Myths about the creation of the world and man. Greek myth about the creation of the world. The World Egg and the Birth of the World
The Evens (one of the northern peoples) created such a myth. There lived two brothers, and around them there was only water. One day the younger brother dived very deep, took out some earth from the bottom and put it on the surface of the water. Then he lay down on the ground and fell asleep.
Then the older brother began to pull the earth out from under the younger brother and stretched it so much that it covered most of the water. There is a similar myth about the creation of the earth in the American Indians.
They believed that the loon bird (a very beautiful shiny black bird with white longitudinal spots) caught the land from the World Ocean. The Indians of another tribe developed the following myth about the appearance of dry land: a beaver, a muskrat, an otter and a turtle lived on the surface of the World Ocean. One day the muskrat dived, took out a handful of earth and put it on the turtle's shell. Gradually this handful grew and formed the earth.
Chinese and Scandinavian myths say that the earth arose from the egg of the World Ocean. The egg split and one half became the earth and the other half became the sky.
Hindus have long revered Brahma, the creator of the Universe.
The Bible (from the gr. “Books”) is a collection of works from the 8th century. BC e. - II centuries. n. e., containing myths about the creation of the world, historical narratives, and a record of ethical standards.
The peoples of the Caucasus believed that the earth and all life on it appeared after a huge white bird flew in.
The Bible says that on the first day God separated light from darkness, on the second day he created the heavens, and on the third day he created the earth.
“And God said: Let the waters that are under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it became so... And God called the dry land earth, and the collection of waters he called seas... And God said: let the earth grow greenery, grass... trees... And it became so.”
In Armenian mythology you can find a legend about where the Ararat and Taurus mountains came from. They lived on earth to take gigantic sizes. Every morning, as soon as they woke up, the brothers tightened their belts and greeted each other. They did this all their lives, but in old age their strength waned and it became difficult for them to get up early and tighten their belts. Then they decided to just say hello to each other. God became angry when he saw this and turned the brothers into mountains, their belts into green valleys, and their tears into crystal clear springs.
Much in the world once began, originated and began to change and develop over a relatively short or long period of time. True, before the human gaze there were examples of such long-lived things that seem eternal. For example, the ocean, rivers flowing into it, mountain ranges, the shining sun or moon seemed eternal. These examples suggested the opposite idea, that the world as a whole could be eternal and have no beginning. Thus, human thought, human intuition suggested two opposite answers to the question posed: the world once began to exist and the world always existed and had no beginning. Between these two extreme points of view, various options are possible, for example, that the world arose from the primary Ocean, which itself has no beginning, or that the world periodically arises and then is destroyed, etc. This content of human thought is reflected in mythology, religion, philosophy , and later - in natural science. In this work, we will briefly consider the most famous myths about the creation of the world and allow ourselves a small comparative analysis of mythological stories with the Biblical story of creation. Why might mythology be interesting to us? Because in mythology, in the collective consciousness of people, which is a special way of understanding the world around us, inherent in people in the early stages of historical development, certain ideas of people are reflected. And these ideas may have a historical, speculative or some other basis.
Let's make some introductory remarks. Firstly, we will limit ourselves to considering only the cosmogonic part of myths and Holy Scripture, leaving out of sight the story of man’s settlement in Paradise. Secondly, the content of the myths will be conveyed in an abbreviated form, since a full description of the adventures of the gods and their genealogies will take up a lot of space and distract us from the main goal - a comparative analysis of mythologies with the Biblical account of the creation of the world and man.
1.1 Myths of ancient Egypt. Memphis, Hermopolis, Heliopolis and Theban cosmogonies
All four ancient Egyptian cosmogonies have significant similarities in the narrative of the creation of the world and are therefore united. At the same time, there are certain differences in the nature and sequence of creations and births of deities, people and the rest of the world. As a preliminary analysis, we will highlight three main stages in creation, following one after another: A - the existence of the primordial Ocean, B - the birth of the gods and the creation of the world, C - the creation of man.
A) A common feature of these creation myths is the initial existence of only one vast ocean, which was on its own. This ocean was lifeless, according to some myths, or full of potentialities, according to others, but at the same time it turned out to be the first deity.
Memphis Cosmogony: The Ocean of Nun was cold and lifeless.
Hermopolis cosmogony: in the beginning there was Chaos in the form of the primordial Ocean. The Primordial Ocean was full of forces and potencies, both destructive and creative.
Heliopolis cosmogony: the endless Ocean of Chaos-Nun was a dark, cold, lifeless water desert.
Theban cosmogony: there were initial waters.
B) Then gods are born from the Ocean, who give birth to other deities, with a list of genealogies, and create the whole world.
Memphis cosmogony: the very first god Ptah-Earth, through an effort of will, creates himself, his flesh from the earth. Then Ptah-Earth creates with Thought and Word, giving birth to his son - the solar god Atum, who arose from the Ocean of Nun. God Atum, helping his father, creates the great Ennead - nine gods. Ptah-Earth endows the Ennead with divine attributes: power and wisdom, and also establishes religion: temples, sanctuaries, festivals and sacrifices (but man was not yet on earth). From his body, Ptah created everything that exists: living beings, rivers, mountains, established cities, crafts and works. The god Ptah, his wife the goddess Sokhmet and their son the god of vegetation Nefertum made up the Memphis Triad of gods.
Hermopolitan cosmogony: in the Ocean lurked the forces of destruction - Darkness and Disappearance, Emptiness and Nothingness, Absence and Night, as well as the forces of creation - the Great Eight (Ogdoad) - 4 male and 4 female deities. Male deities are Huh (Infinity), Nun (Water), Kuk (Darkness), Amon (Air). Male deities have their own female deities, who act as their hypostases. These eight creative deities initially swam in the Ocean, but then the deities decided to engage in creation. They raised the Primordial Hill from the water and grew a lotus flower on it in complete darkness. From the flower emerged the baby Ra, the solar god who first illuminated the whole world. Later, the god Ra gave birth to a pair of deities: the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut, from whom all the other gods were born.
