a man called Utnapishtim, a boat, and a dove, a swallow and a raven sent out to find land. It is part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Smith was so excited that, according to the story, he began to undress in the reading room.
An even older Babylonian poem, the Atrahasis, tells how the gods sent the flood because humans were too noisy. Scholars compare these with Genesis, where the flood is a judgement on violence, and the story ends in a covenant.
Similarly and likewise
DEMETRIA
Xisuthros builds a boat. Similarly, Noah builds an ark.
SOPHIA
Similarly and likewise link two sentences that say the same kind of thing. They usually start the second sentence, followed by a comma. Xisuthros sent out birds three times. Likewise, Noah sent the dove three times.
Too, also, as well
MARCOS
Noah had animals. Xisuthros had animals too. He also had his friends. He had birds as well.
SOPHIA
Good. Too and as well go at the end; also goes before the main verb (but after be): He also had friends. He was also a king.
Whereas and while
PHILO
In Berossus, Xisuthros is taken away to live with the gods, whereas in Genesis, Noah stays on the earth, plants a vineyard, and lives among his children.
SOPHIA
Whereas and while join two contrasting facts in one sentence: X is true, whereas Y is different. They are slightly formal, perfect for comparing books.
The reason for the flood
THE CLERK
And why does the flood come, in each?
PHILO
Berossus doesn’t say. The old Babylonian poems say the gods were annoyed by noise, whereas Genesis says the earth was full of violence. And Genesis ends with a promise, never again.
Sophia’s summary
| Form | Use | From the fable |
|---|---|---|
| similarly / likewise | two things that are alike (new sentence) | Xisuthros sent birds. Similarly, Noah sent a dove. |
| too / as well (end), also (before the verb) | adding something that is the same | He had animals too. He also had friends. |
| whereas / while | two contrasting facts in one sentence | Xisuthros went to the gods, whereas Noah stayed on earth. |
Practice
Answer all the questions, then press “Check my answers”. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Choose the best form
Choose the form that fits best.
1. Xisuthros built a boat. ___, Noah built an ark.
2. Noah sent out a dove. Xisuthros sent out birds ___.
3. Xisuthros went to live with the gods, ___ Noah stayed on the earth.
4. He ___ took his friends with him.
5. Noah’s boat landed on Ararat. ___, Xisuthros’s boat landed on a mountain in Armenia.
6. ___ the Babylonian gods were annoyed by noise, the God of Genesis judged violence.
B · Complete the sentence
Write the missing word.
7. Both men sent out birds. The birds came back with mud on their feet in Berossus, and with an olive leaf in Genesis, but the dove came back . (too)
8. Berossus says the man disappeared, Genesis says Noah lived for 350 more years.
9. Noah made a sacrifice. , Xisuthros built an altar.
10. Xisuthros was a king. (in addition)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
11. “Noah sent a dove. Similarly Xisuthros sent birds.”
12. “Xisuthros also was a king.”
13. “Whereas the Babylonian flood came suddenly, the flood in Genesis was announced.”
Now play the Babylonian flood yourself, as Xisuthros.Play the gamebook →