Yet another personal page - In the Myths of Creation

In the Myths of Creation

Stories
  Flying
  In the Myths of Creation
  Your husband has been killed
  Invasion by the American pumpkin
  Travel back in time
  The story of us

96-03-20 Table of Contents

Preface (top)
I am interested in many things. I enjoy doing the examples we have for mathematics homework, I also like languages. I am interested in ancient Egypt and very interested in all kinds of religion.
It was my interest in religion that led me into the realm of cosmogonic myths, the myths around the world that deal with the creation of all things. To write the report in English was not a hard choice as I wanted to practise my English and keep it alive.
To write a report like this one means that you have to plan your time and I have done it like this. Firstly I went to the school library then to the town library and I have also used some books from the University of Luleå library. The second thing to do is then to find several versions of the myth and write them down along with any comments you may have. Finding the myths wasn't very difficult, what was difficult was to decide which myths to keep and which I had to omit from the report. After that I read about myths in general, what kind of myths there are and examples of them all.
I feel I must say something about my voluminous bibliography. I have used all the books listed in some way. It may have been for the different versions of the myths or just some general information that I've found there, but I have read only a few of them in their entirety.

In this report I intend to compare five of these myths and try to find some common answers, if indeed there are any. I will try to find thoughts that are similar. As they reflect what people have thought of their own coming into being, it will not be too surprising if I find similarities- even in those myths that come from the most far-off places, because we have seen proof that people all over the world think alike with the pyramids and sun worship in both Egypt and what is now Mexico. That could make us suspect that in matters of creation myths they also thought alike. Humans have never been stupid, the only reason we have survived throughout the ages has been our brain.
I believe that there is only one answer, and to get there you have to stop at certain points. These points are also the same all over the world. Just as in a mathematical example there is only one correct answer with several options on the way, but with some important thoughts that you must hit upon on the way - or else you'll never get there.

Everyone may not agree with me, but I shall try my best to elaborate my theory. So, without further ado I present to you my work
In The Myths of Creation.

Myths as explanations ? (top)
Humans have always wondered why they were put on this earth, and that is a problem still. When you deal with cosmogonic myths what must always be at the forefront is that these myths were once believed by people to be the truth - and indeed, some still are.
So you mustn't take these myths lightly. It is never good to take peoples faith and ridicule it in front of them. Although that is hardly the case with this report. Still, I must take them seriously and try to see it as the believers did.

Myths are what gives meaning and content to our being. They are stories of divine happenings and beings that have a basic significance to human life.
By definition myths are stories or legends about gods. I cannot get away from the fact that however I look at myths they always seem to be explanations. Myths were conjured up as explanations to why we are. As explanations as to what the earth is, what we are, how the earth was made, how we were made, why we were made, who made us and the earth.
According to the Biblical myth Jehovah made humans to rule the fish in the seas, the fowl in the skies and the beast of the land. In Babylonian myth humans were made to worship the gods and build their temples. In China we were made as companions to a lonely goddess.
Myhts are different from traditional sagas and legends as they are placed in a different time from ours. They do not begin "Once upon a time..." but rather "In the beginning..." or "Before heaven and earth..."

Mesopotamia
- the land between the two rivers (top)
Babylon was originally known as Sumer later as Sumer and Akkad and later still as Mesopotamia. It lay, as one of the first civilisations, nestled between the two great rivers of Tigris and Euphrates. Their chief deity was the omnipotent god Marduk(1), son of Ea.

The Myth:

When the sky was not yet named and the ocean below was nameless only Apsu, the Abyss, and Tiamat, Chaos, existed. From their mingled waters came forth Mummu, "The Tumult of the Waves", and the serpents Lakhmu and Lakhamu. The two of them gave birth to the primeval gods - Anshar(2) and Kishar. Anshar and Kishar in turn gave birth to Anu, "Lofty", Ea, god of sweet waters, earth and wisdom, the hero god Marduk, the Igigi, that would reign in heaven, and the Anunnake, who lived in the underworld in competition with the Igigi.
All this new creation angered the abyss, Apsu, who went to his wife Tiamat to complain. He declared that "...he could get no rest during the day and no sleep at night" At this they argued and Apsu declared that he would destroy all the offspring.
Luckily for all the new gods Ea overheard this quarrel and captured and killed Apsu. Tiamat then gathered a host of gods and gave birth to many new monsters. One of these monsters was called Kingu, and she made him her consort.
Ea went to talk with his father Anshar, who sent his first son Anu to subjugate Tiamat. But he was too weak and fled before her awesome powers. Anshar then sent Ea, who overheard the argument, but he didn't do better than his brother. So after two of his sons failed, Anshar sent Marduk, the hero god, to rout the Chaos.
Marduk fared better and managed to kill Tiamat's consort Kingu. Tiamat raged at this and a mighty battle ensued between her and Marduk. Marduk finally outsmarted and killed Tiamat, and out of the blood of Kingu the first man was created and from Tiamat's body heaven and earth were formed.
To get powerful enough to kill Tiamat, Marduk had to be given the power of all the other gods, so after he defeated Tiamat, Marduk was the omnipotent god of Babylon. As he was now the omnipotent god he needed someplace to live - so, as a tribute, the Anunnake built him the city of Babylon.