Heliopolis cosmogony: the solar god Atum, the first of the gods, jumped out of the cold dark waters. Atum created the Primordial Hill and then created a pair of deities: the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut, vomiting them out of his mouth. God Shu is the god of wind and air; The goddess Tefnut is the goddess of world order. When Shu and Tefnut got married, they had twins: the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. This pair of twins, when they grew up and got married, gave birth to many children: the stars, and then other gods: Osiris, Set, Isis, Nephthys, Harver, who, together with their parents and ancestors, formed the great Ennead. God Shu cut off the sky from the earth so that Nut and Geb would not give birth to more gods (stars), and so that Nut would not eat her children. Thus the sky was separated from the earth.
Theban cosmogony: the first god of the earth - Amon - created himself, emerging from the initial waters. Then Amon created all things from himself: people and gods. Later, the god Amon became the solar god Amon-Ra. The god Amun-Ra, his wife the goddess Mut and their son the lunar deity Khonsu made up the Theban Triad of gods.
C) Gods create people. People appear after the first gods, but simultaneously with some other gods or even before some of them.
Memphis cosmogony: as already mentioned, the god Ptah creates all things, including people, from his body. This happened after the creation of the Ennead and the establishment of religion. After creation, God Ptah resides in the body of all creatures, animate and inanimate, endowing people with part of his creative power, which previously allowed him to create the world. In the place where Ptah created the world, the city of Memphis was formed.
Hermopolitan cosmogony: when the baby Ra saw the wonderful world illuminated by its rays, he cried with joy. From these tears of Ra, dropped on the Primordial Hill, the first people arose. There, on the Hill, the city of Hermopolis later arose.
Heliopolis cosmogony: the god Atum once temporarily lost his children: the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut. He sent after them his fiery divine Eye, which stubbornly wandered and illuminated the darkness. Instead of the first Eye, Atum created a second one for himself. This is how the sun and moon appeared. Meanwhile, the fiery Eye found the children of Atum. From joy that children were found, the god Atum began to cry. From these tears of Atum, which fell on the Primordial Hill, people arose. Later, the city of Heliopolis and its main temple were built on the Primordial Hill.
Theban cosmogony: the god Amon created everyone from himself. From his eyes appeared people, and from his mouth - gods. He taught people to build cities. The first city built was Thebes.
1.2 Myth of ancient Mesopotamia
Here we will apply the same three-step creation sequence, since Mesopotamian cosmogony is similar to ancient Egyptian cosmogony.
A) In the beginning, for a long time, only the World Ocean existed. His daughter, the goddess Nammu, was hiding in the depths of the Ocean.
B) The birth of the gods (with pedigree) and the creation of the world
From the womb of the goddess Nammu came a great mountain, on the top of which lived the god An (sky), and below lay the goddess Ki (earth). The god An and the goddess Ki got married and gave birth to the mighty god Enlil, and then seven more gods. This is how the eight gods appeared, ruling the world. Then the world gradually became crowded with the younger Anunnaki gods, who were born by An and Ki, as well as by the older gods. Then Enlil separated the sky from the earth (An from Ki), cutting off the firmament from the earth in order to stop the birth of new gods. Since then, a spacious and wide land has opened up, on which there was enough space for all the gods. God Enlil filled the vast earth with the breath of life and created in its center the city of Nippur with the temple of Enlil, where all the gods came to worship.
C) Gods create people.
Enlil's brother, the god Enki, the demiurge and sage, began to arrange the world while Enlil dealt with the gods. Enki released fish into the water, forbade the seas to flood the earth, filled the bowels of the earth with minerals, planted forests, established the order of irrigating the earth with rain, created birds and their singing. However, many younger gods began to devastate the earth in search of shelter and food. Then Enki creates the divine Sheep - the god Lahar and the divine Grain - the goddess Ashnan. Thanks to them, cattle breeding and agriculture appeared on the earth. Then Enki created assistants for the younger gods - hard-working and intelligent people. Enki and his wife Ninmah together began to sculpt people from clay and assign them fate and work. This is how people were created - men and women, endowed with soul and mind, similar in image to the gods.
1.3 Myth of ancient Babylonia
Babylonian culture is seen as a continuation of Mesopotamian culture. Therefore, we also apply the three-stage sequence of creation to the Babylonian cosmogony.
A) In the beginning there was the primordial Ocean. The seeds of life were already ripening in him.
B) The birth of the gods with their genealogy and the creation of the world.
Two first parents lived in the Ocean, stirring its waters: the all-creator god Apsu and the foremother goddess Tiamat. Then pairs of gods were born from the Ocean: Lahmu and Lahamu, Anshar and Kishar, as well as the god Mummu. Anshar and Kishar gave birth to the god Anu, and this one gave birth to the god Ey. When the god Eya dealt with his evil great-grandfather Apsu (he was irritated by the hubbub and restlessness of the gods), he married Damkina, and they gave birth to the god Marduk. This Marduk then became the supreme god. Marduk dealt with his great-grandmother Tiamat, and from her corpse he created the whole world - heaven and earth. Marduk decorated the sky with planets, stars, sun and moon; created clouds and rain, made rivers flow; created animals. Marduk also established religious rites. Later, many younger gods appeared, and the younger gods worked for the benefit of the elders.
C) Gods create people.
Marduk decided to create people from divine clay mixed with the blood of one of the younger gods who fought on the side of Tiamat against Marduk, so that people would serve many gods. People appeared hardworking and intelligent.
1.4 Myths of ancient Greece. Five variants of cosmogony
Let us apply the three-stage sequence of creation to ancient Greek cosmogony.
A) The primordial existence of Chaos, Ocean or Darkness, full of potentialities and essentially deities.
First option: in the beginning there was Chaos.
Second option: at first the whole world was covered by the Ocean.
