Psychology Essays (UOP)

Hum/105 Cosmic Creation Myths across Cultures

Cosmic Creation Myths across Cultures

Samantha Craig

Hum/105

2/16/2015

Introduction

Myths have been around for thousands of years, and each provides various tales of how the world or worlds was formed along with who, or what inhabits them. There are many definitions of what creation is, yet the most modern definition according to "Merriam-Webster" (2016) "is the act of making or producing something that did not exist before." How things have been created and will always be mysterious and built around some form of cosmic occurrence or even a phenomena that occurred. Cultures from all over the place have their creation myths that vary in details. These myths revolve around creation, destruction, cosmic elements along with the creators and how many there were and even their genders. This paper will cover two cosmic creation of the Greek and Egyptian myths and go into these previously stated details along with highlighting some of their similarities and differences.

Egyptian Creation Myth

Egyptian Creation Myth starts with Nu which was made of a swirling darkness of chaos and out of the waters of Nu came to Atum. According to "The Big Myth" (2015) Atum was neither man nor woman yet created two gods by joining with its shadow. The first was the God of Air named Shu who Atum spit out. The next was vomited out, and her name was Tefnut the Goddess of mist and moisture. Then the darkness and light were divided, and balance began. Geb God of Earth was then created with Nut Goddess of the sky. Nut was married to Re but slept with two other Gods Geb, who was her brother and Thoth God of the divine words. Re was upset and cursed Nut when he found that she was with others and that the child she carried might be theirs. Nut sad and distraught ran to Thoth and asked for his help. The story goes that he played a game with the moon and when he won he was allowed to take some light from it. In the end, he had enough to create five extra days to the year so that Nut would be able to give birth to her children. The first two belonged to Re, and they were Osiris and Horus. The second two belonged to Geb they were Set and Nephthys, who married each other. The last child belonged to Thoth her name was Isis, and she married Osiris. The creation of mortals happened from the tears of Atum, who wept when his lost children Shu and Tefnut was found.

Greek Creation Myth

Greek creation myths start with a world of darkness referred to as Chaos and out of this darkness came three immortal beings known as "Gaea (Mother Earth), Tartarus, who ruled the deepest, darkest region of the Underworld, and Eros (Love)." (Rosenberg, 2006). Gaea without a mate gave birth to Uranus who became her equal in every way and married each other as he was the God of the Sky. They had several children whom Uranus banished to the underworld because he was afraid of them. These immortal children were three Giants that had around fifty heads and arms and three cyclops that only had one eye. Gaea was upset that he would do such a thing and when her next children were born she plot her revenge. These immortal children known as the Titans. Helios god of the sun, Selene goddess of the moon, Oceanus god of the rivers, Themis goddess of prophecy, Rhea great goddess and mother of gods, Atlas held the sky in its place while Promethus created the mortal man from clay and water and Epimetheus married the first mortal woman named Pandora. The youngest Titan Cronus waited for his father to come at night to his mother and castrated him and took his place as God of the sky. Cronus became like his father but ate his children till his wife Rhea fooled him and hid her fifth child Zeus who poisoned his father and he vomited the first four children he ate and they came out fully grown. Zeus and his siblings then went to the Underworld and brought forth Gaea's banished children and fought Cronus and the other Titans for ten years before they won, and Zeus became God of the Sky. His brother Poseidon became God of the Sea, Hades God of the Underworld, Hera Goddess of marriage, Demeter Goddess of Grain and Hestia Guardian of Home. Each God was worshiped by the mortal man by helping them learn to respect the gods and death. Showed them to grow food and build homes and ships.

Comparing the Egyptian and Greek Myths

Each of these myths have their story and have many similarities and differences. They both provided cosmic elements of Earth, Sky, and Underworld that came for a constant darkness. These are essential to creating the worlds. However, in Egyptian myth, the Earth is a male god while Greek myths refer to the earth as a female Goddess. Each one ends up having a battle that provides to be fighting off evil and do the just thing. They also have multiple Gods and Goddesses that have different tasks or abilities that are part of furthering creation.

Conclusion

Creation myths are crucial for a verity of different reasons. Each one tells a story that has laid a foundation for many various cultural beliefs and religions even if they are far-fetched. Creation myths provide an explanation for how the world was created and how the universe came to be. Whether these myths have one God or many, they play a vital role on how the tale layout and provide others with the knowledge of how the expectations of mankind originated from.

References

Rosenberg, D. (2006). World mythology: An anthology of great myths and epics, "Osiris, Isis and Horus" (3rd ed). Chicago, IL: McGraw Hill.

Rosenberg, D. (2006). World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myth and Epics, "The Creation of the Titans and the Gods" (3rd ed.) Chicago, IL: McGraw Hill