1. The Descent of Tonpa Shenrab Miwo at Khyunglung Ngulkhar

Legendary date: ca. 16017 BCE (Bon traditional chronology)

Region: Olmo Lungring → Mount Kailash → Khyunglung Ngulkhar (western Tibet, the land of Zhangzhung)

[Myth] Bon tradition tells that in the remotest past, Tonpa Shenrab Miwo (ston pa gshen rab mi bo) set out from the sacred land of Olmo Lungring ('ol mo lung ring), passed Mount Kailash, and descended at Khyunglung Ngulkhar (khyung lung dngul mkhar, the "Silver Palace of the Khyung"), where he founded and spread the Bon teaching across the snowy plateau. In some modern retellings, the khyung bird he rides is described as a "metallic-gleaming flame khyung," and Khyunglung Ngulkhar is even called a kind of "alien base."

[Scholarship] The date of ca. 16017 BCE belongs to Bon's traditional religious chronology (the shen-year dating system) — a faith-based time reckoning, not historical evidence; scholars generally place the organized formation of Bon in the 7th–11th centuries CE. The "metallic-gleaming flame khyung" and the "alien base" are both modern reinterpretations: earlier dedicated research has confirmed there is no verifiable basis for them in traditional Bon texts.

2. The Sumerian King List: Kings Before the Flood

Legendary date: Before the Flood (241,200 years of mythic reign); before ca. 2900 BCE

Region: Mesopotamia

[Myth] The Sumerian King List opens with the declaration: "Kingship descended from heaven." Before the Flood, eight kings ruled in five cities for 241,200 years — Alulim of Eridu for 28,800 years, Alalgar for 36,000 years, and so on, a succession of semi-divine kings. Then the list turns on a single sentence: "The Flood swept over everything."

[Scholarship] The fullest surviving tablets of the King List date to the Ur III–Isin period. The enormously long reigns are a literary device sacralizing kingship. Notably, flood deposits around ca. 2900 BCE do appear in the strata of Shuruppak and other Sumerian sites, and some scholars see in them a possible real-world kernel of the Flood legend — though matching the myth to any single flood remains hypothetical.

3. Zep Tepi, the "First Time"

Legendary date: The primeval before dynastic rule

Region: Egypt

[Myth] The ancient Egyptians called the primeval before dynastic history "Zep Tepi" — the "First Time." In that golden age when gods and humans dwelt together, gods such as Horus ruled directly on earth, the world not yet eroded by time, everything in perfect beginning. Every pharaonic coronation and every temple foundation was a reenactment of the First Time.

[Scholarship] "Zep Tepi" is a key Egyptological concept, literally "the first occasion." Pyramid Texts and temple inscriptions return to it again and again. It is not a locatable historical date but the archetypal time of Egyptian cosmology — the source of all order.

4. The Book of the Heavenly Cow: Sekhmet's Slaughter of Mankind

Legendary date: The end of Ra's reign on earth (primeval divine age)

Region: Egypt

[Myth] Painted on the ceilings of Valley of the Kings tombs, the Book of the Heavenly Cow tells how, near the end of Ra's rule among humans, mankind conspired against him. Ra sent his "Eye" — the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet — to punish them. She reveled in the killing; blood flowed like rivers, and mankind was nearly exterminated. Ra ordered 7,000 jars of beer brewed overnight and dyed blood-red; the drunken goddess finally relented, and the slaughter ended.

[Scholarship] The Book of the Heavenly Cow is a New Kingdom funerary text on the theme of "divine wrath and mercy." Sekhmet embodies both plague and war and healing protection — a duality of destruction and shelter typical of Egyptian religion.

Note: entries 2, 3, and 4 above (the antediluvian kings, Zep Tepi, and the Book of the Heavenly Cow) all belong to a "primeval divine age." Their relative order cannot really be compared; the sequence here is only indicative.

5. The Sumerian Flood

Legendary date: ca. 2900 BCE

Region: Southern Mesopotamia

[Myth] The oldest surviving flood myth. The gods, annoyed by mankind's noise, decided to wipe out humanity with a flood. The water god Enki could not bear it and secretly warned the pious king (Ziusudra in the Eridu Genesis), telling him to tear down his reed house and build a boat, loading it with "the seed of all living things." After the storm raged for seven days and seven nights, he released a raven to test the waters; when they receded he offered sacrifice, the gods gathered at the sweet savor, and granted him immortality in the "land across."

[Scholarship] The story appears in the Eridu Genesis (tablets ca. 1600 BCE) and the Atrahasis Epic, later absorbed and reworked in Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Flood deposits around ca. 2900 BCE are archaeologically attested in Mesopotamia, but tying the myth to a specific flood remains hypothetical.