This story was created after the fact that Marduk became the most important Babylonian god and drawn up in the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian cosmogonic myth, during the reign of the king Nebuckadrezzar I in the 12th century BC. Enuma Elish are actually the first words of this epic and mean "When on high...". Why then was it written after Marduk was declared the King of gods? From what I can glean it was to justify his taking over after the more traditional gods of Babylon. So in effect the Enuma Elish is a justification of sorts for an originally foreign deity to become the highest revered in the country.

Norse Mythology
- where ice and fire meets (top)
When you think of the Vikings you don't often think of religiosity or piety. But religion and myths were a very strong influence in their daily life. The Vikings lived in constant fear of and longing for death. Like every man on earth they feared death, but their religion told them that the warriors who died in battle would come to the Hall of the gods to feast with Thor and Odin and all other Aesir gods to the end of times.

What we know of Norse mythology come mostly from the Voluspa and the two Eddas - the Elder and Poetic. What Snorri Sturlasson wrote in his Edda is thought to be only a reconstruction of the ancient oral myths, but his writings are all that is left from those times, so they are the best source and here is, slightly abbreviated, what the Norse thought happened at creation.

The Myth:

"In the beginning there was neither sky nor earth, no sand nor sea nor green grass only Ginnungagap(3) - a big emptiness that held a potential creation force - existed."
After some time masses of ice were formed as ice-cold waters from the cold region of fog - Nifelhem - flowed forth. Eventually the northern part of Ginnungagap was covered with ice, snow and bitter cold.
In the southern parts of the void, Muspelhem was home of fire, sparks and heat. Sparks and embers from the south flew across the void and met the cold masses of the north and where they met the drops made a creature. Where they met the giant Ymir was created. Ymir was the ancestral father of all giants, or "Vanir" as they were called.
The cow Audhumbla, who fed Ymir with her milk, was created from the vapours when warm and cold met. From the ice she licked forth the body of Bure, the Aesir ancestor.
From Ymir's armpits one man and one woman sprang, the human ancestors and from his feet two giants were formed. These giants were called Rimtursar.
The large man Bure had a son, Bur, with a female giant and he in turn had three sons - Odin, Vile and Ve the first Aesir gods
The three gods Odin, Vile and Ve conspired and killed Ymir. His gushing blood, drowning all the Rimtursars but one, was enough for all the oceans, seas and lakes.
Out of Ymir's blood as water, legs as mountains, meat as earth, skull as heaven, brain as clouds, teeth as rocks; eyebrows as borders between men, gods and giants and hair and beard as forests and grass the three gods created a habitable earth.
The stars in the sky are sparks from Muspelhem. Some were given specific positions and some were put into orbits and that is how the sun and the moon were made.
The first two humans, Ask and Embla were given life by the trinity that killed Ymir. Odin, Vile and Ve one day found two logs on the shore, the Voluspa tells, and they were without spirit, judgement, and sound. Odin gave the two, Ask and Embla, spirit, life. Vile gave them judgement, understanding and movement and Ve gave them features, sound, the senses, names and clothes

Ymir is to be compared to Tiamat, in her function as the original ancestor and the stuff the world is made from. In this myth the creating force is ice and fire. This has to do, I think, with the fact that it was first told in Iceland where the geysers and the glaciers are plentiful as well as the naturally warm springs. The mother-figure of the cow can potentially be interesting, and had I chosen to examine the Indian myth it would definitely be interesting, as it tells of a cow-goddess that seem to have a connection to the Norse Audhumbla.

Christianity (top)
Christianity is normally what we westerners think of when we say religion, and it, like all religions, has its share of myths and legends.
In this case the cosmogonic myth isn't hard to locate - it begins on page one of the Holy Bible in the first book of Moses, called Genesis.

