History
About 20,000 years ago, when the Second Host of the alien Celestials caused the Great Cataclysm that resulted in the sinking of the continents of Lemuria and Atlantis,[1] Utnapishtim built a great wooden vessel to save himself, his family, some other humans and a variety of wildlife.[2] This ark was guided to a mountain top which jutted from the waters by the Eternal known as Ikaris. Since Ikaris was flying and seen from a distance, the humans he had saved mistook him for some kind of bird (presumably a dove).[3]
In recent years, while in the City of the Space Gods just after the arrival of the Fourth Host, Ikaris told Dr. Daniel Damien and his daughter Margo about how the Celestials had caused the sinking of Lemuria and how he had guided a great wooden vessel with its cargo of humans and wildlife to safety. When he mentioned that the humans had mistaken him for a bird, Dr. Damien concluded that Ikaris had lived at the time of the Flood and had seen the Ark.[3]
Sometime later, Dr. Sam Holden gave lectures in which he recounted how the few humans who had escaped the destruction of Lemuria had done so in a large wooden vessel. Those survivors were eventually cast upon new shores and brought with them memories of horrible demons and rescuing gods and hope for the future.[4]
While recounting the Saga of the Serpent Crown to an unseen audience, Uatu the Watcher revealed that he had observed the Great Cataclysm during which Lemuria and Atlantis had sunk beneath the seas, and had also watched as Ikaris had guided a huge ark filled with human beings and wildlife to safety.[1]
During the brief time that they served together in the Avengers, Gilgamesh once told Captain America the story of how Utnapishtim had built an ark that he had used to save himself, his family and some wildlife from the flood caused by the sinking of Lemuria and her sister continents by the Celestials. Gilgamesh had thought it was quite funny that the humans had mistaken Ikaris for a bird.[2]Notes
- When this story was first told by Ikaris in Eternals #2, Dr. Damien's assumption that Ikaris had been describing the the Flood and the Ark from the Genesis flood narrative was not questioned. However, the name of Noah was never mentioned in that story or in the next two comics in which it was retold. Instead, the fourth telling in Captain America Annual #11 revealed that the ark guided by Ikaris had actually been built by Utnapishtim and not the Biblical Noah.
- So far, Noah's Ark has only appeared in Marvel religious comics (like Bible Tales for Young Folk #1) or supernatural comics (like the story from the Bible that Caretaker recalled in Ghost Rider (Vol. 6) #33). Whether or not that particular vessel existed in the Marvel Universe as anything more than part of stories from the Abrahamic religions has never been established.
See Also
- 3 appearance(s) of Utnapishtim's Ark
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Utnapishtim's Ark
- 2 image(s) of Utnapishtim's Ark