6. Manu and the Fish

Legendary date: The remote past of Vedic myth (no fixed date)

Region: India

[Myth] The Shatapatha Brahmana tells how Manu, washing his hands one morning, found a tiny fish in his palm begging: "Rear me, and I will save you." Grown great, the fish warned him — a flood would drown all creatures. Manu built a ship and tied its cable to the fish's horn. When the deluge came, the giant fish (later understood as Matsya, the avatar of Vishnu) towed the ship through towering waves all the way to the northern mountains. After the waters receded, Manu recreated mankind through austerity and sacrifice.

[Scholarship] This is the Indian version of the flood myth; the fish later entered Vishnu's ten avatars as the first. Its resemblance to the Mesopotamian flood stories is attributed by scholars either to the diffusion of a Near Eastern motif or to independently formed flood memories — no consensus exists.

7. Gonggong Strikes Mount Buzhou; Nugua Mends the Sky

Legendary date: ca. 2500 BCE (the age of the Five Emperors)

Region: China

[Myth] The Huainanzi records: the water god Gonggong, defeated in his struggle for the throne against Zhuanxu, flew into a rage and rammed Mount Buzhou, the pillar of heaven. The pillar snapped, the earth's cords broke — the sky tilted to the northwest, the earth sank to the southeast, and celestial fire and flood ravaged together. Nugua then smelted five-colored stones to patch the sky, cut the legs of the giant ao turtle to set up the four corners, slew the black dragon to save Jizhou, and piled reed ash to dam the flooding waters. The sky was mended, the four corners set right, the floods receded, and the people dwelt in peace.

[Scholarship] This is China's version of the "collapsed sky — goddess restores" myth. Mount Buzhou belongs to the mythic geography of the Kunlun range; "mending the sky with smelted stones" resonates with the restoration motif found in many civilizations. The story reached its literary form in the Han dynasty, but its core motifs are likely older.

8. Noah's Ark

Legendary date: Traditionally ca. 2348 BCE

Region: The Ararat region (legendary)

[Myth] Genesis 6–9: seeing that human wickedness filled the earth, God resolved to send a flood for forty days and forty nights. The righteous Noah built the ark of gopher wood, three hundred cubits long, as commanded, boarding it with his family of eight and pairs of every animal. The waters covered even the high mountains; when they receded, Noah sent out a dove, which returned with an olive leaf, and the ark rested on Mount Ararat. After disembarking Noah offered sacrifice, and God set the rainbow as covenant: "Never again shall a flood destroy all flesh."

[Scholarship] The Noah story shows clear literary kinship with the Mesopotamian flood myths (Atrahasis, Gilgamesh) — the Near Eastern flood motif in Hebrew form. "Forty days and nights" is the Bible's formulaic number for a complete period of trial. The 2348 BCE date comes from Archbishop Ussher's 17th-century biblical chronology, not archaeology.

9. Yu the Great Tames the Flood

Legendary date: Traditionally ca. 2070 BCE

Region: The Yellow River basin

[Myth] In the age of Yao and Shun, floods "embraced the mountains and overflowed the hills." Gun was charged with controlling them; his method of blocking and damming failed for nine years, and Shun had him executed at Feather Mountain. His son Yu took up the work, switching to dredging and channeling — opening the nine provinces, clearing the nine waterways, "thirteen years passing his own door three times without entering." With the floods subdued, Shun yielded the throne to Yu, who founded the Xia — the first dynasty of Chinese legend.

[Scholarship] The Yu legend connects to collective memories of Yellow River flooding. The Erlitou site (ca. 1750–1500 BCE) is taken by some scholars as the archaeological counterpart of Xia culture, but the Xia's status as a historical dynasty remains debated — the classic case for the "double evidence" method in Chinese historiography.

10. Sodom and Gomorrah

Legendary date: Traditionally ca. 2000 BCE

Region: The southern Dead Sea shore (legendary)

[Myth] Genesis 19: for the grave wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, God resolved to overthrow the two cities. Angels led Lot's family out, warning them not to look back. Then brimstone and fire rained from heaven; the cities and all the plain's produce were overthrown. Lot's wife looked back as they fled and became a pillar of salt.

[Scholarship] Destroyed Middle Bronze Age cities are archaeologically attested around the Dead Sea (e.g., Bab edh-Dhra), and some scholars have tried to match them with the legend, but the evidence is thin. The pillar-of-salt image belongs to the jagged salt-rock landscape of the Dead Sea shore — local nature entering legend.

