Irving Finkel

But I do believe that the story in Mesopotamia owes its inception to a disastrous flood, but nothing global, nothing that touched America or China or Birmingham.

So I don't have any sympathy with that.

But people have drilled a cause.

I'm not interested in all that stuff.

It's a literary topos of great potency, of irresistible potency, because everybody identifies with the idea of being in bed, and someone knocks on the door and says, get up, you've got to build a boat, and this is what you're going to need, and you've got to get on with it, sunshine, or we're all sunk.

I mean, what are you going to do?

The most interesting thing is this Atrahasis in the 1700 text.

He wasn't a king and he wasn't a sailor or a boat builder.

So how comes this clever God who wants to find someone to build, wouldn't you go for a look in the yellow pages for a boat building company and say, listen, fellow, I've got a deal.

No, he had to tell him, this is the blueprint.

This is the shape.

You need all this.

You need all that.

You've got to measure it and all that.

It's a very interesting thing.

It is.

It is a great myth.

That was something else.

There were three blokes who did it.

And they were specialists in reconstructing medieval Arab boats.