6 - Noah, Myth, and History

Summary

This chapter deals with the question of how the story of Noah begins to leave the world of history to enter the world of myth and legend. It begins with a discussion of Noah and his family within the developing field in the eighteenth century of comparative mythography. Particular attention is paid to the idea of Noah and his family as the origin of all religions in the works of Jacob Bryant. The chapter also continues the discussion started in Chapter 5 on the populating of the earth after the flood with an account of the role of Noah and his sons in the development of ‘race science’ in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is followed by a discussion of ‘the curse of Ham’ and its connection to the slave trade.