Third option: in the beginning there was the goddess Night and the god Wind.
Fourth option: in the beginning there was Chaos.
Fifth option: in the beginning there were Darkness and Chaos.
B) The birth of the gods with a listing of their genealogies, and the creation of the world.
First option: Eurynome, the goddess of all things, rose naked from Chaos, separated the sky from the sea and began her lonely dance over its waves. It was cold; The north wind appeared behind the goddess. The goddess caught the north wind, and the great serpent Ophion appeared before her eyes. The goddess danced more and more frantically, warming herself, and Ophion wrapped himself around her and possessed her. The pregnant Eurynome laid the World Egg, and Ophion incubated it. From this Egg the whole world was born. After a quarrel between Eurynome and Ophion, the goddess herself created the planets and gave birth to the Titans and Titanides.
Second option: gods are born in the streams of the Ocean. The mother and ancestor of all gods is the goddess Tethys.
Third option: the goddess Night responded to the courtship of the god of Wind and laid a silver Egg. From him came the bisexual god Eros. Eros set the whole world in motion, made the earth, sky, sun and moon. The world began to be ruled by the triune Night - a triad of goddesses.
Fourth option: the Earth arose from Chaos and gave birth to Uranus in a dream. Uranus shed fertilizing rain on the Earth, and it gave birth to gods. Water also came from rain.
Fifth option: Chaos and Darkness gave birth to all the titans and gods, Heaven, Gaia-Earth, and the Sea.
C) Gods create people.
First option: Eurynome and Ophion settled on Mount Olympus after the creation of the world. Then they had a quarrel, as Ophion declared himself the creator of the Universe. The goddess drove the snake into the underground, knocking out his teeth. From these teeth of Ophion people were born.
Fifth option: people were created by the titan Prometheus and the goddess Athena. Prometheus blinded people from earth and water, and Athena breathed life into them. The soul in people appeared thanks to the wandering divine elements preserved from the time of creation.
1.5 Myths of ancient India. Three variants of cosmogonies
Indian myths gradually underwent strong changes, so there is no single system of views on the origin of the world. We will consider three narrative options.
1.5.1 One of the oldest variants of cosmogony is as follows. The gods created the Primordial Man Purusha. Then this Man was sacrificed by the gods, his body was cut into pieces. From the parts of the body arose the moon, sun, fire, wind, sky, cardinal points, earth and various classes of human society.
1.5.2 The next most famous version of cosmogony is somewhat reminiscent of the creation myths discussed above. Therefore, we will present it according to the same three-step scheme.
A) In the beginning there was nothing but the primordial Chaos, which rested without movement, but concealed within itself great powers.
B) From the darkness of the primordial Chaos, waters arose before other creations. The waters gave birth to fire. The Golden Egg was born within them by the great power of heat. Since there was no sun, no moon, no stars, there was nothing and no one to measure time, there was no year; but for as long as a year lasts, the Golden Egg floated in the vast and bottomless ocean. After a year of sailing, the progenitor Brahma emerged from the Golden Egg. Brahma broke the egg: the upper half of the Egg became Heaven, the lower half became Earth, and between them Brahma placed airspace. And he established the earth among the waters, created the countries of the world and laid the foundation for time. This is how the Universe was created. By the power of his thoughts, Brahma gave birth to six sons - six great lords, as well as other gods and goddesses. Brahma gave them power over the Universe, and he himself, tired of creation, retired to rest.
C) People are born from Vivasvat and the goddess Saranyu. Vivaswat was the son of the goddess Aditi and became a man after the gods remade his nature (he later became the sun god). The first children of Vivasvata and Saranyu were mortal men: Yama, Yami and Manu. The younger children Vivasvata and Saranyu were gods. The first person to die is Yama. After his death, he became the ruler of the kingdom of the dead. Manu was destined to survive the Great Flood. From him come the people now living on earth.
1.5.3 Late Hindu version of cosmogony. There is a trinity of gods - Trimurti - Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer, whose functions are not strictly delimited. The universe is cyclically born by Brahma, preserved by Vishnu and destroyed by Shiva. Brahma's day lasts as long as the Universe exists; night of Brahma - when the Universe dies and does not exist. Brahma's day and Brahma's night are equal to every 12 thousand divine years. The divine year consists of days equal to one human year. The life of Brahma lasts for 100 years of Brahma, after which there will be another Brahma. (We can calculate that the period of existence of the Universe is 4 million 380 thousand years, and the life of Brahma lasts 159 billion 870 million years.)
2 Comparative consideration of cosmogonies
2.1 Some common features of pagan cosmogonies
A common feature of most of the above myths is the idea of the existence of a primordial Ocean-Chaos-Darkness, which was not created by anyone, but was itself the progenitor, the environment for the birth of the first gods.
The second common feature of cosmogonies is the fact of the birth of many gods - polytheism, and each myth gives its own history of the relationships of the deities, their marriages and conflicts, their divine pedigree, who was born from whom. In many mythologies, deities act as personified forces or times of nature: the deity Ocean-Nun, the god Ptah-Earth, the god Atum-Sun, the god An-Sky, the goddess Ki-Earth, the daughter of Brahma, the goddess Virini-Night, etc.
The third common feature of myths is the narrative of the creation of the world and man by one or more of the elder gods. Moreover, some narratives claim that man was created to serve the gods, while others talk about the creation of man as an accidental, side event of divine history.
2.2 Comparison of creation myths with the Biblical account of the creation of the world and man
We believe that the reader is familiar with the content of the Biblical account of the creation of the world and man (Six Days), so there is no need to quote it. Let us point out that the three general features of cosmogonies listed above are fundamentally different from the Biblical Six-Day.
Instead of the originally, eternally existing progenitor of the Ocean-Chaos, the Bible claims that God created the world out of nothing. That is, according to the Biblical story, once the world did not exist, but then it was created by God.
