John Croft asks:
> Does anyone else have information of flood myths amongst IE >peoples that
could have a Black Sea origin?
I have a file,John..of little snippets of local flood myths and folk lore. I
will include those that may be of interest. (The Turkish one is interesting
re: time compression, historical syncretization and the Dardanelles, as well
as "counter intuitive" water flow.) Some contain parallels to known myth,
few directly linkable to the black sea. I included only Near East, Europe
and India. (The one Alaska example selected from many new world variants for
its similarity to traditional and ME myth.)
1) Older version(s) of Deucalion: Greece
....told by Hellanicus has Deucalion's ark landing on Mount Othrys in
Thessaly. Another account has him landing on a peak, probably Phouka, in
Argolis, later called Nemea. [Gaster, p. 85]
2) Plato on Floods: Greece
Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years"
since Athens and Atlantis were preeminent. Destruction by fire and other
catastrophes was also common. In these floods, water rose from below,
destroying city dwellers but not mountain people. The floods, especially the
third great flood before Deucalion, washed away most of Athens' fertile
soil. ["Timaeus" 22, "Critias" 111-112]
3) An earlier flood was reported to have occurred in the time of
Ogyges, founder and king of Thebes. The flood covered the whole world and
was so devastating that the country remained without kings until the reign
of Cecrops. [Gaster, p. 87]
4) Rome (omitting the Deucalion parallel version):
Jupiter and Mercury, traveling incognito in Phrygia, begged for food and
shelter, but found all doors closed to them until they received hospitality
from Philemon and Baucis. The gods revealed their identity, led the couple
up the mountains, and showed them the whole valley flooded, destroying all
homes but the couple's, which was transformed into a marble temple. Given a
wish, the couple asked to be priest and priestess of the temple, and to die
together. In their extreme old age, they changed into an oak and lime tree.
[Ovid, book 8] (Rex: no comment on location and acorns:-)
5) Scandinavian:
Oden, Vili, and Ve fought and slew the great ice giant Ymir, and icy
water from his wounds drowned most of the Rime Giants. The giant Bergelmir
escaped, with his wife and children, on a boat. Ymir's body became the world
we live on. [Sturluson, p. 35]
6) Celtic:
Heaven and Earth were great giants, and Heaven lay upon the Earth so
that their children were crowded in the darkness between them. One of their
sons led his brothers in cutting up Heaven into many pieces. From his skull
they made the firmament. His spilling blood caused a great flood which
killed all humans except a single pair, who were saved in a ship made by a
beneficent Titan. The waters settled in hollows to become the oceans.
[Sproul, pp. 172-173]
7)Welsh:
The lake of Llion burst, flooding all lands. Dwyfan and Dwyfach escaped
in a mastless ship with pairs of every sort of living creature. They landed
in Prydain (Britain) and repopulated the world. [Gaster, pp. 92-93]
8) Lithuanian:
From his heavenly window, the supreme god Pramzimas saw nothing but war
and injustice among mankind. He sent two giants, Wandu and Wejas (water and
wind), to destroy earth. After twenty days and nights, little was left.
Pramzimas looked to see the progress. He happened to be eating nuts at the
time, and he threw down the shells. One happened to land on the peak of the
tallest mountain, where some people and animals had sought refuge. Everybody
climbed in and survived the flood floating in the nutshell. God's wrath
abated, he ordered the wind and water to abate. The people dispersed, except
for one elderly couple who stayed where they landed. To comfort them, God
sent the rainbow and advised them to jump over the bones of the earth nine
times. They did so, and up sprang nine other couples, from which the nine
Lithuanian tribes descended. [Gaster, p. 93]
9) German:
A louse and a flea were brewing beer in an eggshell. The louse fell in
and burnt herself. This made the flea weep, which made the door creak, which
made the broom sweep, which made the cart run, which made the ash-heap burn,
which made the tree shake itself, which made the girl break her
water-pitcher, which made the spring begin to flow. And in the spring's
water everything was drowned. [Grimm 30]
10) Islamic Turkey:
Iskender-Iulcarni (Alexander the Great), in the course of his conquests,
demanded tribute from Katife, Queen of Smyrna. She refused insultingly and
threatened to drown the king if he persisted. Enraged at her insolence, the
conqueror determined to punish the queen by drowning her in a great flood.
He employed Moslem and infidel workmen to make a strait of the Bosphorus,
paying the infidel workmen one-fifth as much as the Moslems got. When the
canal was nearly completed, he reversed the pay arrangements, giving the
Moslems only one-fifth as much as the infidels. The Moslems quit in disgust
and left the infidels to finish the canal. The Black Sea swept away the last
dike and drowned the workmen. The flood spread over Queen Katife's country
(drowning her) and several cities in Africa. The whole world would have been
engulfed, but Iskender-Iulcarni was prevailed upon to open the Strait of
Gibraltar, letting the Mediterranean escape into the ocean. [Gaster, pp.
91-92]
11) Vogul:
After seven years of drought, the Great Woman said to the Great Man that
rains had come elsewhere; how should they save themselves. The Great Man
counselled the other giants to make boats from cut poplars, anchor them with
ropes of willow roots 500 fathoms long, and provide them with seven days of
food and with pots of melted butter to grease the ropes. Those who did not
make all the preparations perished when the waters came. After seven days,
the waters sank. But all plants and animals had perished, even the fish. The
survivors, on the brink of starvation, prayed to the great god Numi-târom,
who recreated living things. [Gaster, pp. 93-94]
12) Assyrian:
The gods, led by Enlil, agreed to cleanse the earth of an overpopulated
humanity, but Utnapishtim was warned by the god Ea in a dream. He and some
craftsmen built a large boat (one acre in area, seven decks) in a week. He
then loaded it with his family, the craftsmen, and "the seed of all living
creatures." The waters of the abyss rose up, and it stormed for six days.
