Most people are familiar with the flood in the book of Genesis where Noah builds an ark and takes on board two of every creature. But this is not the only myth of a great flood. A Sumerian version of the story tells of Ziusudra, "he saw life," who survived a great flood (Sandars 17).

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh, in his search for immortality, seeks out the ancient survivor of a great Babylonian flood, Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim tells him of the great flood, when it rained seven days, covering the earth in water. Utnapishtim's boat landed on Mount Nisir. He sent out a dove, which could not find land, then, a swallow, and finally, a raven, which did not return. After the flood Utnapishtim was given eternal life (Leeming, "Gilgamesh" 151-2).

An even older version of the Babylonian flood story names the survivor Atrahasis, where the great flood is the last of a series of cataclysms (Sandars 17). In this story, humans had been created to work for the younger gods, but the noise the humans made kept the gods awake, and so, several attempts, including reducing the food supply, were made to keep the humans quiet (Leick 145).

In the Greek version of the story, Zeus destroys mankind with the help of Poseidon, covering the entire earth except for the tip of Parnassus. There a wooden chest contained the last two humans, Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and Pyrrha, Deucalion's wife and Prometheus' neice. Prometheus had warned them of the coming destruction and provided their means of escape. Zeus pitied Deucalion and Pyrrha, and they were told to cast stones behind their back. The stones became people who helped replenish the earth (Hamilton 93-4).

Flood myths are common around the world. Typically, in flood myths, an older, imperfect world is destroyed because of human failures, and a new creation takes place. After the flood, the world is reborn and remade, giving humans a second chance. Flood myths express the belief in both imperfection and the possibility of redemption" (Leeming, "Flood" 138). Just as baptism of an individual represents a death to the old self and a rebirth to a new self (death, burial, regeneration), flood myths express the same imagery applied to the cosmos, the world-system.