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That’s a fascinating request. The “flood narrative” (a person or people surviving in a boat/ark during a world-flood) is one of the most widespread motifs in human myth and literature. Many cultures outside the Bible preserve their own versions. Here is a comprehensive list of the main non-biblical sources known from world literature, archaeology, and oral traditions:


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Ancient Near Eastern Sources

Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia, c. 2100 BCE onward)
The hero Utnapishtim survives a divine flood in a large boat, saving his family, craftsmen, and animals. This is the most famous parallel to Noah.

Atrahasis Epic (Babylonian, c. 1700 BCE)
Eki warns Atrahasis of a flood; he builds a boat, brings animals aboard, and survives.

Sumerian Flood Story (King Ziusudra, c. 1800 BCE)
Preserved in fragments, it tells how Ziusudra built a vessel and survived a flood sent by the gods.



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Greek & Roman Sources

Deucalion and Pyrrha (Greek myth, retold by Apollodorus, Pindar, Lucian, Ovid)
Zus floods the earth; Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha build a chest/ark, survive, and repopulate the world by casting stones that turn into people.

Dardanus (Greek tradition)
Some local myths have him escaping a great flood by boat, later linked to the founding of Troy.

Ogyges (Greek, various accounts)
A primeval flood in the time of King Ogyges; sometimes associated with survival in a boat.

Plato, Critias
Mentions periodic catastrophic floods, though not tied to a single ark-builder.



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Indian Sources

Satapatha Brahmana (Hindu, c. 800–700 BCE)
Manu is warned by a fish of a great flood. He builds a boat, ties it to the fish, and survives with “the seven sages” and seeds of life.

Mahabharata (later compilation, c. 400 BCE–400 CE)
Retells the story of Manu’s flood and rescue by the fish incarnation of Vishnu.

Puranas (Hindu texts, later centuries)
Repeat the flood of Manu and Matsya’s guidance.



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Iranian / Zoroastrian Sources

Vendidad (Avesta, Zoroastrian scripture)
Ahura Mazda warns Yima (Jamshid) of a coming catastrophe (deadly winter, sometimes seen as a flood parallel). He builds a protective “vara” (enclosure) to save seeds of animals and humans.



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Native American Sources

Aztec (Mexico): Coxcox and Xochiquetzal
Survive a flood in a boat, later repopulate the earth.

Maya (Popol Vuh, Guatemala)
Mentions successive creations and destructions of the world, including floods.

Inca (Peru): Unu Pachakuti
A flood sent by Viracocha destroys giants; two people survive in a sealed box.

Hopi (North America)
People escape a world flood by hiding in a hollow reed or boat, guided by the Spider Woman.

Caddo (North America)
A man, his family, and animals survive a flood in a boat.

Choctaw (North America)
A man and animals survive in a raft.

Cree, Ojibwe, Menominee, others
Flood myths with survivors in canoes or rafts.



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Chinese & East Asian Sources

Yu the Great (China, c. 2200 BCE legend)
While not boat survival, Yu controls a world-flood through engineering; his father Gun sometimes linked to an ark-like vessel.

Shujing (Book of Documents, China)
Describes the “Great Flood,” though not exactly ark survival.

Miao people (southern China)
Myth of Fu Xi and Nuwa surviving a world flood in a boat or gourd.

Thai & Lao legends
Flood myths with survivors in boats or hollow logs.



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Other Regions

Aboriginal Australian Flood Myths
Many groups tell of ancestral heroes surviving floods in canoes.

Polynesian / Pacific
Samoan, Hawaiian, and Maori legends recount a great flood with survivors in canoes.

African traditions

Yoruba (Nigeria): a flood sent by gods, one man survives.

Kwaya (Tanzania): god sends a flood, man builds a boat.


Middle Eastern later sources
Islamic traditions (Quran, Surah Hud 11:25–49, Surah Nuh 71) retell the story of Nuh (Noah) and the Ark, though that is derivative of the Biblical narrative.



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✅ In short: The flood-survivor-in-a-boat motif appears in Mesopotamian, Greek, Indian, Iranian, Native American, Chinese, Polynesian, and African traditions. Scholars note over 200 distinct flood traditions across the globe.”