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In Genesis 6, the Bible gives the story of the Great Flood. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. They lived at the dawn of civilization. Ten generations separated them from the orginal inhabitants of teh earth: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. In those ten generations, man became more violent and wicked. he destroyed his environment and his brother. Nothing has ever changed since then.
Noah makes an ark out of gopher wood the length of three hundred cubit and the height of fifty cubits-about the size of the Queen Mary-maybe a bit smaller. However, establishing a shipbuilding industry inland or on a mountain, is a bit peculiar since there was no serious water nearby to accomodate the draught. Noah built. He collected the first menagerie and instituted the first floating zoological gardens. He had serious trouble teachng the elephants how to balance their bottoms off the rail, so he wouldn't have to clean the stalls. What did he do wrong? He saved his own skin. He made little or no effort to save the lives of his neighbors or interced on their behalf to turn the wrath of God. The Deluge came and the neighbors drowned. Later after the Deluge, the ark rested on Mount Ararat where Noah disembarked. He built a vineyard and got drunk, possibly from a guilty conscience. From that day to this, sobriety ends when stress begins. Hesiod related a slightly different story which is found also in Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the dawn of time, the First Age was gold. Men lived together and no one ever had a bad thought. The trees dipped their boughs whenever someone wanted siomething to eat. Life was sweet. The Second Age was Silver. Saturn fell into Death's dark country and the endless summer changed into the four seasons. Earth withheld her fruit and trees no longer bent to the whims of man. Fields were ploughed and man began to work by the sweat of his brow. Man became the master of animals, yoking the ox to his plough. Go To Page: 1 2 |
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