The world before the Great Flood

The Sumerian, Biblical and Greek traditions each describe a world before the great flood. When I read them side by side, they share three themes. Giants and gods lived close to humans. Early cities and kings had knowledge and life spans far beyond ours. Then humanity declined, and the gods sent a flood.

On this page I go through those themes one at a time. For each one I show what the source itself says, with the source named. The Hebrew Bible is quoted in the King James Version. The Greek texts are quoted in public-domain translations.

1. A World Filled with Giants and Divine Beings

Nephilim and Titans

Many myths describe a time when the Earth was populated by giants, often born from the union of gods and humans. In the Biblical tradition these are the Nephilim. Genesis 6 calls them giants and says the children of the sons of God and the daughters of men became “mighty men”.

Genesis says giants lived on the earth before the flood, and the children of the sons of God became famous men.

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6:4, KJV

I go deeper into this chapter on the Genesis 6 page.

Greek mythology speaks of the Titans, colossal beings who ruled before the Olympian gods. Hesiod places his first, golden race of humans in the time when the Titan Cronos ruled in heaven.

Hesiod says the first humans lived like gods while Cronos was king of heaven.

First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos when he was reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them; but with legs and arms never failing they made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all evils.

Hesiod, Works and Days, ll. 109-120, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914)

Ovid also tells of giants. In his version they tried to take heaven by force, and Jupiter struck them down.

Ovid says the Giants piled up mountains to reach heaven.

And that the lofty {realms of} æther might not be more safe than the Earth, they say that the Giants aspired to the sovereignty of Heaven, and piled the mountains, heaped together, even to the lofty stars.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book I, lines 151-162, translated by Henry T. Riley (1851)

The Greek genealogy of the gods is on my Theogony page. For giants in other cultures, see Giants worldwide.

Gods walking among men

In many myths, gods and divine beings often interacted with humans. In the Sumerian tradition, gods like Enki and Enlil were involved in the affairs of men. They guided them, and sometimes they manipulated them.

The Greek gods were also directly involved in human life. They often came down from Mount Olympus.

2. Advanced Civilizations with Great Knowledge

Lost knowledge and technology

The pre-flood world is often depicted as having advanced knowledge and technology. Much of it was lost after the flood.

In the Sumerian myths, the city of Eridu is the first city, and it belongs to the god Enki. The Sumerian flood story gives Eridu to Nudimmud, which is another name of Enki.

The Sumerian flood story says Eridu was the first city, given to Enki.

The first of the cities, Eridug, was given to Nudimmud the leader.

The Flood story, segment B lines 6-18, ETCSL translation t.1.7.4 (short excerpt for review and study)

Eridu was a place of great learning and was seen as a center of civilization. Some interpretations of these myths say that humanity had access to advanced technologies or knowledge. In those readings, that knowledge was later lost or destroyed.

Great cities and kings with long reigns

Ancient texts such as the Sumerian King List name cities that were centers of power before the flood. Their kings ruled for extraordinarily long periods. This suggests a world where time and life itself worked differently.

The Sumerian King List says kingship came down from heaven to Eridu, and its first king ruled for 28,800 years.

After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug. In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years.

The Sumerian King List, lines 1-39, ETCSL translation t.2.1.1 (short excerpt for review and study)

The list counts 8 kings in 5 cities before the flood, with 241,200 years in total. Then it says “the flood swept over.” I compare these kings with other traditions on Antediluvian rulers.

3. A World of Hubris and Moral Decline

Human corruption and hubris

Many myths describe a slow moral decline, even in a world where the gods were close. The Bible says that humanity became more and more wicked.

Genesis says that God saw that the thoughts of man were only evil.

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:5, KJV

Greek myths tell of a decline from the Golden Age to the Iron Age, as human behavior became worse. Ovid gives the clearest picture of the last age. I go through all four ages on my page about Ovid’s four ages.

Ovid says that in the Iron Age every crime broke out and truth and honor left the world.

The last {Age} was of hard iron. Immediately every species of crime burst forth, in this age of degenerated tendencies; modesty, truth, and honor took flight; in their place succeeded fraud, deceit, treachery, violence, and the cursed hankering for acquisition.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book I, lines 113-150, translated by Henry T. Riley (1851)

Divine displeasure

The gods or divine beings became more and more displeased with the arrogance and moral failings of humanity. In the Babylonian epic of Atrahasis, the gods decide to act because humans have become too noisy and troublesome. The text calls this noise their “clamor”.

In Albert Clay’s translation, Enlil holds an assembly of the gods because the clamor of humans troubles him.

Those observing the clamor of men: [Concerning] their clamor I am troubled.

Albert T. Clay, A Hebrew Deluge Story in Cuneiform (1922), p. 16

Clay reads the tablet so that a long famine came first, and the flood came after it.

Clay says the famine was sent for the same reasons the Old Testament gives for the flood.

We learn from this tradition, and also from its redaction written centuries later, that a long famine preceded the deluge, which is not referred to in the Old Testament, that the famine had been sent because men had multiplied, and also because of their clamor, reminding us of the causes given for the deluge in the Old Testament.

Albert T. Clay, A Hebrew Deluge Story in Cuneiform (1922), p. 5

The Greek gods also punished humanity for its crimes. This led to disasters like the flood in the story of Deucalion. In Ovid, Jupiter makes the decision himself.

Ovid’s Jupiter swears that the human race must be destroyed.

Now must the race of mortals be cut off by me, wherever Nereus roars on all sides of the earth; {this} I swear by the Rivers of Hell, that glide in the Stygian grove beneath the earth.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book I, lines 163-215, translated by Henry T. Riley (1851)

4. Portents of Catastrophe

Signs and omens

Many myths speak of signs and omens before the great flood. These could have been natural disasters, strange events in the sky or other anomalies that showed the coming doom.

In the Sumerian myths the warning came from the gods. The god Enki advised Ziusudra (or Utnapishtim) to build a boat to survive the flood. In the Sumerian flood story, Ziusudra hears the warning through a wall. The text does not name the god who speaks. He is usually read as Enki (Ea in the Babylonian texts).

The Sumerian flood story says a voice at the wall told Ziusudra that a flood would come.

Side-wall, I will speak words to you; take heed of my words, pay attention to my instructions. A flood will sweep over the ...... in all the ....... A decision that the seed of mankind is to be destroyed has been made.

The Flood story, segment C lines 1-27, ETCSL translation t.1.7.4 (short excerpt for review and study)

I compare the three flood heroes on Utnapishtim, Ziusudra and Noah. More flood accounts are collected on Flood stories.

About the sources

The Genesis quotes are from the King James Version. Hesiod is quoted in the 1914 translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, and Ovid in the prose translation by Henry T. Riley (1851). The Atrahasis lines come from Albert T. Clay’s A Hebrew Deluge Story in Cuneiform (Yale, 1922), which I read in the archive.org scan. The Sumerian King List and the Sumerian flood story are quoted from the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL), Oxford, as short excerpts for review and study.