The Myth:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." This is how the Bible begins, and from there it tells of how God created all things on earth.
On the first day he spoke to make light and then made day and night to separate the dark from the light. On the second day he made heaven to separate the waters above the "firmament" from that below.
The third day he made dry land by gathering the waters in the seas. He also made grass, herbs and trees to grow on the land. The fourth day God put the sun and moon in the sky to divide the night from the day, to make the seasons and for signs. He also put the stars in the firmament.
On the fifth day of creation God made life appear in the waters and fowl to fly in the sky and He ordered them to multiply. On the sixth day God made the beasts of the earth and then, his crowning achievement, man in his own image. These first two humans, Adam and Eve, were to rule over the fish in the sea, the fowl of the air and over every living thing on the earth. And as food for all animals God gave them the plants and herbs. The seventh day He sanctified as He rested on the seventh day of creation.

There is nothing particularly special about this cosmogonic myth. There is a creator, an all-powerful God, and his biggest feat was creating man. What could be interesting is that the order in which all living things are made are about the same as the order in which the species developed in our modern day creation myth - Darwinism and natural evolution. I find that oddly funny considering the contention the church had and still has with Darwinism.

Chinese Cosmogony (top)
The Chinese and all Orientals have a reputation of being a philosophical and quite spiritual people. Is this then true? I don't think they are more spiritual than the rest of mankind. They are, after all, not the only people to wonder about the creation of everything. I believe that there is, or has been, as many different cosmogonies as there are peoples on this earth. And the Chinese is simply one among them.

The myth:

"Before heaven and earth all that existed was the cosmic hen's egg from which Panku emerged." Panku was inside the egg for 18.000 years and he grew 10 feet a day. After 18.000 years the egg cracked and from the division of the contents of the egg flowed Yin(4) and Yang(5). Earth was formed from the heavy, impenetrable, elements while the light, clear, elements became the sky. On the newly formed earth Panku spent 18.000 years trying to keep heaven and earth separate and still he grew, 10 feet every day, until he was 45.000.000 meters high.
When Panku finally died his body became the natural elements of this world. His left eye became the sun, his right the moon. Of his hair the stars were made, the sweat became dew. Night and day is now the opening and shutting of Panku's eyes. Of his breath was winds and clouds formed and his voice became the resounding thunder. His upper and lower extremities became the five famous mountains(6) and the ends of the world. His blood changed into rivers and streams, the roads across the land were made of his veins and tendons. The fertile fields were his flesh. Panku's skin and body hair were metamorphosed into grass and trees. His teeth and bones became the metallic minerals and rocks. And pearls and jade finally were made from his semen and marrow.
Humans were created by the goddess Nüwa. One day when the whimsical goddess was bored she took some clay and formed figures which she gave life. She found that it took much too long to form every single one by hand so she took a stick and dipped it in the mud. What she then did was spin the stick in the air and when clots of mud hit the ground they became another person.

What could then be said of the Chinese myth? Well as all myths nature is always a part of it and the Chinese say that Panku's sacrificed body gives the earth its splendour and majesty. Even if that isn't the work of great thinkers it is still very true that the earth is truly magnificent.

Egyptian beginnings (top)
In Egypt there were many gods and probably every village had their own deity and they also had their own cosmogonic myth. That could be a problem but luckily isn't, as the myths are all quite alike but for the name of the first deity. In Egyptian, as in so many other myths, water plays an important part of the beginning.

The myth:

"In the beginning of times all was a chaotic water called Nun." Darkness and silence ruled. But in this watery chaos there were the forces of; chaos - Nun and Naunet, dark - Kek and Keket, power - Amon and Amaunet and boundlessness - Heh and Heket. These eight deities were known to Egyptians as the Ogdoad. Together they made the primordial Egg from which the creator(7) was to come. His name was Ra.
From the waters a bank of solid ground rose, just as it does in Egypt after the flooding of the Nile, and on this first dry land the spirit could assume a shape. When the sun, Ra, for the first time rose from the chaos bringing light there was order in the universe and time began. In the shape of the Fenix-bird Ra landed of the strip of land and his cry was the first sound to break the silence of creation.
During all his time in the depths of Nun, the creator knew he was alone. This loneliness became difficult to live with so in his thoughts the creator made the gods and everything in existence, and by naming them he gave them life.
The first gods he made were Shu and Tefnut the god and goddess of air. The two gods Ged (the earth) and Nut (the sky) were the next couple to be made. To keep Ged and Nut separate Shu and Tefnut stood on the earth and held up the sky. Over all this Ra ruled as supreme lord.
At one point Ra had lost his daughter and son, Shu and Tefnut, and he sent one of his eyes to search for them and when he was reunited with them he wept tears of joy and from those tears men came to be(8). However they were created, he gave all the beings he had made Egypt to live in and the Nile to enable the land to bring forth harvests.

