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.
Africa Although the continent has relatively few flood legends, African cultures preserving an oral tradition of a flood include the Khoisan, Kwaya, Mbuti, Maasai, Mandin, and Yoruba peoples. Egypt Floods were seen as beneficial in Ancient Egypt, and as such the culture did not have myths of destructive floods. However, one flood myth in Egyptian mythology involves the god Ra transforms his daughter Hathor into Sekhmet and sends her to destroy part of humanity for their disrespect and unfaithfulness. The story goes that she became overenthusiastic in her bloodlust so Ra instructed the people to pour out wine and beer dyed with red ochre. Thinking it was more blood, Sekhmet drank it causing her to pass out and her slaughter ceased. This was commemorated in a wine drinking festival during the annual Nile flood.
Americas
North America
Algonquian peoples (some): Manabozho Stories Anishinaabe: Flood Myth - an Algonquin Story Archived 2020-02-20 at the Wayback Machine Anishinaabe: Turtle Island Choctaw: A Choctaw Flood Story Comox people: Legend of Queneesh Cree: Cree Flood Story Cree (Knisteneaux): Knisteneaux Flood Myth Hopi mythology: Entrance into the Fourth World Inuit: flood myth Menomini: Manabozho and the Flood Miꞌkmaq: Two Creators and their Conflicts Nipmuc: Cautanowwit Nisqually: In the beginning of the Nisqually world. Ojibwe: Great Serpent and the Great Flood Ojibwe: Manabozho and the Muskrat Ojibwe: Waynaboozhoo and the Great Flood Orowignarak (Alaska): "A great inundation, together with an earthquake, swept the land so rapidly that only a few people escaped in their skin canoes to the tops of the highest mountains." Ottawa: The Great Flood Saanich (W̱SÁNEĆ): the W̱SÁNEĆ endonym means "the emerging people" in the Saanich dialect because they survived a great flood and settled atop the mountain that emerged as the water receded.
Mesoamerica
Aztec/Mexica Coxcox
Maya Popol Vuh: Huracan caused the fall of the wooden people by way of a great flood.
South America Jipohan flood legend Kaingang flood legend
Canari Urcocari
Inca Unu Pachakuti
Mapuche Legend of Trentren Vilu and Caicai Vilu
Muisca Bochica
Tupi Sumé
Asia
Ancient West Asia
Mesopotamia Eridu Genesis Atra-Hasis Gilgamesh flood myth
Abrahamic religions
Genesis flood narrative (retold in Gnostic texts such as the Secret Book of John and Hypostasis of the Archons) Noah's Ark Islamic view of Noah
China
Yu the Great Nüwa Great Flood (China) Li Bing and Li Erlang: Li Bing designed a dam to control the floods in Sichuan that still stands today. Li Erlang and his sworn brother defeat the river dragon who'd caused the flood. Sinking city myth Great flood and procreation
Iran The Videvdad mentions that Ahura Mazda warns Yima that there will come a harsh winter storm followed by melted snow. Ahura Mazda advises Yima to construct a Vara (Avestan: enclosure). This he is to populate with the fittest of men and women; and with two of every animal, bird and plant; and supply with food and water gathered the previous summer. Norbert Oettinger argues that the story of Yima and the Vara was originally a flood myth, and the harsh winter was added in due to the dry nature of Eastern Iran, as floods didn't have as much of an effect as harsh winters. He has argued that the Videvdad 2.24's mention of melted water flowing is a remnant of the flood myth.
India
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. Norbert Oettinger argues that the story originally was about Yama, but that he was replaced by his brother Manu due to the social context of the authorship of the Shatapatha Brahmana. Pūluga, 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.
Indonesia Watuwe the Mystic Crocodile
Japan Japan lacks a major flood myth. The namazu is considered a creature that brings earthquakes, which in turn bring tsunamis, but they do not count as floods in a strict mythological sense. Japanese scholars in the 19th century such as Hirata Atsutane and Motoori Norinaga have used the global flood myths of other cultures to argue for the supremacy of Shinto and promote Japanese nationalism. They claimed that the fact that Japan has no flood myth showed that it was both the centre and highest point on Earth, making it the closest place on Earth to the heavens. As such, to them this demonstrates the veracity of the Japanese creation myth, where Japan comes first and foremost.
Korea Mokdoryung Namu doryeong
Malaysia Temuan Orang Seletar
Philippines Ifugao: One year, when the rainy season should have come, it did not. When the river dried up, the people dug into its grave, hoping to find the soul of the river. They struck a great spring, which angered the river gods. It began to rain and the river overflowed its banks. The resulting flood wiped out all of humanity save for two survivors, Wigan and Bugan, who repopulated the earth once the waters receded. 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."
Thailand
There are many folktales among Tai peoples, included Zhuang, Thai, Shan and Lao, talking about the origin of them and the deluge from their Thean (แถน), supreme being object of faith.
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