Instead of long, intricate and fabulous stories about the relationships between gods and their genealogies, the Bible tells in ascetic language about one God (monotheism), who is the true Creator of the entire existing world. The God of the Bible and Christianity is not a personified force of nature, is not dissolved in the natural elements, but He is transcendental to the world, exists outside the world, outside physical space and time, unlike mythological deities.
Instead of ideas about the creation of man by one of the elder gods, Christianity claims that the true creator of man is the one God the Creator. Moreover, according to Christianity, the whole world was created only for the sake of the existence of man, who is the image of God and who is destined to reign over the material world. While in mythologies, the appearance of man looks like a minor event against the background of stories about the adventures of the gods.
A significant distinctive feature of the Biblical Six-Days is the statement about the sequential, step-by-step creation of the world during six days (periods) of creation. Moreover, each time after the next stage of creation, God characterizes the primordial nature and creation as perfect in His eyes. We will never find this recognition of the perfection of the creature in mythologies.
So, in its main features, the Biblical, Christian understanding of the creation of the world and man does not coincide with pagan mythologies.
But at the same time, there are some similarities and analogies between these narratives, which we will now consider.
1) In mythologies, the original state of the world is characterized as Chaos-Ocean-Darkness. In the Biblical Sixth Day, the initial state of the created earth is presented as formless and empty, covered with water and immersed in darkness.
2) The Primordial Chaos-Ocean-Darkness of mythologies is fraught with strength and potency and is the environment for the birth of gods. In the Bible, the Spirit of God hovers over the waters and gives them life.
3) In many mythologies, land appears from the waters. In the Bible, God gathers the waters under the sky into one place, revealing dry land.
4) Some analogy between the narratives is the birth of many gods in mythology and the creation of spiritual entities - angels in the Christian Holy Tradition. True, the Biblical Sixth Day does not directly talk about this. But many interpreters of the Bible understand the phrase about God’s creation of heaven as the creation of the angelic world.
5) In some mythologies there is a motif of separation (separation), for example, the separation of heaven from earth. In the Biblical Sixth Day, the motif of separation is clearly noticeable: the separation of light from darkness, the separation of the firmament of water from water, the actual separation of land from water.
6) In some mythologies, gods mold people from clay or earth. And, for example, in Babylonian cosmogony, to create a person, clay was mixed with the blood of one of the younger gods. In the Bible, God formed Adam from the dust of the ground, then breathed life into him. The name Adam itself can mean “clay” or, as they also say, “red clay.”
The question arises of how to interpret the differences and similarities between mythological cosmogonies and the Biblical narrative. How to assess the degree of similarity and degree of difference? Wasn't the Biblical Sixth Day borrowed from earlier myths of other peoples? Isn't the similarity of cosmogonies the effect of parallel independent collective creativity, a manifestation of an archetype, the collective unconscious of many peoples? And if so, then who or what put this archetype into the minds of humanity. Or maybe there is a single Source of true knowledge, from which all the known myths about creation originated, only different peoples decorated them in accordance with their inclinations, their mentality? This is a very difficult question. Moreover, behind this question one can feel the presence of a real secret... And the reader must ultimately come to comprehend it himself. In atheistic and non-Christian literature one can find claims that the Biblical account of the creation of the world and man is borrowed from earlier Babylonian and Egyptian or other mythology. After all, there are some analogies between them. But the brief comparative analysis presented here speaks against this, according to which there is a significant difference between these stories. More precisely, we want to say that differences are observed between the Bible and pagan cosmogonies, while there are many similarities between the cosmogonies themselves. And, on the contrary, Orthodox literature speaks of the polemical aspect of the Biblical Sixth Day, that it was written (including) against the then dominant religious and philosophical views of the pagans, i.e. against the creation myths of the peoples surrounding the ancient Jews. This is supported by the same significant differences between the Bible and the creation myths. Moreover, the Bible looks different: the language of the Bible is ascetic, there are no stories about the adventures of the gods, there are no divine genealogies. If the Bible were written simply as a Hebrew myth, then instead of the Sixth Day we would most likely have a Jewish version of the relationship of spiritual entities and their genealogies, against the background of which people appear as a secondary detail, either from the tears of a deity, or from the teeth of a serpent, and even then only to serve the gods. Then one could say that the Biblical narrative is the same as other myths, a product of the collective creativity of the people, the product of an archetype or a simple borrowing from more ancient legends. But it doesn't look like it. The biblical story differs in fundamental points from pagan cosmogonies. But then the question may arise: didn’t Moses personally come up with all this? Didn’t he take the Egyptian creation myths as a basis and rework them in favor of the affirmation of a single Creator of heaven and earth? Of course, this can be assumed. Moses could theoretically force people to confess Bible truth, but this is only theoretical. It is difficult to imagine that man himself, without the will of God, was able to achieve such colossal authority among the Jews that, instead of popular myths, he could impose the strict Sixth Day on an entire people, and a very stubborn people at that. The same Sixth Day in which greenery and trees flourish before the Sun is created, contrary to everyday observations, contrary to natural worship of the luminary and contrary to all common sense! And thus the Biblical tale became fundamentally different from pagan myths. And this should be seen as a manifestation of the will of God.
