It is human nature to have questions, questions about how the world came to be and questions of where mankind came from. In almost all societies and religions there are stories told of how the world began, these stories are known as creation stories or creation myths. Creation myths can give those reading them a better understanding of the values within the culture that they were created. The myth of creation explains the origin of the universe, describing how the world and its animate and inanimate entities were created (El-Asward, Garry, & El-Shamy, 2005, p.24-31). A major similarity in each of the different creation stories is the idea of water as the elemental source of life. For example, in ancient Egypt a hill emerges from the waters …show more content…
Like most creation myths the Egyptian myths also tell a story of the beginning of time to human existence. In the beginning, it is understood that there is only water, the Egyptians called the Nun. Nun is unorganized chaos, nothingness, or a formless mass without structure (El-Asward, Garry, & El-Shamy, 2005, p.24-31). Out of Nun came Atum, the first god. With no place for him to rise he forms a hill, also known as a conical scrap of land. Realizing how lonely he was Atum mated with himself two have two children. These children were Shu (the god of air) and Tefnut (the goddess of moisture). Tefnut provided the principles of order to the world and Shu gave the principles of life. The two left their father to go an establish the world. Since they had been gone so long Atum became worried and removed his eye and sent it in search of his children. When She and Tefnut returned with his eye, Atum was so grateful that he wept tears of joy. These tears gave birth to men and women. After many years Atum became frail and the men of the earth started to plot against him. Realizing these plots Atum and a council of gods decided that the men should be destroyed. The goddess Hatro was sent to wipe out mankind, of this task she was very successful. Once only a small amount remained Atum relented and decided to spare them. Water is a
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. The Earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep”. There are many stories that talk about how the Earth are created and they all vary depending on the beliefs of the writers. In these stories there are many similarities but there are also a few differences. A good example of these similarities can be found in a few creation stories such as Genesis, Creation by the Hopi, and The World on the Turtle’s Back by the Iroquois. In these three stories there are differences and similarities found when looking at how the Earth was created, where all the evil and good came about from, and how all of the animals got their names.
People have contemplated many different theories about the creation of the world. There are two versions that rival each other and those are the religious and the scientific version.
Creation in Ancient Egyptian religion can be much different than the creation account taken from The Bible. Genesis has a set description of “The Beginning” while there are several different versions and variations in Egyptian mythology. The versions range from a “one god” myth (Ptah; see picture) to the more common creator out of Nun, which in itself has several derivations.
The Road of Trials. The beginning of the hero’s metamorphosis associated with their first steps in a world of wonders as fate throws trial after trial towards them. Clouded by the burden of these trails, the hero’s new world can be likened to the “primordial water”(Creation from the Void: Crash Course Mythology #2) of many creation myths with the hero's only solution being to ground their feet and face the riptide head on. Indeed, the road of trials has been observed to be one of the few stages in the hero’s journey where failure has been encouraged so as to allow the hero to learn from their mistakes and grow in the fastest time possible. Thus the hero’s that embrace this stage of the journey the greatest are speedsters blessed by Hermes who
The Enuma Elish explains this creation by using numerous gods to create earth, for example: Apsu and Tiamat are the water that helps flood the landmass that is later created into earth. Lahmu and Lahumu are the silt that later is turned into the actual earth and dirt that individuals walk on. So the story uses the forces of nature and considers them as gods whereas many people just see rivers and ocean as just water and nothing else.
Celebrated on October 31st, the festival of Halloween (also known as Samhain) includes dressing in costume, trick or treating, and decorating. Tracing back in history Halloween is considered to be one of America’s oldest holidays, and is still celebrated today. Halloween is believed to come from Celtic rituals. Celtics believed the cosmological myth of Saman (Lord of the Dead). Saman would call on the souls of the people that passed away that year to take them to the afterlife or underworld; the Celtic underworld identifies with the Christian Hell. In order for the spirits to believe they were on their own, the living would wear costumes and mask their identities, along with fairies, witches and demons. This functions as a cosmological myth because it provides a creation story and framework in which this universe occupies and includes many other realms of existence. Another tradition that followed was to give food to the Saman, to persuade him to be more tolerant while he judged the dead ancestors of the living, which he would chose to take to the underworld. In this essay I will further investigate what the origins of Halloween consist of and how it offers reasoning for trick-or-treating. Also I will examine how trick-or-treating, which is still continued today, is connected to ancient Celtic festivals.
