All cultures have myths. Some are in the form of stories passed down from generations verbally and some are immortalized in printed form. A common myth, found in many cultures, speaks of a great flood that encompasses the earth. Common to almost every story is the idea of God or the Gods becoming angered with mortals and deciding to wipe them out. The two myths discussed in this paper derive from the Greek and Roman accounts of the flood and, the most well known, the Bible's account. Though these myths have their similarities and their differences, both stories discuss the morals and the fear of God or Gods of the cultures they are derived from.
             The flood myths from these cultures have many similarities and many differences. One common aspect of the myths is the reason it was brought down. In both stories, the flood is brought upon by God or the Gods expressing his/their anger at the mortals. In Ovid's version of the Greek/Roman story, he tells the story of Zeus's/Jupiter's disgust with the human race. He states, "The demon of madness is holding dominion the wide world over; you'd think that the human race had joined in an evil conspiracy"(Ovid p.17). All of the God's of Olympia were enraged at the actions of the humans down on earth. Zeus/Jupiter promised to take care of the situation. He sent a great flood down to completely destroy the humans. The story in the Bible is almost identical in premise. The Bible states, "the Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time" (Genesis 6:5). Just like in the Greek/Roman version, evil had infiltrated the thoughts, hearts, and actions of mankind. The Lord was fed up. His creation, that he had so much pride in, had failed. So the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I ha
             ...