Why is the 'Great Flood' the Key Dividing Line Between Divine Rule and Demigod Rule?

Okay, let's talk about this fascinating topic. You can think of the "Great Flood" as a massive "system reset" that fundamentally changed the rules of the game between the "gods" and humans on Earth.

Why is the 'Great Flood' the Key Dividing Line Between Divine Rule and Demigod Rule?

To understand this, we need to break the story into three parts: Before the Flood, During the Flood, and After the Flood.

1. Before the Flood: The Era When Gods "Ran the Show Directly"

Imagine a long, long time ago, Earth was like a newly founded company.

Who were the rulers? The "gods" (like the Anunnaki in Sumerian myth). They were the founders and first-generation CEOs, directly managing the Earth project.
Where's the evidence? The most famous evidence is the Sumerian King List. This ancient list records the successive kings of Sumer. You'll notice a very strange phenomenon: the kings before the flood reigned for terrifyingly long periods, often tens of thousands of years! For example, the first king, Alulim, reigned for 28,800 years; another king, En-men-lu-ana, reigned for 43,200 years.
What does this mean? Normal humans obviously couldn't live that long. Therefore, these "kings" were likely not "humans" as we understand them today, but the long-lived "gods" themselves. They descended directly to Earth, established cities (like Eridu, the first city mentioned in the King List), and ruled personally. This period was pure divine rule. The gods were kings, and the kings were gods.

2. During the Flood: A Deliberate "Formatting"

Over time, this "big company" ran into problems.

What was the problem? According to ancient texts (like the Epic of Atrahasis), humans were created as laborers for the gods. But humans multiplied too quickly, their numbers grew too large, and they were constantly noisy, disturbing the gods in heaven (especially the chief god Enlil), who couldn't even sleep.
The gods' decision? Enlil felt this "workforce" was too difficult to manage and decided to simply "purge" them all – that is, unleash a great flood to "format" the Earth and be done with it.
Internal conflict: But not all gods agreed. Another great god, Enki, who was primarily responsible for creating humans, felt they were his creation and couldn't bear to see them wiped out. So, he secretly found a good man named Ziusudra (the prototype for Noah in the later Bible) and instructed him to build a great boat to preserve the seed of humanity and various creatures.

Therefore, the Great Flood was not a simple natural disaster, but a god-directed, purposeful event aimed at "resetting" Earth's civilization.

3. After the Flood: The Era of Gods "Stepping Back" and Installing Proxies

The floodwaters receded, and the world restarted. A new relationship was established between the gods and the surviving humans.

The new ruling model: The gods realized they still needed humans to farm, perform rituals, and manage the land. But they no longer wanted to manage everything directly and exhaustively as before. So, they adopted a new model: theocratic rule.
- Gods no longer ruled as kings themselves. Instead, they selected humans with "divine blood" as their earthly representatives. These representatives were the descendants of demigods.
Where's the evidence again? Look back at the Sumerian King List. The kings recorded after the flood show drastically shortened reigns! Although some initially lasted hundreds or even over a thousand years (like Gilgamesh's father, Lugalbanda), compared to the tens of thousands of years before the flood, this was within the realm of "mortals." This indicates the "divinity" of the rulers was significantly diluted.
Key figure: The most iconic example is the famous Gilgamesh. According to the epic, he was "two-thirds divine, one-third human." He possessed superhuman strength and wisdom, but he was also destined to face death. His life was a constant struggle against the mortal fate brought by his "one-third humanity."
The new rules: The kings of this period derived their legitimacy to rule from "divine mandate." They were the bridge between gods and humans. They managed humans on behalf of the gods, while humans served the gods through offerings and rituals. This structure of "gods in heaven, kings on earth" became the core of ancient political systems for millennia.

To Summarize

So, we can understand it simply like this:

Before the Great Flood: This was the era when "gods" ruled directly as kings on Earth. The rulers were pure gods with extremely long lifespans – Divine Rule.
The Great Flood: This was a "system reset" initiated by the gods to solve the problem of overpopulation and re-establish order.
After the Great Flood: This was the era when "gods" stepped back into the background, installing descendants of "demigods" as proxy rulers. The rulers possessed divinity but were essentially closer to humans, with significantly shortened lifespans. This marks the beginning of Demigod Rule (or Theocratic Rule).

Therefore, the Great Flood acts like a massive watershed. It marks the transfer of rulership from the hands of pure "gods" to the hands of "divine descendants" or "divine proxies," fundamentally altering the political relationship and interaction between gods and humans.