Hi Alan,
You presented a strong case that "if the most long-lived of ancient civilizations [Egypt] had no Flood legend of its own, then that is an exception that tests the rule.
I accepted your argument as I was not aware of anything to the contrary but I did have some reservations. As the account written by Moses was apparently passed down to him through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and as Jacob was a prominent ruler in Egypt and his descendants spent several hundred years there it seemed to me unreasonable that the account of the flood would not have rubbed off in one form or another.
I did a bit of research on the subject and found there are at least two Egyptian myths which could be referring to the same flood as the other flood accounts in the Near East.
The earliest myth concerns Atmu who was one of the first gods of the Egyptians. He was originally a local deity of Heliopolis and is depicted as sailing in the boat of Ra. The legend is that he let loose the waters of the great deep to overflow and drown everybody except those who were in his boat. There seems to be a link with Nu (god of the firmament and rain) as both are decribed as being father of the gods Shu and Tefnut (representing daylight and moisture respectively).
The other flood account tells how Ra, being offended with his subjects, ordered the goddesses Hathor and Sekhmet (or Sekhet) to destroy them. When the world was filled with blood Ra relented and, being unable to stop the slaughter, flooded the world with beer which the two goddesses drank and so forgot their mission. Thus mankind was saved. If this is related to the Bible account it has combined the themes of destruction, flood and drunkenness in an order and severity different to the original.
Again, according to Manetho the Egyptian historian, it was the god Thoth who set up the two columns in the Siriadic land before the Flood and inscribed the history of things past in order that the records should not be lost. Interestingly, Josephus writes in Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter II, Section 3:
"And that their [Seth's children's] inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars; the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Syriad to this day."
It would seem he has confused Seth with Thoth or else these are parallel accounts. What I do find interesting is that this pillar was apparently still standing in his day which would corroborate that the Egyptians believed a flood of some great magnitude had occurred.
In addition, there may also be a faint recollection of the flood in the hieroglyph of the Bennu bird. This was 'Bah Bahn', meaning to flood or to water, followed by three parallel wave lines, the water symbol, indicating a link with a flood account. The Bennu was an emblem of the resurrection and sacred to the Egyptians. My very limited knowledge of hieroglyphics inclines me to associate this bird with the annual Nile flood but possibly the combination of symbols suggests something greater.
I would reiterate that I consider these accounts of a flood as simply part of a larger picture and by no means conclusive proof of a global flood in themselves. Yet even if the origin of the biblical flood was limited to the flooding of the Mediterranean basin I would feel the apparent silence in Egypt inconsistent with the facts. I remain surprised there is so little but suggest Egypt is no longer an exception to the rule.
Earnest