Every day that the sun rose in the morning, travelled across the sky and set again at night the process of making order in the universe repeated. The Egyptians had a myth that told of the great evil serpent that swallowed the sun each night. During the night they fought and the sun defeated the serpent again every morning, bringing light and order to earth.
The Egyptian mythology is quite immense, for a nation that had existed without interruption for almost three thousand years, that is not so startling. Their myths surrounding death were much more extensive that those concerning the beginning of everything, for a life-loving people that may seem a little odd, but the beginning had already happened, there was nothing you could do about it, while death was ahead and the Egyptians believed that you could influence what happened to you after death.

Comparison (top)
What I said in the beginning of this work is quite congruent with the results I have got. The myths all begin quite alike. Whether it is "In the beginning of times..." or "Before heaven and earth.." they are not much different. They have all told of a time when there was chaos and nothing existed but for the primal being. Water is also something figured in almost all the myths. In the Norse myth the beginning is a gorge - the Ginnungagap, but the earth is surrounded by water.
To make it comprehensive here follows a list of the several points where the myths can be compared.

The beginning of the cosmogonic myths are alike around the world. They indicate that the story that follows is not something that belongs to this time and world.

"When the sky was not yet named..."
"In the beginning..."
"In the beginning..."
"Before heaven and earth..."
"In the beginning of times..."

The second interesting thing is what the world was like before there were any humans or creatures. This is one of the points where I'd expected a bit more diversity, but as you can see, the myths are not very much different here either. Water has been a big part of several myths, but that is not very surprising as water is a human necessity, along with fire. Fire, however is only mentioned in one of the examined myths - the Norse. Most likely that is because of where that myth was established - Iceland. They knew what heat and ice could make together. So what was before everything else?

There was Chaos and the Abyss. To be more precise Tiamat, the chaos, was also the salt waters and Apsu, the abyss, was the sweet waters. Water was important to Mesopotamians as they lived in the embrace of the two rivers Euphrates and Tiger.
According to the Norse there was nothing but a gaping chaos called Ginnungagap. Water is not mentioned in this myth, except in the form of ice, but that along with fire and heat was what actually caused life to be. Water is later created along with the world from Ymir's blood.
The Genesis tells us that nothing but darkness, emptiness and water existed from the very beginning. In Christian belief fire is bad and their myths threaten us with eternal hellfire.
In China the myths say that chaos was in the shape of an egg. Neither water nor fire is mentioned in particular in the telling of the world's emergence. All we are told is that water was the result of the transformation of the blood of Panku.
To the Egyptians water was so important that they simply would have never existed without it. And it is mentioned in the myth. The world, before everything, consisted of only the watery chaos known as Nun and this chaos held the potential for life. I think the reason fire is not mentioned has to do with the climate. They didn't need fire to keep them warm as the Vikings did. All they needed was the water from the irrigation ditches.

Life on this earth is another matter that humans have always pondered. Who or what was first? And how did that first being come to be? This point is the second in which I expected the myths to differ and the thoughts are actually quite varied here.

The two gods Tiamat and Apsu were the first two gods. We don't know how they were formed, but I suspect that the Mesopotamians didn't either.
Ice and fire created the first being, the giant Ymir. Vapours from their meeting also made the cow that nourished him.
Christians know that God, Jehovah, was the first person alive. He has always been and he shall always be.
Panku has been mentioned in the other comment and he was in fact the first living thing. Of course with him in the egg were the two powers Yin and Yang, but they are powers not living beings.
Well, the Egyptians themselves couldn't really agree who was the first god, but since they all worshipped Ra, the sun, we will assume it was him. But he wasn't alone either in the chaotic waters, there was the Ogdoad - the eight powers of chaos, darkness, boundlessness and power.

We know that there was chaos at first, but how did a deity arrange the cosmos? And how was the earth formed?

