3. Similarities 3.1 People’s Fear of Natural Environment In Chinese and Greek mythologies, there are some similarities. People’s fear of natural environment is the first similar point. People just had sensible understanding of nature and thought that nature was so mysterious that they had to worship, even feared it. On the one hand, they were very curious about natural weather phenomena and natural disasters, but they could not understand and explain it reasonably. On the other hand, they were afraid of being punished by nature because of people’s tiny power. A story that people were punished by flood and then created human beings appeared both in Chinese and Greek myths. Therefore, in the early development of human society, the two peoples are full of worship and awe to all kinds of phenomena in nature. 3.2 A Strong Desire to Change Nature Secondly, despite of their fear, they all had a strong desire to change nature. Early people gave God the power, courage and wisdom which transcend ordinary people, and thought that God could help them manage and transform nature, such as Da Yu’s successful regulating of floodwaters and Prometheus stolen the fire. Da Yu’s father stole many stones from heaven to control the flood. However, he was killed by God after his action was discovered. God punished Prometheus for his steal of fire. He was tied to the …show more content…
Ancient people feared natural phenomena and had little knowledge about the boundless nature. Nevertheless, people tried to change the conditions of nature by using their wisdom and imagination in order to adapt to the natural environment better and create a beautiful human homeland. To some extent, creation mythologies were people’s emotional support which lightened their fear for nature and gave them hope to adapt to the nature. In other words, creation myths stimulated ancient human to have courage to conquer nature. So, its importance is apparently
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.”
However, despite the minor differences there are many similarities between the two stories. Indeed the similarities have led some to speculate that these ancient flood stories were
The floods in Genesis and The Epic of Gilgamesh are in no doubt different but in so many ways similar. The two men are given a task to save humankind from a flood and succeed and are rewarded. The major basic events that take place in the stories a similar however the smaller details of them and how they are carried you are different. They two also tells us a lot about the relationship between humans to Divinity.
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.
The Hebrew Flood story of Noah and his obligation to preserve man kind after God had punished all living creatures for their inequities parallels The Epic of Gilgamesh in several ways. Even though these two compilations are passed on orally at different times in history the similarities and differences invoke deliberation when these stories are compared. Numerous underlining themes are illustrated throughout each story. Humans are guilty of transgressions and must be punished, God or Gods send a flood as punishment to destroy this evil race, a person is selected by the gods to build a craft that will withstand the flood and allow this person to create a new race. An
The Genesis myth made man and woman more curious, God put a mysterious tree straight in front of man and we took it in our palms to try and understand what it was. After Eve bit into the apple we had ultimate truth and we wanted more knowledge, thus began man's inexhaustible search for knowledge.Without the Genesis myth man would never have considered knowledge as a powerful thing, but since God did not want to share the apple man began to crave it and eventually took part of it. Without genesis we would have stayed behind the line, not touched the tree, and would have stayed blind.
It is important to believe in something. There are many fascinating, mysterious aspects of life which cannot be revealed scientifically. Creation stories help us explain the unexplainable. There’s a big variety of them , different societies and different beliefs. Every culture provides its own narration of the creation of the world, each unique but containing themes that are universal to many civilizations. Genesis is the Hebrew people’s idea of how it all began, how humans came to be. Popol Vuh sums up the Mayan people’s theory of the Earth’s birth. Even though all that the gods in both of the stories want is obedience, their attitude toward the people contrasts one another, which leads to the idea that the Hebrew society values honesty
The general purpose for all myths is to bring an understanding of unknown. The ancient people widely used myths to explain new phenomena and occurrences. The lack of scientific modes of theory formulation caused the people of old to come up with myths to fill the vacuum with the knowledge that existed during their time. The need by man to explain his origin and the origin of the universe led him to the formulation of creation and origin myths. Men of olds came up with myths to explain the mysteries they had no clue about including creation.
Evolutions of civilizations can occur because of differences in people’s religion, culture, or geographic setting of the settlement. The relationship between the world of the gods and that of men was perceived differently by the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Hebrew ancient civilizations. This is demonstrated by the way each group viewed the process of creation. They had different thoughts on the creation of their gods, the universe and of man. This essay will discuss the relationship between humans and their gods in three different ancient civilizations: Sumerian, Egyptian and Hebrew.
Ancient world literature and early civilization stories turn around human’s relationship with higher beings. Ancient civilizations were extremely religious, holding the belief that their very lives were in the hands of their almighty god or goddess. This holds true for both the people of biblical times as well as those of the epic era. However, their stories have some differences according to cultural variation but the main structure, idea and theme are generally found correlative. It is hard to believe that that one work did not affect the others. The first great heroic epic poem of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament are two cultures that are hundreds of years apart. Upon studying the book of Genesis and the story of Gilgamesh; whereas one
Ancient world literature and early civilization stories are mostly centered on human’s relationship with higher beings. Ancient civilizations were extremely religious, holding the belief that their very lives were in the hands of their almighty god or goddess. This holds true for both the people of biblical times as well as those of the epic era. However, their stories have some differences according to cultural variation but the main structure, ideas, and themes are generally found correlative. It is hard to believe that one work did not affect the others. The first great heroic epic poem of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament are parts of two cultures that are hundreds of years apart. Whereas Gilgamesh is a myth and the book of Genesis is
We now see these theories as inaccurate, due to the fact that they have been replaced by newer scientific models. In a modern light, it can be stated that creation myths describe not the origin of our cosmos but rather these myths allow us to gain a broader understanding of ancient theories and beliefs. During the time of their invention however, these myths were precisely an honest interpretation of the outer world, and therefore they served the exact purpose which is stated in their title, to explain the process of creation.
Although most of this essay focuses on the western relationship with nature, it is important to explore the construct of nature in other societies. This avenue is imperative to this essay as many of the environmental and social issues that are present in today’s world are entangled by a certain subset of Western or European set of values denoting how to interact with the environment. These generally center around the notions of ‘development’ and ‘modernity’. Reading widely on the topic, one finds most of the literature of non-western ideals of nature are centered upon ‘traditional’ and religious views of environment. Traditional as in the constructs of nature were largely based on myths and stories, which are transferred to younger generations, usually orally. In middle eastern representation, the Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies constructions of nature ‘is marked by a strong sense of battle, nature herself is characterized in the mythology as monstrous chaos and it was only through the constant labors of the people and the patron gods chaos could be that overcome and order established” (1994:34). This construct of the struggle against nature has been present in many of the debates of human’s interactions with their environment. It serves in complete opposition of the idealistic view of the people completely in touch with nature, similar to those of traditional hunter-gatherer societies.
Do you ever wonder why natural phenomenon occurs the way they do? Or how about why society acts the way they do? Greek mythology was created to explain why natural phenomenas such as evils, illnesses, and even fire exist in the world the way they do. They also teach society important lessons such as why it is good to be creative and to express your feelings rather than to conform to the people around you, along with why you should never be too full of yourself.
It relates to an event that occurred in primeval time, the fabled time of the commencements. To put in another way, we could say that myths narrate to us, of a reality that came into existence through the deeds of supernatural beings. It could be, how the Cosmos came into being or how human beings came, their behavior etc. It sets patterns for human beings that alter them to codify and organize their own lives. By endorsing myths in their daily lives, individuals are able to have a sincere religious feel. Thus by recalling and evoking the gods of the past and bring them into the present, one is able to transport oneself into that realm of the scared and primordial. This connection or transportation brings about a sense of origin and link to the