In most north-eastern mythologies such as Sumerian, Mesopotamian, and Judaism, there is a flood story. The oldest is the Sumerian from about 3000 BC featuring Ziusudra. These flood stories were common in the Levant because they lived near rivers and experienced floods. They viewed them as entirely destructive. In Egypt, however, the flood was a gift from the gods; bringing bountiful harvests and prosperity. As this is the final passion blog, I decided to tell the Egyptian version of the destruction of mankind titled: “The Time God Was Like ‘Hey Let’s Kill some People.’” This incredibly ancient story constitutes the first chapter of “The Book of The Heavenly Cow,” and can be found of the walls of at least 5 royal tombs from the New Kingdom era.
The story goes that Re, the eminent and transcendent sun god decided to visit the mortal world. There is no explanation given, he kind of just thought to himself, “eternal life is boring. I wonder what those little creatures I made to worship me are up to.” So he walks among mankind and sees human wickedness. People are cruel and ignoring the ancient teachings, so he gets upset. Re decreed that all the gods must come together to figure out how to punish mankind for plotting against him (he’s a little paranoid). He uses his powers of ultimate creation. He sent Hathor, his trusted right-hand cow goddess of childbirth and family, to indiscriminately kill humans. After he thought man was sufficiently punished, he tried to stop the slaughter, but Hathor turned into Sekhmet: a cat who like to murder things.
Sekhmet roamed around killing humans, much like Hathor, but this time Re didn’t like it. People started to complain and Re got frazzled. the crazed cat which was definitely his fault in the first place. Re asked the other gods for help to stop Sekhmet, and Thoth, the god of wisdom, writing, and knowledge, came up with a solution. Re told the humans to gather barrels and barrels of beer. They dyed it red with ochre to trick Sekhmet into thinking it was blood. Sekhmet drank all of it and fell asleep, so she could be easily dealt with. Re took her back to the Egyptian equivalent of Olympus and she was dealt with.
I always enjoyed this story because it struck me as comical. Re seems like a dotty old man who can’t make up his mind. This may have to do with something with the fact that in Egypt the people had a different natured relationship with their gods. In most other Levant countries, the people feared their gods and would worship them to placate them and avoid their wrath. In Egypt, they used magic to control their gods. They didn’t have any sense of fear, they felt like they could manipulate the world around them.
Also, the destruction of mankind is solved with excessive amounts of alcohol. In other regions, the destruction stories were far more somber and have dire consequences. Also, it’s interesting that in Egypt the cause of destruction was a lion rather than a flood. It most likely has to do with the actual cause of death in Egypt. Lions killed far more people than the flood because they were always prepared for floods.