List of flood myths

Flood myths are common across a wide range of cultures, extending back into Bronze Age and Neolithic prehistory. These accounts depict a flood, sometimes global in scale, usually sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution.

Contents

AfricaEdit

Many African cultures have an oral tradition of a flood including the Kwaya, Mbuti, Maasai, Mandin, and Yoruba peoples.

AmericasEdit

North AmericaEdit

• Hopi mythology – Entrance into the Fourth World
• W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, flood myth
• Comox people – Legend of Queneesh
• Anishinaabe - The Creation Story - Turtle Island
• Inuit, flood myth
• Nisqually - In the beginning of the Nisqually world.

MesoamericaEdit

• Mesoamerican flood myths

South AmericaEdit

CanariEdit

• Urcocari

IncaEdit

• Unu Pachakuti

MapucheEdit

• Legend of Trentren Vilu and Caicai Vilu

MuiscaEdit

• Bochica

TupiEdit

• Sumé

AsiaEdit

Ancient Near EastEdit

SumerianEdit

• Sumerian creation myth

MesopotamiaEdit

• Gilgamesh flood myth

Abrahamic religionsEdit

The Deluge, c. 1896–1902, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

• Genesis flood narrative
  • Noah's Ark
  • Islamic view of Noah

ChinaEdit

• Yu the Great
• Nüwa
• Great Flood (China)

IndiaEdit

The Matsya avatar comes to the rescue of Manu

• Manu and Matsya: The legend first appears in Shatapatha Brahmana (700–300 BCE), and is further detailed in Matsya Purana (250–500 CE). Matsya (the incarnation of Lord Vishnu as a fish) forewarns Manu (a human) about an impending catastrophic flood and orders him to collect all the grains of the world in a boat; in some forms of the story, all living creatures are also to be preserved in the boat. When the flood destroys the world, Manu – in some versions accompanied by the seven great sages – survives by boarding the ark, which Matsya pulls to safety.
• Puluga, the creator god in the religion of the indigenous inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, sends a devastating flood to punish people who have forgotten his commands. Only four people survive this flood: two men and two women.

KoreaEdit

• Mokdoryung

MalaysiaEdit

• Temuan
• Orang Seletar

PhilippinesEdit

• Igorot:

Once upon a time, when the world was flat and there were no mountains, there lived two brothers, sons of Lumawig, the Great Spirit. The brothers were fond of hunting, and since no mountains had formed there was no good place to catch wild pig and deer, and the older brother said: "Let us cause water to flow over all the world and cover it, and then mountains will rise up."

Tai-Kadai peopleEdit

There are stories spoken by Tai-Kadai people, included Zhuang, Thai, Shan and Lao, talking about the origin of them and the deluge from their Thean (แถน), supreme being object of faith.

• Khun Borom
• Poo-Sankhasa Ya-Sangkhasi or Grandfather Sangkhasa and Grandmother Sangkhasi, who make the human beings and the deluge.

EuropeEdit

Classical AntiquityEdit

• Ancient Greek flood myths

Medieval EuropeEdit

IrishEdit

• Lebor Gabála Érenn – Cessair

WelshEdit

• Dwyfan and Dwyfach
• Cantre'r Gwaelod

NorseEdit

• Bergelmir

Modern era folkloreEdit

FinnishEdit

• Finnish flood myth

OceaniaEdit

Polynesia and HawaiiEdit

• Nu'u
• Ruatapu
• Tāwhaki