Even the gods were frightened by the flood's fury. Upon seeing all the
people killed, the gods repented and wept. The waters covered everything but
the top of the mountain Nisur, where the boat landed. Seven days later,
Utnapishtim released a dove, but it returned finding nowhere else to land.
He next returned a sparrow, which also returned, and then a raven, which did
not return. Thus he knew the waters had receded enough for the people to
emerge. Utnapishtim made a sacrifice to the gods. He and his wife were given
immortality and lived at the end of the earth. [Sandars, chpt. 5]
13) Babylonian:
Three times (every 1200 years), the gods were distressed by the
disturbance from human overpopulation. The gods dealt with the problem first
by plague, then by famine. Both times, the god Enki advised men to bribe the
god causing the problem. The third time, Enlil advised the gods to destroy
all humans with a flood, but Enki had Atrahasis build an ark and so escape.
Also on the boat were cattle, wild animals and birds, and Atrahasis' family.
After the flood, the gods regretted their action, and Enki established
barren women and stillbirth to avoid the problem in the future. [Dalley, pp.
23-35]
14) Chaldean:
The god Chronos warned Xisuthrus of a coming flood, ordered him to write
a history, and told him to build a vessel (5 stadia by 2 stadia) for
himself, his friends and relations, and all kinds of animals, all of which
he did. After the flood had come and abated somewhat, he sent out some
birds, which returned. Later, he tried again, and the birds returned with
mud on their feet. On the third trial, the birds didn't return. He
disembarked and, with his wife, daughter, and pilot, offered sacrifices to
the gods. Those four were translated to live with the gods. [Smith, pp.
42-43]
15) Zoroastrian:
"After Ahura Mazda has warned Yima that destruction in the form of
winter, frost, and floods, subsequent to the melting of the snow, are
threatening the sinful world, he proceeds to instruct him to build a vara,
'fortress or estate,' in which specimens of small and large cattle, human
beings, dogs, birds, red flaming fires, plants and foodstuffs will have to
be deposited in pairs." [Dresden, p. 344]
16) Hindu (alternative to Manu)
"The Lord of the Universe," to preserve king Satyavarata from dangers of
the depravity of the age, sent him a large ship, and told him to gather
himself, medicinal herbs, and pairs of brute animals aboard it to save them
from a flood. Seven days later, the three worlds were flooded and darkened.
The god appeared in the ocean as an enormous fish, a million leagues long,
and Satyavarata tied the ark to its horn with a huge sea serpent. [Howey,
pp. 389-390]
17) Bhil (central India):
Out of gratitude for humanity feeding fish, a fish told a dhobi (a pious
man) that a great deluge was coming. The man prepared a large box in which
he embarked with his sister and a cock. After the flood, a messenger of Rama
discovered the box by the cock's crowing. Rama had the box brought to him
and questioned the man. Facing north, east, and west, the man swore that the
woman was his sister; facing south, the man said she was his wife. Told that
the fish gave the warning, Rama had the fish's tongue removed, and fish have
been tongueless since. Rama ordered the man to repopulate the world, so he
married his sister, and they had seven daughters and seven sons. [Gaster,
pp. 95-96]
18) Kamar (Raipur District, Central India):
A boy and girl were born to the first man and woman. God sent a deluge
to destroy a jackal which had angered him. The man and woman heard it
coming, so they shut their children in a hollow piece of wood with
provisions to last until the flood subsides. The deluge came, and everything
on earth was drowned. After twelve years, God created two birds and sent
them to see if the jackal had been drowned. They saw nothing but a floating
log and, landing on it, heard the children inside, who were saying to each
other that they had only three days of provisions left. The birds told God,
who caused the flood to subside, took the children from the log, and heard
their story. In due time they were married, and all people are descended
from them. [Gaster, p. 96]
19) Kamchadale (northeast Siberia):
A flood covered the whole land in the early days of the world. A few
people saved themselves on rafts made from bound-together tree trunks. They
carried their property and provisions and used stones tied to straps as
anchors to prevent being swept out to sea. They were left stranded on
mountains when the waters receded. [Gaster, p. 100]
20) Hareskin (Alaska):
Kunyan ("Wise Man"), foreseeing the possibility of a flood, built a
great raft. He told other people, but they laughed at him and said they'd
climb trees in the event of a flood. Then came a great flood, with water
gushing from all sides, rising higher than the trees and drowning all people
but the Wise Man and his family on his raft. As he floated, he gathered
pairs of all animals and birds he met with. Some time later, the musk-rat
dived into the water looking for the bottom, but he couldn't find it. He
dived a second time and smelled the earth but didn't reach it. Next beaver
dived. He reappeared unconscious but holding a little mud. The Wise Man
breathed on it, making it grow. He placed it on the water and continued
breathing on it, making it larger and larger. He put a fox on the island,
but it ran around the island in just a day. Six times the fox ran around the
island, by the seventh time, the land was as large as it was before the
flood, and everyone disembarked. To lower the flood waters, the bittern
swallowed them all. Now there was too little water. Plover, pretending
sympathy, passed his hand over the bittern's stomach, but suddenly scratched
it. The waters flowed out into the rivers and lakes. [Gaster, pp. 117-118]