Creation Stories (World Lit. Assin.)
I am of Christian faith, not to be confused with Christian living. In the Christian faith, it is believed that God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested. I know this, not based on any hard evidence, face to face in-counters with the big man himself, or scientific evidence that would prove to the contrary. I know this because of something rooted much deeper than any facts. Faith, the idea of faith is that you don’t need anymore than just the feeling. You can’t transform a feeling into physical evidence to anyone else except to the people that have experienced it for themselves. Besides all that things just fit a little too perfectly for things to be left up to chance.
“I believe that we came from Adam and Eve. That Adam was the first man, Eve was the first woman, and threw process of elimination we are all related in some way some how. What is my proof? Have you ever seen some one that you recognize as someone else? Well, there you go. Genes man… Genes.” –Ben McDonald. Hey I said it once; I don’t need to say it any other way.
There are many cultures that have been around long before the creation of Christianity. Many of these cultures have been persecuted by Christians or they were a wall trying to prevent its growth. So I have chosen two others that are heavy in history of Christianity.
After the growth of Christianity in south Europe and middle east, the Christian lords and kings sought to spread the “truth” to there northern neighbors. Along with that they would conquer land and in turn make profit from the people they enslaved. One such group of people was the people of the Netherlands. These were the people of the Norse culture. In the Norse culture they believed that, the first world was Muspell, a land of light and heat. The flames were so hot that those who are not native to that land cannot endure it. Surt sits at the border of Muspell. He guards the land with a flaming sword and at the end of the world he will vanquish all the gods and burn the whole world with fire. Beyond Muspell is the great cataclysm named Ginnungagap, and beyond Ginnungagap laid the dark, cold realm of Niflheim. The cold from Niflheim and the hot air from Muspell met and then thawing drops appeared, and this created a giant frost ogre named Ymir.
Ymir slept, and under his left arm a man and woman were created from his sweat. And one of his legs begot a son with the other. Thawing frost then became a cow called Audhumla she fed Ymir her milk. The cow licked salty ice blocks and freed the man. His name was Buri, and he was tall, strong, and handsome. Buri had a son named Bor, and Bor married Bestla, the daughter of a giant. Bor and Bestla had three sons: Odin was the first, Vili the second, and Vé the third. It is believed that Odin, in association with his brothers, is the ruler of heaven and earth. He is the greatest and most famous of all men. Odin, Vili, and Vé killed the giant Ymir.
When Ymir was killed, there was so much blood from his wounds, that all the frost ogres were drowned, except for the giant Bergelmir who escaped with his wife by climbing onto a lur [a hollowed-out tree trunk that could serve either as a boat or a coffin]. From them spring the families of frost ogres. The sons of Bor then carried Ymir to the center of Ginnungagap and made the world from him. From his blood they made the sea and the lakes; from his flesh the earth; from his hair the trees; and from his bones the mountains. They made rocks and pebbles from his teeth and jaws and those bones that were broken. From Ymir’s skull the sons of Bor made the sky and set it over the earth with its four sides. Under each section they put a dwarf, maggots that the gods gave human understanding and intelligence, whose names are East, West, North, and South. The sons of Bor flung Ymir’s brains into the air, and they became the clouds. Then they took the sparks and burning embers that were flying about after they had been blown out of Muspell, and placed them in the midst of Ginnungagap to give light to heaven above and earth beneath. To the stars they gave appointed places and paths. The earth was surrounded by a deep sea. The sons of Bor gave lands near the sea to the families of giants for their settlements. This is the story of what the Norse culture believed in during the time of their thriving.
Before there was the religion Christianity, Judaism; Christianities father religion, was persecuted by the Babylonian’s. They were from a region known now as Mesopotamia. They conquered the land of Israel and enslaved its people. They believed that there were various gods that represent aspects of the physical world. Apsu: the god of fresh water and thus male fertility, Tiamat: wife of Apsu, is the goddess of the sea and thus chaos and threat, Tiamat gaves birth to Anshar and Kishar, gods of the horizon. Anshar and Kishar bears Anu, god of sky, who in turn births Ea. These “sons of the gods” are so loud and unruly that Apsu wanted to destroy them. When Ea finds out, he kills Apsu and with his wife Damkina create their home above his body.
