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DELUGE, SINFLUT. 577
Jehovah made a covenant with man, and set his bow in the cloud
for a token of the covenant.
After this beautiful compact picture in the 0. T.,
narrative looks crude and unpolished.
the Eddie
Not from heaven does the
flood rain down, it swells up from the blood of the slain giant,
whose carcase furnishes material for creating all things, and the
human race itself. The insolence and violence of the annihilated
giants resemble those of the sons of Elohim who had mingled
with the children of men ; and Noah s box (/a/rtaro?) is like
Bergelmi s luftr. But the epic touches, such as the landing on
the mountain, the outflying dove, the sacrifice and rainbow, would
surely not have been left out, had there been any borrowing here.
In the Assyrian tradition, 1 Kronos warns Sisuthros of the
coming downpour, who thereupon builds a ship, and embarks
with men and beasts. Three days after the rain has ceased, birds
are sent out, twice they come flying back, the second time with
slime on their feet, and the third time they staid away. Sisuthros
got out first with his wife and daughter and pilot, they prayed,
sacrificed, and suddenly disappeared. When the rest came to
land, a voice sounded in the air, saying the devout Sisuthros had
been taken up to the gods ; but they were left to propagate the
human race. Their vessel down to recent times lay on the
mountains of Armenia. 2 Coins of Apamea, a city in Phrygia,
show an ark floating on the water, with a man and woman in it ;
on it sits a bird, another comes flying with a twig in its claws.
Close by stand the same human pair on firm land, holding up
their right hands. Beside the ark appear the letters Nfl (Noah),
3
and this Apamea is distinguished by the by-name of /a/3o>To?.
According to Greek legend, Zeus had determined to destroy
mankind; at the prompting of Prometheus, Deucalion built an
ark, which received him and Pyrrha his wife. Zeus then sent a
mighty rain, so that Hellas was flooded, and the people perished.
Nine days and nights Deucalion floated on the waters, then landed
on Parnassus, and offered sacrifice to Zeus ; we have seen how
this couple created a new generation by casting stones. Plutarch
adds, that when Deucalion let a dove out of the ark, he could tell
1 Buttmann On the myth of the Deluge, p. 21.
2 Conf. the Annolied 308 seq., which brings the Bavarians from Armenia.
3 All this in Buttmann, pp. 24-27.