Sci-Fi Noah

[CyrusGeo at netscape.net]

"Otto" <o.sell at telda.net> wrote:


>If it hasn't come to your mind immediately that Noah's job was technology
>and science it's because you've read it as a believer, which is not wrong at
>all in my opinion, but from a literary point of view it's obviously very
>early Science fiction. How many space operas are there telling the story of
>humans trying to leave a doomed Earth?

I'm with you on this. I just want to make a comment:
The story of Noah was neither the first nor the only one to mention a pre-ancient deluge which devastated earth and almost wiped out human civilization. Another one that (being Greek) immediately springs to my mind is the myth of Deucalion. There are many others, as can be seen for example in:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/ataw204.htm

I also agree with the author of the above site on his claim that: "No one can read these legends and doubt that the Flood was an historical reality." That coincides to my long-held view that, in the early days, mythology was nothing more than a comprehensive way of narrating the history of past events. This theme of human civilization almost dying (by natural disaster or by the deeds of man) and then regenerating can be found at least as early as in Hesiod and Plato (sorry, I haven't any specific references handy at the moment). So, I think that the biblical story of Noah is just an echo of older accounts and myths. The true pioneer of Sci-Fi must be Lucian of Samosata (c.120-180 A.D.)
See:
http://www.angelfire.com/on2/daviddarling/Lucian.htm

best regards
Cyrus


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