Page:The Deluge in Other Literatures and History.djvu/4

 with the deluge itself, the second with the various narratives which concern the deluge ; the first having to do with the actual event which is described in all the stories; the second with the inter-relationship of the stories themselves.

II. Theories presented in explanation of the facts narrated in the deluge stories.

1. According to Goldziher, Grill, and many other students of comparative mythology, we are to understand these various stories as different forms of the naturalistic myth respecting rains and floods in general. The possibilities of explanation under this head are as numerous as the authors themselves. For lack of space these possibilities are here omitted.

2. The original story is a mythical picture of the setting of the sun. Just as, according to Schirren, one may trace all the old cosmogonies to mythical descriptions of the rising of the sun, so the various stories of the deluge may be traced to a mythical picture of the setting of the sun. This explanation also may be passed by without further comment.

3. The deluge is a mythical presentation of creation. Cheyne, the writer on this subject in the Encyclopædia Britannica, presents this view in the following language: "The story of the deluge is a subdivision of the primitive man's cosmogony. The problem with which he had to deal was a complicated one — given the eternity of matter to account for the origin of the world. The best solution which presented itself was to represent creation as having taken place repeatedly, and the world as having passed through a series of demolitions and reconstructions. This explains the confusion between the creation and the deluge noticed by various travelers, a confusion, however, which is only apparent, for the deluge is, when thoroughly realized, practically a second creation. The various deluge stories must be viewed in combination and explained on a common principle. What was the original significance of the non-biblical stories ? Not merely an annual recurring river flood such as those of the Euphrates, for the phenomenal basis of myths must be something striking and wonderful as well as frequently recurring.