Damkina then gives birth to Marduk, the god of spring. He is symbolized both by the light of the sun and the lightning in storm and rain. He was also the patron god of the city of Babylon. Meanwhile Tiamat is enraged at the murder of her husband Apsu, and vows revenge. She creates eleven monsters to help her carry out her vengeance. Tiamat takes a new husband, Kingu, in place of the slain Apsu and puts him in charge of her newly assembled army. Tiamat represents the forces of disorder and chaos in the world. In the cycle of seasons, Tiamat is winter and barrenness. To avenge the murder of her husband Tiamat sets the stage to unleash on the other gods the destructive forces that she has assembled. Ea learns of her plan and attempts to confront Tiamat.
Ea fails to stop Tiamat, then Anu attempts to challenge her but fails as well. The gods become afraid that no one will be able to stop Taimat’s from fulfilling her revenge. Ea’s son Marduk, is willing to face Taimat and is tested by the other gods to see if he is ready, his test was to make a garment appear and disappear. After the test he was made High King and commissioned to fight Taimat. Marduk gathered his weapons, the four winds as well as the seven winds of destruction. Marduk trapped her in a net and unleashed the Evil Wind to stop Tiamat. When she is crippled by the wind, Marduk killed her with an arrow through her heart and enslaves all who were her allies. Marduk divided her corpse, to create the earth and sky complete with bars to keep the chaotic waters from escaping. Marduk built homes places for the other gods. As the gods settle in, they decide the days and months and seasons of the year. From the drool of Tiamat, Marduk creates rain for the earth. Marduk decides to create human beings, but needs blood and bone from which to fashion them. Lead by the advice of Ea, they decide that Kingu should be used as the materials to create humans. Marduk is the high god for killing Taimat and has a house constructed for him in Babylon. This is the creation story of the Babylonian culture.
As the Babylonians after them, the Egyptians were once lords over the Jews. They held the Jews for 400 years, after which they were freed by Moses and left off to create there own nation. The Egyptians believed that in the beginning there was only water, a boiling and churning mass of water. The Egyptians called this Nu or Nun. It was out of Nu that everything began, each year there was a flood eventually the floods would recede and out of the water would a small hill emerged. On this first dry hilltop, on the first day came the first sunrise. So that is how the Egyptians explain the beginning of all things.
. . . . . As the rising sun his name was Khepri, the great scarab beetle. As the sun climbed toward noon it was called Ra, great and strong. When the sun set in the west it was known as Atum the old man, or Horus on the horizon. As a solar-disk he was known as Aten. The sun was also said to be an egg laid daily by Geb, the ‘Great Cackler’ when he took the form of a goose.
. . . . . As an attribute of the god Horus the moon represented his left eye while his right was the sun. Seth was a lunar god, in his struggles with the solar god Horus, Seth is seen as a god of darkness doing constant battle with the god of light. We often find the ibis-headed god Thoth wearing a lunar creseant on his head.
Egyptians the sky was a goddess called Nut. She was often shown as a cow standing over the earth her eyes being the sun and the moon. She is kept from falling to earth by Shu, who was the god of air and wind, or by a circle of high mountains. As this heavenly cow, she gave birth to the sun daily. The sun would ride in the ‘Solar Barque’ across Nut’s star covered belly, which was a great cosmic ocean. Then as evening fell, Nut would swallow the sun creating darkness. She is also pictured as a giant sow, suckling many piglets. These piglets represented the stars, which she swallowed each morning before dawn.Nut was also represented as an elongated woman bending over the earth and touching the horizons with her toes and finger tips. Beneath her stretched the ocean, in the center of which lay her husband Geb, the earth-god. He is often seen leaning on one elbow, with a knee bent toward the sky, this is representive of the mountains and valleys of the earth. Green vegetation would sprout from Geb’s brown or red body. Sadly, due to the lack of information I was unable to find information on how people were created. But it is safe to assume, like many cultures, the lead god created the humans because he wanted them to do his bidding whist worshipping him. It is said that Ra took the form of a human and was the first Pharaoh of Egypt, it is a common saying that when things were good the people would say “In the time of Ra”.
This was a more in-depth and worldly continuation of my previous creation stories post. I hope that this helped feed your mind, and I challenge my reader to go and find more cultures to study. May your mind broaden and your knowledge never cease in growth.
Leave a Reply