Cleansing the World (word count: 1,234)
             All societies owe their existence, in some form or another, to the stories created by a myth or a religion. Whether these stories are used as a strict guideline for an orthodox government or relegated to churches and temples of worship, civilization has been formed around ideas laid down thousands of years ago. What is striking, however, is how similar many of these mythical and religious tales are to one another. Nearly all religions give the idea of an omnipotent being creating the world and all of its inhabitants through His/Her/Its divine will. Another main focus of spiritual myths is the idea of a conflict between the supernatural and mortal beings. Typically mankind seeks to be more powerful or more superior than is "humanly" possible, and the deities rebuke them for their pride and arrogance, using some form of judgment or a calamity to put man back in his place. In western society, we are familiar with the biblical story of Noah and the flood God used to cleanse the Earth of the wicked. What many are unaware of is the striking similarity that this tale has with a much older story, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. Both stories use a flood as a symbol of cleansing in an interestingly similar way.
             Why a flood in the first place? Why are there few earthquakes, tempests, or plagues used in religious myths to wipe the unholy from the world? A great flood has the benefit of being used as a metaphor of cleansing, which a deity uses to wash the filth that they feel must be purged from their realm. In the story of Gilgamesh, the Mesopotamian Gods bring forth a flood to destroy mankind because "sleep [for the gods] is no longer possible by reason of the babel" (Gilgamesh, 108). Why would these beings annihilate mankind over something as trivial as sleep interruption? The deities in the Gilgamesh story have very human characteristics: they are greedy, jealous, and spitef...