Comet/icesheet impact influence flood myths?

[+DieChecker]

Tiny balls of fungus and feces may disprove the theory that a huge space rock exploded over North America about 12,900 years ago,

http://news.national...ge-extinctions/

fungi, bug poop, and spores? Interesting stuff...

[Big Bad Voodoo]

Yes, that's the flood the ancient Egyptians believed would one day happen—and not just destroy Egypt itself but the entire world. They felt it was inevitable, but the Egyptians did not propose a date or time when it might happen. It was a nebulous threat and quite logical per their religion: life began from the waters of chaos, and some day the waters of chaos would destroy life.

It remains that the Egyptians did not write of a cataclysmic flood event in their own past, such as with Utnapishtim or Noah or the Greeks. Flood myths often involved shared oral histories passed from one society to another, but the Egyptians appear to have missed that particular meeting.

Kmt

as it was in primeval time

?

Big Bad Voodoo

[kmt_sesh]

Then Atlantis maybe a parable of sorts?

Yes, more or less. I would classify it as an allegory on Plato's part, so cormac and I are in agreement. It's an elaborate statement of hubris and the consequences of a state's arrogance. Plato had witnessed the height of Athens' arrogance, and its humiliation when Athens fell to Sparta. Atlantis is allegory, not history.

Kmt

as it was in primeval time

?

Big Bad Voodoo

I like how it's put in one of crystal sage's links:

People have become rebellious. Atum said he will destroy all he made and return the earth to the Primordial Water which was its original state. Atum will remain, in the form of a serpent, with Osiris. [

Faulkner

, plate 30] (Unfortunately the version of the papyrus with the flood story is damaged and unclear. See also

Budge

, p. ccii.)

The one exception I would make is, do not also see Budge. Sir Wallis Budge may have been considered eminent for his time, but his time passed a century ago. Much of his body of published work, which is considerable, is considered very outdated today. Budge wrote prolifically but rarely allowed colleagues to critique or edit his work prior to publishing, so there tends to be a lot of errors and mistranslations. Faulkner, on the other hand, is several universes better, and much more recent.

In any case "primeval time" or "original state" indicates the very beginnings of time, in the ancient Egyptian mind. In this time there was nothing but the roiling waters of chaos (Nun), but from these waters rose a mound of earth from which a lotus grew; from this lotus sprouted the first god: Atum. Hence, life began. There are various versions of this ancient myth of Heliopolis but they all involve a mound of creation, which would remain a fixed icon of creation in the Egyptian religion from beginning to end. And in the end Atum would destroy it all.