Cosmic Creation Myths Across Cultures Case

Cosmic Creation Myths Across Cultures

Chiffon Anderson

HUM/105

September 14, 2015

Instructor: Virginia Mayer

Cosmic Creation Myths Across Cultures

INTRODUCTION

People have always pondered about the things they do not know about, such as the why and how of the universe; or why we are alive, and much more.  Every culture has tried to produce an explanation to these wonders in their own stories by forming creation myths.  Most of these creation myths begin with the birth of a being that signifies life and there is always a higher being.Two different types of creation myths are the Yoruba creation myth from Africa and the Maya Creation myth from America.  The Yoruba creation myth is the creation of the universe and Ife; and tells how the world, humans, and the great flood came into existence.  The Mayan creation myths have some Christianity influence behind it that tells of the beginning and how everything was created as well (Creation Myths, n.d.).

ELEMENTS OF CREATION MYTHS IN THESE WORLDS

        In the creation myth of the Yoruba tribe the world or worlds that are depicted in the story are the sky in which the creator first lived was the sky and then the earth was formed by the creator.   The elements in the Yoruba creation myth consist of an earth below the sky that in the beginning only had water and marshlands.  It was void of all things such as mountains, valleys, and fields, no animals or humans.  After one of the gods saw that there was nothing below he climbed down and created the lands and humans.  In the Mayan creation myth the Mayans depicted a sky above and later the gods created earth that held mountains, valleys, trees, and water.  

DESCRIBTION OF THE CREATORS

        There were basically two creators in the Yoruba creation myth.  The main creator was Obatala a male god whom Olorun the ruler of the sun favored.  Obatala was a young god whom looked down from his kingdom in the sky; into the goddess Olokun kingdom below and saw that it only consisted of marshlands and water and he thought it should have more form.  So he went to Olorun’s son Orunmila who was a prophetess and asked him what he needed to create and earth below with more landforms and more life.  Orunmila told Obatala that he would need to go to a goldsmith first so that he could make him a chain long enough for him to climb below, then he would need to fill up a snails shell with sand; he would also need a hen, black cat, and finally a palm nut and carry that with him below.  Once Obatala gathered some gold from all the god’s in the sky and took them to the gold smith to make the chain, Obatala started his descend into the Olokun marshland kingdom.  The chain was not long enough so Obatala had to drop the snails shell with sand onto the water and then the hen to spread the sand and this is what created the lands, he named this the Ife.  After that Obatala planted the palm nut and grew palm trees.  Olorun the god of the sky checked on Obatala and Obatala told him it was dark so Olorun put the sun in the sky for him and made the earth bright.  Obatala became lonely on the earth so he made clay figures in the sand and asked Olorun to breathe life into them and he did and that act created human beings but since Obatala had drunk some wine from the palm tree before he finished and had made some imperfect figures (some with hunch backs and uneven limbs) he promised to never drink again.  So there were some deformed human beings.  So the new human beings formed a Yoruba village on the Ife, where they farmed and raised grains and yams.  Obatala later left the Yoruba City and returned to his home in the sky.  The destroyer in the Yoruba creation myth was the goddess Olokun because Obatala did not consult with her first before creating these things in her kingdom she became infuriated at the disrespect and sent a great wave and flood to the land of Ife and drowned many people and destroyed the Yoruba village.  Since Orunmila had the gift of prophecy he climbed down from the sky and caused the waves to subside and the people of Yoruba rebuilt (Rosenberg, 2006).  In the Mayan creation myth the creators of the world were great thinkers that lived in the water and were neither male nor female.  The creators thought together and came up with an idea to fill the void.  First they created the land on earth by receding the sea, then rising up the earth.  Once the earth had arisen; out of the mist, clouds, and dust came the mountains, valleys, trees, and fresh water.  Next came the wild animals, birds, snakes, and deers.  The creators then gave the animals their living arrangements.  But because the animals could not speak to praise them they decided to make superior creatures to them and thus came forth the human which the creators first made out of mud but they were to week, then the creators tried wood but then they had no brain to think so the creators were displeased and killed them by floods.  Some animals came forth and told the creators of a corn field and so the creators made the next human out of cornmeal dough.  They fed them the corn and it gave them flesh and made them strong.  They were created with both light and dark skin and they all spoke different languages.  They were called the first four fathers and they were superior and great.  The creators got together and thought that they had made them to superior and feared that they would turn out to be gods like them so they took away their great sight by blowing fog into their eyes.  The creators then created help mates for the four fathers and then many more human beings like them.  The creators then created the sun that gave them light (Rosenberg, 2006).