But we still haven’t sufficiently illuminated this question: where did the individual analogies between the narratives come from? Do they have a common source? The hypothesis about the existence of a common archetype does not solve the problem, but only pushes it aside, since then the question arises about the reason for the existence of this archetype. Here we adhere to a point of view, the logic of which let the reader evaluate for himself: there are at least two reasons for the existence of analogies between the Bible and pagan cosmogonies. The first and main probable reason is that they all have a common Source - Divine revelation, passed down from generation to generation through tradition. Perhaps Adam knew this legend when he had the closest communication with the Creator. After the fall of Adam and Eve, people fell away from God and the content of the tradition began to be lost. On the basis of legend, various pagan myths grew and flourished. Pagan peoples embellished the ancient legend by composing fabulous genealogies of gods, adding speculative moments, for example, the birth of the world from a Silver or Golden Egg, and obscuring the reason for the appearance of man, making man’s purpose in this world secondary. But at the right moment, Divine revelation was once again revealed to Moses to formalize it in Holy Scripture and to educate the Jewish people, and then all Christians, in worship of God. That is why the language of the Bible is ascetic, the texts of which stand apart from the myths of other peoples. The second probable reason for the existence of analogies between the Bible and pagan myths is that, while denying these myths and polemicizing with them, Holy Scripture is partly expressed in their own language. Apparently, otherwise the Jewish people, who had been captivated by the pagans, heard their cosmogonies and were tempted to worship their gods, would not have been able to understand the essence of Moses’ story. This is how we see the reasons for the existence of analogies between narratives.
The following question may arise: if pagan creation myths are distorted retellings of ancient tradition, then why do we claim that there are more fundamental similarities between the myths themselves than with the Bible? They would have to differ more from each other than each from the original source. The answer here is this. In fact, if the reader has noticed, great similarities are observed only between the myths of ethnically related and geographically close peoples, for example, the cosmogonies of the Semitic-Hamitic peoples are very similar: Egyptian (Memphis, Hermopolis, Heliopolis and Thebes), Mesopotamian and Babylonian, as descended from one branches of interpretation of ancient legend. The further the mutual kinship and location of peoples, the less similarities there are in their mythologies, since they come from different branches of retellings of legend. Further. The distortion of the ancient tradition among pagan peoples could follow a certain general direction, determined by the collective consciousness and collective unconscious of humanity, prone to polytheism, the deification of the elements and times of nature. In all likelihood, this allowed us in this work to identify a general three-stage scheme for the creation of the world among many peoples: A - the existence of the primordial Ocean-Chaos-Darkness, B - the birth of the gods and the creation of the world, C - the creation of man. Let us explain this using the example of stage A. The ancient tradition, judging by the Bible, should have asserted that in the beginning there was no world, but God always existed, that He created heaven and earth, and that the initial state of the created earth seemed formless and empty, covered with water and plunged into darkness. But the pagan consciousness of the peoples could not keep this truth, this secret of the creation of the universe unchanged, but began to see here the original state of the world as Chaos-Ocean-Darkness, which itself represents a deity. This is how the legend was distorted in favor of the deification of the elements of nature.
Conclusion
This work does not pretend to be complete. And it is impossible to fully illuminate one of the most important secrets of the universe - the mystery of its creation. We limited ourselves to considering only the cosmogonic part of pagan myths and Holy Scripture, leaving out of sight the story of man’s settlement in Paradise and his expulsion from Paradise. The similarities and differences between pagan myths and the Biblical account of the creation of the world are discussed in general terms. It has been suggested that pagan cosmogonies are distorted retellings of the Divine revelation given to humanity from Adam and revealed a second time to Moses for its formalization in the Holy Scriptures and for the education of the Jewish people, and then all Christians in God-worship.
Myth about the origin of the world from the primeval chaos, told by Hesiod, is classified as a cosmogonic myth, according to which the world gradually developed from an initial formless state, but it also contains the creation of the world by divine principles. It should be noted that, unlike the Biblical tradition about the creation of the world by the Triune God, there are no feelings here, there is no place for the love inherent in the Biblical Creator for His creation.
At the beginning of everything there was formless, dimensionless Chaos, then Gaia (Earth) appeared with Tartarus (the abyss) lying deep in its depths and the eternal force of attraction that existed long before them - Eros. The Greeks called the god of love, who accompanied the goddess of love Aphrodite, by the same name, but Eros, who stood at the beginning of the universe, excludes any feeling. Eros can be compared to the force of universal gravity - it is like a law. This force set Chaos and the Earth in motion. Chaos produces the feminine principle - Night and the masculine principle - Erebus (Darkness). The night gave birth to Tanat (Death), Sleep (Hypnos), a huge number of dreams, goddesses of fate - Moira, the goddess of retribution Nemesis, Deception, Old Age. The creation of the Night also became Eris, who embodied rivalry and strife, from which came Exhausting labor, Hunger, Sorrow, Battles, Murders, False words, Litigation and Lawlessness, but also the inexorably fair Orc, punishing anyone who takes a false oath. And from the connection of Night with Erebus, transparent Ether and shining Day were born - Light from Darkness!
It is significant that the motifs of Greek mythology, along with other Eastern systems, are present in the Gnostic worldview. Gnosticism, in addition, absorbed practically incompatible components, including elements of the Old Testament law and early Christian teaching.
According to the myth about the origin of the world, after this Gaia awakened: first Uranus (Sky) was born from her, then Mountains rose from her depths, their wooded slopes were filled with the nymphs she gave birth to, and Pontus (Sea) spilled over the plains. The covering of the Earth by Heaven led to the appearance of the first generation of gods - there were twelve of them: six brothers and six sisters, powerful and beautiful. They were not the only children from the union of Gaia and Uranus. Gaia also gave birth to three huge, ugly Cyclops with a large round eye in the middle of the forehead, and after them three more arrogant Hundred-Handed Giants. The Titans, having taken their sisters as wives, filled the expanses of Mother Earth and Father Sky with their offspring: they gave rise to a tribe of gods of the most ancient generation. The eldest of them, Oceanus, had three thousand daughters, beautiful-haired oceanids, and the same number of river streams that covered the entire land. Another pair of Titans produced Helios (Sun) Selene (Moon), Eos (Dawn) and numerous Stars. The third pair gave rise to the winds Boreas, Not and Zephyr. The Titan Iapetus could not boast of as abundant offspring as his older brothers, but he became famous for his few, but great sons: Atlas, who took on his shoulders the heavy burden of the firmament, and Prometheus, the noblest of the Titans.
