Creation Myth Comaprison

Creation Myth Comparison JIM TURNER HUM/105 August 18, 2014 Victor Armenta   Creation Myth Comparison Learning from different, ancient cultures presents a unique opportunity to reflect on how that society came to believe in a particular myth and use it to explain the world around them. A more interesting study happens when comparing two or more cultures, and examining the differences of their myths, which set out to explain the same or similar events. Creation myths give a rich field upon which to focus study and circumspection. Comparison with the Creation myth of the Native American Iroquois League, and the Norse Creation Myth from the Eddas, will help point out similarities and differences. This paper will discuss the worlds, elements of the myths, as well as, the creator and creation itself, the gender identities of the gods and the people the gods created. In many myths cosmic elements play a big role, the role of such cosmic events helps to better understand the myths originator and what may have happened in their lifetime. Briefly, creation myths and their importance to culture get examined. The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora make up the Native American Iroquois League. This people have a rich culture and heritage. They lived in a very maternal society, Prior to the establishment of the United States; the Iroquois League had in place a representative republic form of government, whose representatives were elected by the mothers of each tribe and village. The chiefs elected met in the Great Lodge in quorums much like the US House of Representatives meets in quorums and committees today. The Iroquois’ rich culture and tradition gives a wonderful insight to these people. The Sky Woman creation myth, part of the Iroquois rich culture, demonstrates the high regard this people held women, and how much they valued the Earth. This myth begins in another world. A young woman receives word from her deceased father to marry a complete stranger. Without asking her mother, the young woman goes to find the stranger. Upon finding him, she relays that she is to marry him. After listening to her he agrees to marry her if she can pass his tests. She passes the tests and they marry. One this mans land grew a large tree of light. This woman loved to sit by the tree and think and reflect on life. While lying down at the base of the tree one day, she becomes impregnated by the tree. Her husband knows this and comes to despise her and the tree. So, he digs it up and to his surprise he can see at the bottom of the hole what appears to be a blue sky. He invites his wife to come see what he has discovered, and convinces her someone needs to explore it. She agrees and jumps in the hole and falls for a very long time, nearly an eternity. She gets lost in dreams and almost forgets why she fell in the first place. She became aware of intelligent beings in the vast emptiness she was in and eventually fell into their arms and wings, the beings were waterfowl, beaver, and turtle. As she cane to rest with them she realized that she was in motion with them. She felt a gentle spinning as that of a dance. She felt as if she were dancing with the universe. Beaver, Turtle and Waterfowl, knew they were to platy a part in her destiny. Turtle tells his companions to put her on his back and he will swim with her; this they do and as turtle swims he gathers and places under her a cosmic matter, which he knows she will use to form her new earth. He helped he place the stars in the sky as they floated around the galaxy. When comes to rest she gives birth to the light tree which grows from turtles back. She then gives birth to her daughter who takes a long journey herself. Upon her return to her mother she gives birth to two sons one who is not fully developed and the other who the sky woman rejects. This rejected son would come t o create the world. His mother was put in the light tree in the high branches and began to shine and became the sun. Sky Woman the grandmother began to dance and sing and give thanks. (Leonard & McClure, 2004, pp. 71-75) This myth holds many different elements. Sky Woman can be considered the original god or creator through her powers she endows her daughter to create light and pass on the ability to create the world to her son. The strong feminine influence and maternal strength in the Iroquois culture is shown in the myth. Both Sky Woman and her daughter are able to carry in their womb children without needing a man. The cosmic element to this myth, represented by Sky Woman’s ride on turtle around the galaxy in spirals shows the Iroquois may have understood something about spiral galaxies, such as our own Milky Way Galaxy. The Vikings play a great part in European history. The lands they influenced stretched from England to Russia, making ring around the North Sea, and beyond to Iceland, Greenland, and even the Americas. In Norway the Creation of the world by Odin begins in the vast emptiness known as Ginnungagap. The Ginnungagap divided in to two realms, the Niflheim in the north and the Muspell in the south. In the middle of these two realms, in the Ginnungagap, The mixture of cold from Niflheim and the heat from Muspell mixed and created the perfect environment for the formation of the giant Ymir. From Ymir’s body oozed a primordial substance from which his children were formed. Bor one of Ymir’s sons married a Frost Giant named Bestla. Bestla mothered three children, Odin, Vili, and Ve. The three brothers grew tired of the Frost Giants and their grandfather Ymir, so they attacked Ymir and killed him. Using his body to create the earth and his skull to make up the sky, Odin took the glowing embers and hot sparks from Muspell and flung them in t the sky for stars, moon and the sun. They entrapped the frost giants in a land named Jotunheim, a land separated by a barrier created from Ymir’s eyebrows. The land below the barrier received the name Midgard. One day, while walking in Midgard, Odin and his brothers came across two uprooted trees, one an ash and the other an elm. From the ash Odin formed the first man named Ask, out of the Elm he formed the first woman named Embla. Ask and Embla were given Midgard to have as their home. Once Odin and his brothers created the earth and sky and filled it with giants, men and dwarves, they created for themselves another realm, set above Midgard, and named it Asgard. The Asgardians only traveled the two realms, linked by a bridge called the Bifrost. They were the gods. (Leonard & McClure, 2004, pp. 58-62). Many different types of creation mythology make up this one creation myth; accretion, secretion, and Deus Faber, each find their role in the creation of Ymir, the frost giants, Odin and his brothers, and man. The way stars, the moon, and the sun come to being, demonstrate this myth has some inconsistencies. This myth shows these elements being created twice, once from the embers and sparks of Muspell, and the second time they are created from the children of the frost giants, after they have been partitioned from Midgard. This cosmic element may suggest a natural disaster, which may have caused the Sun., Moon, and stars needed to be recreated. The first creation of these elements from a volcanic eruption of mostly molten lava and rock being blasted in to the sky, the second from a volcanic eruption consisting of mostly and ash cloud causing a regional blackout hiding the Sun, Moon and stars. This interpretation, speculation at best, demonstrates possible reasons why this story has two creations of cosmic bodies. There exist few similarities between these two stories; even the need for creation is different. In the Sky Woman, the unconscious awareness of being in an eternal void necessitates a need for a place where one can be grounded, a home. In the Norse creation myth two realms already exist and seems have existed for eternity; it is the fringe mingling of these two realms which acts as catalyst for the creation of all of the rest of the heavenly and earthly worlds. In both myths the world came form each ones perspective void. In conclusion while myths of ancient times make great stories for today, an understanding of the people who conducted their lives in the belief of these myths, tell a lot about them, and show how certain events in earths history may have played a role in the telling of the original myth or made their way into subsequent telling’s. One thing is for sure modern man has learned a great deal about the people of the myths because of the myth. References: Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). Creation Myths. In Myth and Knowing. An Introduction to World Mythology. McGraw-Hill Company. CREATION MYTH COMPARISON 7 Running head: CREATION MYTH COMPARISON 1