The coming of a great deluge that floods the entire Earth is common to many human cultures: in the Judeo-Christian world we know it best through the story of Noah in the Hebrew Scriptures. But elsewhere, the ancient Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh speaks of the gods bringing a flood to wipe out humanity. Hindu theology includes the pralaya (“dissolution”), a repeating moment over time in which the lower worlds are periodically flooded and destroyed. In Norse mythology, Odin and his brothers slay the mighty Ymir, whose blood then floods the Earth and destroys all but one of the brutal frost giants. The repetition of the Flood myth throughout human history suggests a deep and fundamental dread of death raining down - quite literally - from the skies.

The coming of a great deluge that floods the entire Earth is common to many human cultures: in the Judeo-Christian world we know it best through the story of Noah in the Hebrew Scriptures. But elsewhere, the ancient Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh speaks of the gods bringing a flood to wipe out humanity. Hindu theology includes the pralaya (“dissolution”), a repeating moment over time in which the lower worlds are periodically flooded and destroyed. In Norse mythology, Odin and his brothers slay the mighty Ymir, whose blood then floods the Earth and destroys all but one of the brutal frost giants. The repetition of the Flood myth throughout human history suggests a deep and fundamental dread of death raining down - quite literally - from the skies.