The youngest son of Gaia and Uranus was Cronus, impudent and impatient. He did not want to endure either the arrogant patronage of his older brothers or the power of his own father. Perhaps he would not have dared to raise his hand against him, encroaching on the supreme power, if not for Gay’s mother. She shared with her matured son her long-standing resentment against her husband: he hated Uranus for the ugliness of his sons - the Hundred-Handed Giants - and imprisoned them in her dark depths. Cronus, under the protection of Nikta and with the help of his mother Gaia, seized his father's power. Taking his sister Rhea as his wife, Cron laid the foundation for a new tribe, to which people gave the name of the gods. However, the insidious Kron was afraid of his offspring, because he himself raised his hand against his father, and, so that no one would deprive him of power, he began to swallow his own children immediately after their birth. Rhea complained bitterly about her sad fate to Gaia and received advice from her on how to save another baby. When the child was born, Gaia herself hid him in one of the inaccessible caves, and Rhea gave the swaddled stone to her husband.
Meanwhile, Zeus (as the mother named the rescued baby) grew up in a hidden cave on the slopes of wooded Ida, the highest mountain on the island of Crete. He was guarded there by the young men of the Curetes and Corybantes, drowning out the children's cries with the blows of copper shields and the rattling of weapons, and Amalthea, the noblest of goats, fed him with her milk. In gratitude for this, Zeus, who subsequently took a place on Olympus, constantly took care of her, and after death he ascended her to heaven so that she would forever shine in the constellation Auriga. It is interesting that Zeus kept the skin of his nurse for himself, making a shield from it - a sign of supreme power. This shield was called “aegis”, which in Greek meant “goat”. According to him, Zeus received one of his most common epithets - aegis-sovereign. The horn, which Amalthea accidentally broke during her earthly life, was turned into a cornucopia by the ruler of the gods and given to his daughter Eirene, the patroness of the world.
Having matured, Zeus became stronger than his father and not through cunning, like Cronus, but in a fair fight he overcame him and forced him to vomit his swallowed brothers and sisters from the womb: Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. Thus, according to the myth about the origin of the world, the end of the era of the titans, who by this time had filled the heavenly and earthly expanses with several of their generations, was coming - the era of the gods of Olympus began.
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According to some, the world was created by Allah, Yahweh, the One God - whatever you call it, but we owe our lives to him. Not the big bang, not natural cosmic processes, but a creature that, according to the opinion, looks like Alanis Morisette. But this was not always the case; once upon a time, each nation offered its own version of the creation of life with the participation of sweat, masturbating gods and other heresies.
Scandinavians
According to the Scandinavians, in the beginning there was a void with the complex name Ginungagap. Next to the void, as expected, was the frozen world of darkness Niflheim, and in the south lay the fiery hot country of Muspellheim. And here elementary physics begins. Some ancient Scandinavian, noticing that frost appears from the contact of ice and fire, ventured to suggest that from such proximity the world's emptiness was gradually filled with poisonous frost. What happens when the poisonous frost melts? He usually turns into evil giants. The same thing happened here, and an evil giant was formed from the frost, whose name has Muslim overtones. Simply put, Ymir. He was asexual, but since this is, according to James Brown, “a man’s world,” we will refer to him as a man.
There was nothing to do in this emptiness, and, tired of hanging in the air, Ymir fell asleep. And here the most delicious part begins. Considering that there is nothing more intimate than sweat (referring to secondary urine, not the Cambodian dictator), they came up with the idea that the sweat dripping from under his arms turned into a man and a woman, from whom a line of giants later descended. And the sweat dripping from the feet gave birth to Trudgelmir - a giant with six heads. This is the story of the emergence of giantess. And with a smell too.
But the ice continued to melt, and, realizing that they needed to eat something, they invented a cow with the beautiful name Audumlu, which arose from the melt water. Ymir began to drink her milk, and she liked to lick the salty ice. Having licked the ice, she discovered a man under it, his name was Buri, the progenitor of all gods. How did he end up there? There wasn't enough imagination for this.
Buri had a son, Boryo, who married the frost giantess Bestla, and they had three sons: Odin, Vili and Ve. The sons of the Storm hated Ymir and killed him. The reason is purely noble: Ymir was evil. So much blood flowed from the body of the murdered Ymir that it drowned all the giants except Bergelmir, the grandson of Ymir, and his wife. They managed to escape the flood in a boat made from a tree trunk. Where did the tree in the void come from? Do you really care! Found it, and that's it.
Then the brothers decided to create something that the world had never seen before. Your own Universe with Drakar and Vikings. Odin and his brothers brought Ymir's body to the center of Ginungagapa and created a world from it. They threw flesh into blood - and the earth became. Blood, accordingly, is an ocean. The sky was made from the skull, and the brain was scattered across the sky to form clouds. So next time, when flying on a plane, catch yourself thinking that you are in a giant’s skull on a huge bird, cutting the giant’s brains.
The gods ignored only the part where the giants lived. It was called Etunheim. They fenced off the best part of this world for centuries with Ymir and settled people there, calling it Midgard.
Finally, the gods created people. From two tree knots, a man and a woman, Ask and Emblya (which is typical), turned out. All other people descended from them.
The latter built the impregnable fortress of Asgard, which rose high above Midgard. These two parts were connected by the rainbow bridge Bifrost. Among the gods, patrons of people, there were 12 gods and 14 goddesses (they were called “Aces”), as well as a whole company of other smaller deities (Vanir). This entire host of gods crossed the rainbow bridge and settled in Asgard.
The ash tree Yggdrasil grew above this multi-layered world. Its roots sprouted into Asgard, Jotunheim and Niflheim. An eagle and a hawk sat on the branches of Yggdrasil, a squirrel rushed up and down the trunk, deer lived at the roots, and below all sat the snake Nidhogg, who wanted to eat everything.
This is the beginning of one of the world's most wonderful mythologies. Reading the “Elder” and “Younger” Eddas will not make you regret the time spent for a second.
