Motifs In Creation Myths

The general idea of both stories follows the idea of punishment for one’s unacceptable behavior. In the first flood myth, the idea of four monsters morphing into one large beast is presented. This large beast is supposed to represent society as a whole. When society adapts malicious intentions and negative traits, a higher being decides whether or not a “cleansing” of society is necessary to improve the planet. Similarly, the story of Genesis follows the idea that humans have begun to behave in an irrational and shameful manner, so God creates a flood to punish the humans who had behaved poorly. “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.”

In today's time, there are many variations of how our world came to be. Many of these variations, science or myth, hold similarities as well as differences that we can compare. Some myths, such as the Iroquois Creation myth and Aztec Creation myth, hold similarities that are told differently and used for a different purpose in each story. As previously mentioned, the Aztec and Iroquois creation myths can be compared. At the beginning of each myth, the first difference we notice is that there is only one being present in the Aztec myth, as there are two in the Iroquois.

Every person in America has a myth or conviction of truth as to how creation was formed and human beings came into existence. The following are inclusive in creation myths, the first is the Zulu myth found in the continent of Africa, and the other is the myth of Norse originating from Europe. Both myths give a reason as to how creation was formed on earth. Though there are endless amounts of ideas and vast amounts of myths to explore, the focus of these two particular myths brings fascination to a social phenomenon.

Ancient Creation myths are similar but at the same time are still very different. What is a myth? A myth refers to a fiction story or only half true story. What makes up a myth? It has several different characteristics that make it different from other types of stories. Ancient Greco-Roman myths are interesting because they talk about another religion and how they are being reflected. Hebrew creation myths are also interesting because they explain the power of God who made the universe in just 6 days.

There are many different types of stories, some fairy tales and some are origin myths. Within each story there are different things not seen by just reading the story and not thinking about the deeper meaning behind it. Such as in origin myths there are cultural characteristics. Cultural characteristics are the beliefs of a culture in which its society is based off of. These cultural characteristics can be seen as a blend of beliefs that tie the people to the land around them. This is very evident when looking at the creation stories of ingenious people. Each culture has different characteristics. For example the indigenous creation stories called “The Earth on Turtle’s Back”, “When Grizzlies Walked Upright”, and the Navajo origin legend; all have characteristics of the Native American culture. Such as the Native American cultural characteristics that you should respect animals, nature, and elders. Those cultural characteristics are very evident throughout the first two stories. The third creation story has different cultural characteristics.

When discussing different cosmic creation myths, something to remember is the style of creation myth it is. There are nine different styles of myths when talking about creation: accretion or conjunction, secretion, sacrifice, division or consummation, earth-diver, emergence, two creators, deus faber, and ex nihillo. For the purpose of discussing the Norse creation myth, and the Genesis myth focus will be on secretion, division or consummation, deus faber and ex nihillo (Leonard, 2004).

Two myths that I have chosen for my paper are on the Norse culture of Iceland Vikings and the Genesis creation of the Hebrew origin of Christian culture. Both creation myths begin with a void where chaos or conflict develops. The Norse myth narrates a conflict between the fiery realm or Muspell and the dark, cold realm of Niflheim within the emptiness called ginnungagap and where nothing could grow. The Genesis conflict was between God and nothing, loneliness, and the need to create something wonderful and beautiful.

Concerning the three most important creation myths in my opinion. The first would be the idea that the world started as a ball of rock or basically nothing and was turned into what it is today by one or more gods or goddesses being killed or just simply become the earth. The second is the idea that people and plants were made from natural resources such as rock, mud, clay, and more. The third is the idea that there was a bloody struggle or war for power over the earth or the universe. There are many other motifs like heros, monster, and other creatures that are involved in creating what is now earth. Another is bloody warfare which is seen quite often in the creation myths. In my opinion the three creation myths I have chosen are the most important. In the next three paragraphs I will explain what they mean and why they are used so often in so many creation myths.

The term creation myth can be perplexing because the word doesn't enchantment out what is fashioned. Creation myth refers to whichever the formation of the cosmos or the formation of mankind and theology. In Greek legends, the conception of the planet begins with the formation of the different teachings of Gods. In this case, Gods refers to the

When we look at creation myths throughout history and across religions we can see many similarities drawn but also many differences. Close ties can be seen between Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Genesis in the Bible as well differences between the latter and the Aztec story of creation. These myths can be contrasted on their themes and moral’s demonstrated, the divine intervention that takes place, and type of creation myth it is. When looking at the myths through those aspects we can see key resemblances between the myths such as the evolution of the world and its people and this shed’s light onto the civilisation of origin.

Creation stories from different cultures are alike but also very different. The Cherokee creation story explains how the animals created the earth. Light, dark, water, air, animals, and humans were all made by God in the European creation story. Magic spread by Obatala created the world in the West African story. Greek mythology explains creation with Chaos making Gaia, Uranus, and Tartarus.

The cultures that included this motif in their creation myth are a lot of them. The cultures used this motif by destroying the earth. Some ways are when the gods got mad they would flood the earth. One of the ones that caught my eye the most was the Maori.

Creation myths tell a story of how the world that exists today is created. These myths tells how the world who the creators are, whether male or female. These stories tell of how the sky, universe, plants, animals, and human beings came to life. Each myth is taken by one’s own culture and passed down from generation to generation. Creation myths become important in life because it represents what and how human beings came into this life.

In my opinion, 3 of the most common motifs in creation myths are The creation of humans, Step - by - Step myths, and Parts of a god for a planet. These motifs are used in most of cultures. Though these cultures did not know each other or “talk”, they are still connected by these motifs. Some of the creation myths share these ideas, but they also share more.

The next motif: human creation of organic materials. There were many myths that had gods creating humans out of many different things. The Inca used stone, yet they were pitiful and did not know anything, including how to survive. The Inuit’s humans came from a pea-pod, yet the god Raven did not know how. The Yoruba used clay, as well as the Chinese did. The Yoruba shaped the humans out of clay, then breathed life into them. The Chinese formed the humans out of clay, but made it to where they had legs instead of tails. The Enuma Elish used bones and flesh, after the war that took place, using the bones and the making of the flesh. The Mayan used corn paste, after many attempts of making humans. The Norse used trees, that had fallen over. The reason why I think this motif has repeated in so many myths is because even without them knowing, humans are now created from organic materials. Another reason could be that they wanted to create humans to help work and take care of the Earth.