11. The Flood of Deucalion

Legendary date: ca. 1500 BCE (the Greek Bronze Age)

Region: Greece

[Myth] Greek myth tells how Zeus, seeing mankind's corruption — King Lycaon of Arcadia even served him human flesh — resolved to cleanse the world with a flood. Deucalion, son of Prometheus, heeding his father's warning, built a great chest (some say a ship) and drifted with his wife Pyrrha for nine days and nine nights until it rested on Mount Parnassus. Asking the oracle of Themis how to recreate mankind, they received a riddle: "Throw the bones of your mother behind you." Understanding "mother" as Mother Earth, they threw stones — and the stones became new humans (a wordplay on Greek laas, "stone," and laos, "people").

[Scholarship] The Deucalion myth is the Near Eastern flood motif in Greek form; its literary shape dates to the Hellenistic period, though the motif may be older. "Stones into people" makes an interesting contrast with Mesopotamia's "clay into people." The ca. 1500 BCE range corresponds roughly to Mycenaean Bronze Age Greece.

12. The Three Cities of Tripura

Legendary date: The remote past of Puranic myth (no fixed date)

Region: The three worlds of Indian myth — heaven, atmosphere, earth

[Myth] The Puranas tell of Tripura — three flying cities of gold, silver, and iron wandering the three worlds, seized by a host of asuras who used them for evil. The gods were helpless and begged the great Shiva to act. Shiva made the earth his chariot, the sun and moon his wheels, Brahma his driver, and fitted a single divine arrow gathering the power of all gods. One shot — and the three cities burned together. Hence Shiva's name Tripurantaka, "Destroyer of the Three Cities."

[Scholarship] The Tripura myth is a key theological narrative of Shaivism, symbolizing the god's final judgment over evil in the three worlds. "Flying cities" recur in Indian epic tradition (e.g., Lanka in the Ramayana) and belong to the same motif family as the ancient vimana flying-craft legends.

13. The Aztec "Fourth Sun"

Legendary date: The mythic remote past (before the present era)

Region: Mexico

[Myth] The cosmic history carved on the Aztec Sun Stone records five eras of suns: the First Sun, "Jaguar Sun," ended when its people were devoured by jaguars descending from the sky; the Second Sun, "Wind Sun," was blown out by hurricanes; the Third Sun, "Rain of Fire Sun," was consumed by celestial fire; the Fourth Sun, "Water Sun," was drowned in a great flood. Ours is the Fifth Sun, "Earthquake Sun" — destined to perish in a great earthquake.

[Scholarship] The "Five Suns" are the core of Aztec calendrical cosmology, akin to the Maya Long Count's world cycles. Each sun's length relates to multiples of the 52-year Calendar Round, reflecting the cyclical view of time typical of Mesoamerican civilization rather than a linear creation history.

14. The Destruction of the Wooden People in the Popol Vuh

Legendary date: The mythic remote past at creation's beginning

Region: Mesoamerica (Maya)

[Myth] The Quiche Maya sacred book Popol Vuh records the gods' second attempt at making people: they carved "wooden people" from wood. But the wooden people had no minds — they could not speak, honored no gods, knew no prayer. The gods grew angry and sent a rain of resin and a flood; worse, the wooden people's own pots and pans, grinding stones, and dogs rose up against their masters. The survivors fled into the deep forest and became monkeys.

[Scholarship] The Popol Vuh is the Quiche Maya creation epic, recorded in Latin script in the 16th century. The "rebellion of household objects" and "turning into monkeys" are distinctive Mesoamerican motifs, rooted in the Maya idea that only beings with souls and language count as fully human — exactly what the wooden people lacked.

Conclusion

From Mesopotamia to India, from China to Greece and Egypt, and on to Mesoamerica, the flood is a motif shared by nearly all civilizations: the gods send disaster because of human "noise," "corruption," or "mindlessness"; a righteous or wise figure builds a vessel and survives; birds test the waters; sacrifice is offered; humanity is rebuilt. Yet the details differ everywhere: Sumer complains of "noise," the Hebrew tradition stresses "moral corruption," the Maya speak of "mindless irreverence" — and China's Yu turns the flood itself into the founding legend of water control and dynasty building. Whether the universality of the flood motif comes from sublimated memories of real floods in each civilization, or from the cross-cultural diffusion of the motif, is precisely what makes comparative mythology so fascinating.

Main Sources

• Sumerian King List: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_King_List
• Zep Tepi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zep_Tepi
• Book of the Heavenly Cow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Heavenly_Cow
• Eridu Genesis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eridu_Genesis
• Matsya: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsya
• Nuwa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCwa
• Noah's Ark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah%27s_Ark
• Yu the Great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_the_Great
• Deucalion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deucalion
• Tripura (mythology): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripura_(mythology)
• Five Suns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Suns
• Popol Vuh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh
• Lemuria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria
• Mu (lost continent): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(mythical_lost_continent)