Slavs
Let us turn to our ancestors, as well as to the ancestors of the Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs and other Slavic peoples. There was no one specific myth, there were several of them, and not one of them is approved by the Russian Orthodox Church.
There is a version that it all started with the god Rod. Before the white light was born, the world was shrouded in pitch darkness. In this darkness there was only Rod - the Progenitor of all things. When asked what came first - an egg or a chicken, the Slavs would answer that it was an egg, because Rod was imprisoned in it. Sitting in the egg was not very good, and in some magical way, some, to the extent of their licentiousness, understood how, Rod gave birth to love, which, ironically, he named Lada, and with the power of love he destroyed the dungeon. This is how the creation of the world began. The world was filled with Love.
At the beginning of the creation of the world, Rod gave birth to the kingdom of heaven, and under it created the heavenly kingdom. With a rainbow he cut the umbilical cord, and with a rock he separated the Ocean from the heavenly waters. Then there were economic little things like the separation of Light and Darkness. Then the god Rod gave birth to the Earth, and the Earth plunged into a dark abyss, into the Ocean. Then the Sun came out of His face, the Moon - from His chest, the stars of heaven - from His eyes. Clear dawns appeared from Rod's eyebrows, dark nights - from His thoughts, violent winds - from His breath, rain, snow and hail - from His tears. Thunder and lightning are nothing but his voice. Actually, Rod is all living things, the father of all gods and everything that exists.
Rod gave birth to the heavenly Svarog, and breathed into him his mighty spirit, and gave him the ability, which is very useful in our days, to look in all directions at the same time, so that nothing could be hidden from him. It is Svarog who is responsible for the change of day and night and for the creation of the Earth. He forces the gray duck to get the land hidden under the ocean. There were no more worthy ones.
At first the duck did not appear for a year, could not get the Earth, then again Svarog sent it for the Earth, it did not appear for two years and again did not bring it. The third time, Rod could no longer stand it, he freaked out, struck the duck with lightning and gave it incredible strength, and the shocked duck was absent for three years until she brought a handful of earth in her beak. Svarog crushed the Earth - the winds blew the Earth from his palm, and it fell into the blue sea. The Sun warmed it, the Earth became crusty on top, and the Moon cooled it. He established three vaults in it - three underground kingdoms. And so that the Earth would not go back into the Ocean, Rod gave birth to the powerful snake Yusha under it.
The Carpathian Slavs believed that there was nothing but the blue sea and oak. How they got there is not specified. Two positive pigeons were sitting on an oak tree, who decided to take out fine sand from the bottom of the sea to create black soil, “icy water and green grass” and a golden stone from which the blue sky, the sun, the month and all the stars are made.
As for the creation of man, there was, of course, no natural selection. The Magi said the following. God washed himself in the bathhouse and sweated, wiped himself with a rag and threw it from heaven to earth. And Satan argued with God over who should create a man from her. And the devil created man, and God put his soul in him, because when a man dies, his body goes to the earth, and his soul goes to God.
The Slavs also have an ancient legend about the creation of people, in which eggs were not absent. God, cutting the eggs into halves, threw them on the ground. Here, from one half a man was obtained, and from the other, a woman. Men and women, formed from the halves of one egg, find each other and marry. Some halves fell into the swamp and died there. Therefore, some are forced to spend their entire lives alone.
China
The Chinese have their own ideas about how the world came into being. The most popular myth is the myth of Pan-gu, the giant man. The plot is as follows: at the dawn of time, Heaven and Earth were so close to each other that they merged into a single black mass. According to legend, this mass was nothing more than an egg, which was a symbol of life for almost every nation. And Pan-gu lived inside him, and he lived for a long time - many millions of years. But one fine day he got tired of such a life, and, swinging a heavy ax, Pan-gu got out of his egg, splitting it into two parts. These parts later became Heaven and Earth. He was of unimaginable height - about fifty kilometers in length, which, by the standards of the ancient Chinese, was the distance between Heaven and Earth.
Unfortunately for Pan-gu and fortunately for us, the Colossus was mortal and, like all mortals, died. And then Pan-gu decomposed. But not the way we do it. Pan-gu decomposed in a really cool way: his voice turned into thunder, his skin and bones became the earth's surface, and his head became the Cosmos. Thus, his death gave life to our world.
Ancient Armenia
Armenian legends are very reminiscent of Slavic ones. True, Armenians do not have a clear answer to how the world came to be, but they do have an interesting explanation of how it works.
Heaven and Earth are a husband and wife separated by an ocean. The sky is a city, and the Earth is a piece of rock, which is held on its huge horns by an equally huge bull. When he swings his horns, the earth bursts at the seams with earthquakes. That, in fact, is all - this is how the Armenians imagined the Earth.
There is an alternative myth where the Earth is in the middle of the sea, and Leviathan floats around it, trying to grab onto its own tail, and constant earthquakes were also explained by its flopping. When Leviathan finally bites its tail, life on Earth will cease and the apocalypse will begin. Have a nice day.
Egypt
The Egyptians have several myths about the creation of the earth, and one is more amazing than the other. But this one is the most original. Thanks to the cosmogony of Heliopolis for such details.
In the beginning there was a great ocean, whose name was “Nu,” and this ocean was Chaos, and besides it there was nothing. It was not until Atum, by an effort of will and thought, created himself from this Chaos. And you complain about the lack of motivation... But then - more and more interesting. So, he created himself, now he had to create land in the ocean. Which is what he did. After wandering around the earth and realizing his total loneliness, Atum became unbearably bored, and he decided to make more gods. How? He climbed the hill and began to do his dirty work, desperately masturbating.
Thus, from the seed of Atum, Shu and Tefnut were born. But, apparently, he overdid it, and the newborn gods were lost in the ocean of Chaos. Atum grieved, but soon, to his relief, he found and rediscovered his children. He was so glad to be reunited that he cried for a long, long time, and his tears, touching the earth, fertilized it - and people grew out of the earth, many people! Then, while people impregnated each other, Shu and Tefnut also had coitus, and they gave birth to other gods - Geb and Nut, who became the personification of the Earth and sky.
