Relation between the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and “Genesis”

The readings of the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and “Genesis” both present a common theme of human lives under the control of a higher being. In the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, one of the gods, Enlil almost annihilated the entire human population. In the “Genesis”, God also almost annihilated the entire human population. Although both stories present the common theme of a higher being controlling the lives of human, there are differences. One difference between the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and the “Genesis” is the reason of the annihilation. Enlil decided to destroy humankind at his whim because “The gods may come to the incense offering, but Enlil may not come to the incense offering, because without considering he brought about the Flood and consigned my people to annihilation (A, 94). God in the “Genesis” desired to destroy humankind entirely because God wanted to punish humans for being evil and regretted creating humans. “And the LORD saw that the evil of human creature was great on the earth and that every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil…. ‘I will wipe out the human race I created from the face of the earth, from human to cattle to crawling thing to the fowl of the heavens, for I regret that I have made them’” (A, 34). Another difference between the two stories is that in the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, there are several gods who conflict with each other and even among the gods; there are gods that are superior while in the “Genesis”, there is only one all-powerful God who is undisputed.