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All Site ContentJulius CaesarAct 1Scene 2
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"great flood"
Allusion
Act 1,
Scene 2
Lines 135-161

An explanation of the allusion to “the great flood” in Act 1, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

Cassius

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
'Brutus' and 'Caesar' — what should be in that 'Caesar'?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name.
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well.
Weigh them, it is as heavy.  Conjure with 'em,
'Brutus' will start a spirit as soon as 'Caesar'.
Now in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was famed with more than with one man?
When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walls encompassed but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.
O, you and I have heard our fathers say
There was a Brutus once that would have brooked
Th'eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
As easily as a king.

We're familiar with the story of the great flood from the Book of Genesis, but the ancient Romans would have been familiar with an earlier Greek version of the myth. In this version, Zeus created the flood to wipe out the human race because he was disgusted by the savagery of a Greek king who had conducted a human sacrifice to the gods. The god Prometheus warned his half-human son, who was then able, like Noah, to build a boat and survive the catastrophe.