There is another myth in which Atum is replaced by Ra, but this does not change the main essence - there, too, everyone fertilizes each other en masse.
Every nation has its own mythology concerning the origin of all things. It should be noted that different mythologies have much in common. In ancient times, people assumed that the land arose from the endless and timeless ocean, from chaos, from the conflict between paternal and maternal gods. Below are the most interesting myths about the creation of the world among different peoples.
Among the Sumerians
In Mesopotamia 4 thousand years BC. e. one of the most ancient human civilizations arose. This was the state of Akkad, which later gave rise to such powers as Assyria and Babylon. Akkad was inhabited by the Sumerians, an ancient highly developed people. These people believed that originally there was a god and goddess - Alsou (god of fresh water) and Tiamat (goddess of salt water).
They lived independently of each other and never crossed paths. But it so happened that at some point the salt and fresh waters mixed. And then the elder gods appeared - the children of Tiamat and Alsou. A large number of younger gods appeared behind the elders. And they all felt cramped and uncomfortable in the world around them.
To return to the original balance, the god Alsou and the goddess Tiamat decided to destroy their children. A battle began, which ended unsuccessfully for the cruel celestials. The son of Enki defeated Alsou. He killed his father and cut his body into 4 parts. They turned into seas, land, rivers and fire. Tiamat also fell, struck by the younger god Marduk. Her severed body turned into wind and storms. After the destruction of Alsou and Tiamat, Marduk became the main one, taking possession of a certain artifact “Me”. He determined the movement and fate of the entire surrounding world.
Iranians
Myths about the creation of the world among different nations found their continuation among the Iranians. According to their ideas, the history of the world was divided into 4 large periods. During the first period there were prototypes of everything that subsequently appeared on Earth. This is the so-called invisible or spiritual period.
The second period was characterized by the creation of the visible or real world. The main creator Ahura Mazda was engaged in this. The Sun, Moon, stars, sky, the first man and the first bull were created. But Ahriman intervened in the creations of the main creator. He sent death to the first man and the first bull. But by this time a man and a woman had already been born, from whom the human race came, and from the first bull all the animals came.
In the third period, a shining kingdom appears, headed by King Yima. In this kingdom there is no cold, heat, old age, envy, or greed. The noble king saves people and animals from the Great Flood. And in the fourth period, the prophet Zoroaster appears, bringing people goodness and truth about the universe. He said that after him his sons would appear, and the last of them would decide the fate of the world and humanity. He will resurrect the righteous, destroy evil and defeat Ahriman. After this, the world will be cleansed, and what remains will acquire eternal existence.
The Chinese
The ancient Chinese believed that the entire world was once shaped like a huge chicken egg. It was in it that the god Pangu was born. At first he was in a state of sleep for several thousand years, and then he woke up and decided to get out of the egg. To do this, he cut through the shell with an ax, and his two divine principles formed heaven and earth. Pangu stood on the ground and supported the sky with his head. God sighed and the wind rose, exhaled and thunder roared. He opened his eyes and day came, he closed them and night fell on the ground.
According to Greek mythology, Chaos reigned in the world at first. From it the land of Gaia emerged, and in its depths the abyss of Tartarus formed. Nikta - night and Erebus - darkness were also generated. The night, in turn, gave birth to Tanat - death and Gipson - sleep. From her also came Eris, the goddess of rivalry and discord. She created hunger, sorrow, murder, lies, exhausting work. Erebus entered into contact with Nikto, and Aether with a shining day was born. Gaia gave birth to Uranus, that is, the sky, and from its depths mountains rose and the sea overflowed - Pontus.
After this, Gaia and Uranus gave birth to the Titans. These are Oceanus, Tethys, Iapetus, Hyperion, Crius Theia, Kay, Phoebe, Themis, Mnemosa, Kronos, Rhea. Kronos entered into an alliance with Gaia and overthrew Uranus. Having seized power, he married his sister Rhea. From them came a new tribe of gods. But Kronos was afraid that his children would seize power from him, so he swallowed the next child immediately after birth. However, Rhea managed to hide one of the newborns in Crete. It turned out to be Zeus. When he grew up, he defeated Kronos and forced him to vomit up all the children he had eaten. These are Aida, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Hestia. Thus ended the era of the Titans, and they were replaced by the gods of Olympus.
Among the ancient Egyptians
The ancient Egyptians considered Atum to be the father of everything, who arose from Nun, the primordial ocean. At that time there was no earth and sky. Atum simply grew into the ocean like a huge hill. He took off from the water, soared above it, cast magic spells and another hill appeared. Atum sat on it and vomited out the god of air Shu and the goddess of water Teftun. Then he began to cry, and people appeared from his tears. From Shu and Teftun appeared Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys. It was Osiris who became the first god to be killed and resurrected for an eternal afterlife.
Among the ancient Slavs
And, of course, when considering the myths about the creation of the world among different peoples, one cannot ignore the ancient Slavs. They believed that in the beginning only Darkness existed. It contained the progenitor Rod, enclosed in an egg. He gave birth to Love, and with its help he destroyed the shell. After this, Love supplanted Darkness, and Rod created two kingdoms - the heavenly and the under-celestial.
In the celestial kingdom, he separated the ocean from the firmament, the Sun came out of his face, and the Moon appeared from his heart. From Rod's breath arose the wind, from his tears rain, hail and snow appeared. The voice became thunder and lightning. After this, Rod reproduced Svarog, and he created the change of day and night. This is how all things were born, giving life to people, animals and fish.
These are the myths about the creation of the world that exist among different peoples. At first glance, these are beautiful fairy tales. But in every fairy tale there is always some truth. And therefore you should not indifferently brush aside mythologies. They need to be studied, compared and tried to comprehend the true meaning of these amazing and beautiful stories..