The Enuma Elish tells us that the primeval god Tiamat was slain by Marduk and that her body transmuted to form heaven and earth.
What the seer tells us in Voluspa is that Ymir is the stuff the world was made from. His blood became water, his skull the sky and so on. Like Tiamat Ymir was also slain by his progeny. In the old Norse religion people stood fairly close to their gods. They called on them daily and the stories they told mostly involved a deity. Therefore I think the concept of creation from nothing on only the command of a god would have struck them as impossible - their gods weren't very much different from themselves, and the ancient Norse were a hands-on kind of people.
Both in Mesopotamian and Norse myth the world is created from the body of the first being. In Genesis however Jehovah makes the earth from nothing(9). Since He is omnipotent he can do those kind of things even if Thor couldn't. To first establish order God lets there be light, and with light came order.
The creation from a world egg is not an original idea from China. It appears in Egyptian, Indian and Greece myths among others, but each myth is different in some small part from the next. The great hen's egg divided, since Panku had grown so tall, and the light elements rose to form the sky and the heavy ones fell to the ground. Now there was the sky and ground, but the earth was the result of Panku's body metamorphosing into all the natural elements and features of the land. Panku was not murdered by his offspring, he simply died like all beings must sooner or later.
To the Egyptians as to Christians, a god is all-powerful and can do miraculous things. And in Egyptian myth as in the Christian Ra makes the world from nothing. He simply imagines the two gods Geb and Nut, earth and heaven, and by saying their names they came to life. The features and landscape was later created as habitat for humans, beginning with Egypt and later also the other countries and nations.

Finally we have the question of humans. How were we made, from what and why. I would think that the differences here are due to the different social systems, traditions and values.

The creatures formed from Kingu's blood could not have been of much value. They were from the enemy's blood, and they were humans. There is also the explanation that humans were made out of Kingu's blood to serve the gods, to worship the gods and build them temples. I think that shows us something of what Mesopotamians thought of themselves.
If what Snorri Sturlasson wrote is true, then humans were once logs of beached wood. But we were given reason, characteristics and senses by the three slayers of Ymir. Because the Vikings thought of themselves as almost equal to the gods, I very much doubt that they saw themselves as anything but worthy human beings. That does not denote that they didn't look down on other races and creeds, because they did just like men have done in all times.
It is truly good to be Christian - not counting all the sin and guilt you will have to put up with. Why is it so good? Well, God put you on this earth to rule the creatures in it. He made you in his image.
Humans are made out of clay and mud. We were supposed to keep an irked goddess company. That may be an explanation as to why Chinese people think so much - to keep up with a goddess' mind and entertain you have to stay sharp.
Now, as I've studied the Egyptian creation myth, I can in some ways understand why they thought themselves so superior to others. I doubt that any other people is the result of tears of joy - which is what Egyptians were.

Given the choice I think I would have liked to be born in Thebes sometimes near the end of the second millennium BC. But as it is I am only the result of evolution from apes and not the manifestation of the pure delight of the great sun-god.

Where I have found similarities they are due to those important thoughts that must be found on the way before you can make it to the final goal. And the differences occur in the areas that aren't as important. It isn't of great moment who was the first creature or god, what is more important is what came before the cosmos - chaos. There is a natural law that says that everything strives toward chaos rather than cosmos, and I don't know if it got through but the question of order is not entirely settled just yet. The Egyptians have their great serpent to represent the fact the chaos is just around the corner. And it is like that in all the myths - chaos wasn't completely vanquished, merely more or less temporarily suspended. Chaos will pop its head out any chance it gets - to make your sandwich fall buttered-side down on the floor or making Murphy's law possible.

(top)

Marduk means "Bull calf of the sun". (Back)
In the ancient tongue Anshar means "the totality of what is above". (Back)
Ginnungagap is a word that means "gaping chaos". (Back)
Yin is the tortoise, watery element. The black Warrior, signifying female things. (Back)
Yang is the male counterpart of Yin. All humans should strive to balance the Yin and Yang in themselves and the world. (Back)
The five mountains are: Taishan Mountain, Hengshan Mountain in the Hunan province, Huashan Mountain, Hengshan Mountain in the Shanxi Province and Songshan Mountain. (Back)
The creator had different names in almost every village, but I prefer to call him Ra as he was once the chief deity, and the most important god. (Back)
Another story says that men were the work of the chamois-headed god Khnum who formed them on his potter's wheel and Ra later blew his spirit into them. (Back)
This type of creation is called "creatio ex nihilo" and it also appears in the Egyptian myth. (Back)

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