We all know the story of Noah's Ark. A guy is told to get on a boat with a bunch of animals and wait it out on there for forty days and forty nights. However, this version with Noah doesn't corner the market in flood myths. There are several cultures each with different flood stories.
The oldest story about a flood that pre dates the Hebrew one is in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Which is a Sumerian myth. In the Epic of Gilgamesh a man is goes to find a really old man who had survived the flood. The old man was the God Ea warned Utanpishtim that the Gods were unhappy and that he should build an ark to hold all of the "seed" of the animals in the world. In this story instead of it raining for forty days and nights it only rained for six. Here the Gods repented about what they had done they were saddened about the devastation on the earth and allowed. They allowed the floodwaters to recede.
Another interesting version of these stories is the Greco Roman one. In this story Zeus decided to punish humanity for all of the evil things that it had done. With the help of Poseidon he caused a storm. Meanwhile while Zeus was plotting the best way to go about the destruction two people Deucallion and Pyrrha consulted an oracle. This oracle warned them of the impending flood (in other versions Deucallion's dad Prometheus warns him). Before the storm hit Deucallion and Pyrrha made a boat and survived. Zeus recognized their dutifulness and allowed the floodwaters to recede. To repopulate the earth they were told, again in some versions by the oracle and in other versions by Zeus himself, that to repopulate the earth they would have to throw the bones of their Great Mother over their shoulders. Well it's not what you immediately think if your are thinking about a corpse. The Great Mother was Mother earth and her bones would there for be rocks. So Deucallion threw rocks over his shoulder and they became men and Pyrrha threw rocks over her shoulder and they became women.
Even Native Americans had stories about a great flood. From the Opi to the Apache there is some mention of a massive flood. In the Apache version it is said that before the Apaches emerged from the underworld there were other people that lived on the earth. Dios (their God) told an old man and an old woman that it would rain for forty days and nights. The people were then warned to go up to the mountains but to not look at the flood or the sky. For those that looked at the flood turned into fish and those that looked at the sky turned into birds. However, there were 24 people that survived. Of these 24 people eight went to tell the Apache's about it. (So that is how the Apaches know what happened) According to the Apache myth around the turn of the millennium the earth will once again be destroyed again but this time by fire.
