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The Myth Of The Universe

Decent Essays

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

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