We all know that our mothers and fathers gave us birth, and grandmothers and grandfathers gave our parents birth. However, what about the beginning? What does the beginning look like? Who created the sky, the earth, the mountains and rivers, the plants, the animals, and the human beings? How was the world created? What happened to the creator? These questions have puzzled and are asked by every people. However, no one has yet found the answers, and I have heard people saying that the creation of life is as impossible as the natural creation of an airplane from a stack of waste. With the willingness of knowing the self, ancient people tried to create mythological stories
Egyptian Mythology’s creation started with Nu, the dark and swirling chaos before time. Eventually, Atum rose from Nu and created a hill for himself to stand on. He had one eye that would see everything, but was very lonely. Soon after, Atum brought Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of mist and moisture into life. They gave birth to Geb, the earth, and Nut, the sky. Nut would give birth to the sun every night before sunset so the sun would shine through the day, and die at night.
For thousands of years, scientists have tried to interpret the concept of creation. However, before people had access to modern scientific equipment, they told creations stories. A creation story is a myth that explains how and why the earth was made. A few cultures with differing opinions on creation are Europeans, Cherokee Indians, West Africans, and Hawaiians. Europeans tell the story of Genesis and God creating the earth in seven days and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Cherokee Indians believe that the earth was created by a water beetle. In West African culture, they teach the Golden Chain story, and Hawaiians have the Kumulipo story to explain their beliefs on creation. Although each story follows a basic guideline, they all have distinct disparities.
In the beginning of the myth, the gods Plumed Serpent and Hurricane created the first plant life and the mountains on Earth. As time went by, the gods felt there was something missing because there was no noise on the planet. They then created animals to live in the forests. Once the animals were created, the gods had the intention of having the animals speak. Without language, the animals could not worship the gods properly. This left the gods unsatisfied. With this, the gods decided to create humans. The humans would be able to worship the gods and the animals would stay in the forests to serve the needs of man.
In old times, humankind has looked to utilize stories to clarify the world in which it lives. Similarly, as old man utilized stories of divine beings and creatures to clarify the world; superior person utilizes stories of exceptional legends and colossal scoundrels to do likewise (Stuller). Comic books are modern mythology, in that they are superior man 's strategy for clarifying their general surroundings through the fantastical. The characters frequently handle such major, philosophical, (Ahrens, Jörn, and Meeting) social and story ideas as the nature of sound and malevolence, man 's inward battle, the wannabe, the women 's activist, and the rescuer.
It should be noted that all creation myths tend to possess similar themes, despite differing story lines. As noted before, there exists the basic ideas of chaos before creation, and gods to form life. But then various myths show that, once life has been created, the gods tend to retreat from the humanity they create, instead watching them from afar and using specifically chosen and often religious contacts to spread their words and commands. This deus
One of the fundamental questions that religions seek to answer is that of origin. How was man put on earth? Why and from what was he created? Who created him? What does his creation imply about the status of human beings? Some or all of these questions are answered by a religion’s creation stories. Every religion’s creation myths attempt to give solutions to problems present to that religious society. Because of this, each religion may have one or more creation stories, each of those different from one another in the questions they ask and the answers they give.
The Mesopotamian creation myth incorporated many characteristics that define to most myths in general. One of the characteristics incorporated in the creation myth is that it takes place in the distant past, or in this case the beginning or pre-history. This characteristic is initially described in the opening passage of the Enuma Elish, “when on high [enuma elish] heaven and earth had not yet been named” (Leeming 19), and further codified by describing how the gods Apsu and Tiamat created “the silt deposits Lahmu and Lahamu, which we call ‘land’” (Leeming 19). A second characteristic of myths portrayed in this creation story is that it is a tale of supernatural beings, goddesses, or gods. Besides, Apsu, freshwater, and Tiamat, great saltwater
The author mentions that Genesis 1 and Mesopotamian the origins of the universe are similar. In Egyptian text, creation is acted, through existence of creatures, and then considered. In Mesopotamian documents, scholars notice a mix of creation and action through affection and language (Johnston, 188). Genesis 1 only considers ideas followed by action, which is the reverse order of Egyptian creation myths (Johnston, 189). Genesis 1 refuses the idea of worshipping more than one god of several earth elements. The author emphasizes the fact that Genesis 1 does not detach itself from Egyptian’s physical features (Johnston, 191). During the start of creation, the Egyptians were convinced that water decreased and the primordial mound became visible and Atum came into existence (Johnston, 189). The presence of Atum, the water mentioned in Genesis 1 diminishes with supervision of God, who makes and uncovers Earth. God was not restricted in his mound notable for its sanctuary, but in charge of all of mother Earth (Johnston,