The Kershaw Chair of Eastern Mediterranean Studies and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to a talk by Adam Miglio (Wheaton College) on Thursday, January 25 at 4:00 pm in Kaplan 365.

The lecture, titled Reconnaisance-Birds and Celestial Signs in the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis Flood Accounts, will explore similarities between the Flood stories in the Gilgamesh Epic and the book of Genesis that have piqued scholarly curiosity over the past century. A conspicuous similarity in the two stories is an account of three birds released by the lone survivor of the Flood to determine if the floodwaters were subsiding. This lecture examines Mesopotamian divinatory texts and astrological compendia to demonstrate that the birds from the Gilgamesh Epic are celestial symbols that explain the seasonal patterns of ancient Mesopotamian life. Additionally, it explores how the Israelite Flood account adopts and adapts the significance of these reconnaissance birds from the Gilgamesh Epic in its retelling of this event.

This talk is co-sponsored by Global Antiquity and the Center for the Study of Religion