Parallel Myths (8 page)
Authors: J.F. Bierlein
An Oedipal, Patriarchal Creation Myth
THE BIRTH OF THE GODS
I
n the beginning there was only Geia (the Earth) and a great sea of Chaos. Out of Chaos came night and Erebus (darkness). From the night came the “ethers,” or upper atmosphere, and day. The earth produced the sea, then the great ocean, and other children including the Titans, Hyperion (the sun, “he who flies over”),
*
Rhea, Mnesmosyne (“memory”), Phoebe (the moon, “the shining one”), and at last Cronus. The children of Geia, the earth, were fathered by Uranus, the sky.
Uranus became jealous of the affection that Geia had for her children and sought to destroy them. First, he hid them deep inside her in a cavern. She was tired of Uranus’ jealousy; and, as her children grew, they caused her great pain. The youngest of these children, Cronus, decided to take revenge on his cruel father. Earth took Cronus into her bed with a sickle in his hand. When Uranus came to sleep with Geia, Cronus castrated his father and flung the parts into the sea, where they sired Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who emerged from the fertile sea foam.
The blood poured out over the earth, giving life to the Furies, the avengers who mete out justice.
Cronus was now master of the gods and he married Rhea. Their children were Hestia (goddess of the hearth), Demeter (goddess of agriculture), Hera (goddess of childbirth), Ares (god of war), and lastly, Zeus. Cronus, jealous of the attention Rhea gave her children, swallowed them all whole, except Zeus whom Rhea sent to Crete for safekeeping. She deceived Cronus into swallowing a stone that he believed to be Zeus. Like her mother, Rhea conspired with her son to take revenge upon her cruel husband. For Rhea knew that it would be Zeus who would overthrow his father and become king of the gods.
Zeus remained in a cave where he was nourished by the goat Amalthea and fed by the honey of wild bees. He grew to manhood in just a few short years, at which time Cronus vomited up all of his swallowed children, as well as the stone. The stone was placed by Zeus at Delphi, where the Oracle of the god Apollo is located. Cronus was killed. For ten years Zeus and his brothers battled against their uncles, the Titans, for mastery of the universe. Finally, with the Titans vanquished, Zeus set up his court on Mount Olympus as the uncontested master of the gods.
The Yoruba (West Africa)
I
n the beginning the world was a watery, formless Chaos that was neither sea nor land, but a marshy waste. Above it, in the sky, lived the Supreme Being, Olorun, attended by other gods, including Orisha Nla, called the Great God. Olorun called Orisha Nla into his presence and ordered him to make a world. It was time to make solid land and Orisha Nla was given a snail shell full of magic earth, a pigeon, and a five-toed hen to accomplish this assignment. Orisha Nla came down to the Chaos and set to work organizing it. He threw the
magic earth into a small patch. The pigeon and the hen began to scratch in the magic earth, and they scratched until land and sea were entirely separated.
When Orisha Nla returned to the Supreme Being to report on his work, a chameleon was sent with him to inspect the job. The chameleon reported good things and Olorun, satisfied with the good report, dispatched Orisha Nla to finish. The first place on earth was known as
Ifé
which means “wide” in the Yoruba language. Later, the word
He
, meaning “house,” was added. Today the city of Ifé-Ilé is the most sacred to the Yoruba people.
The making of earth took four days. On the fifth, Orisha Nla rested from his work. The Yoruba traditionally have a four-day work week and rest on the fifth in memory of the creation.
Orisha Nla was sent back to earth to plant trees, including the first oil palm. Olorum made rain fall from heaven to water the seeds, which grew into a great forest.
In heaven, Olorun began to make the first people. They were fashioned from earth by Orisha Nla, but only Olorun, the Supreme Being, could give them life. Orisha Nla hid in Olorun’s workshop to watch. However, Olorun knew that Orisha Nla was hiding there and put him into a deep sleep, and so only Olorun knows the secret of how to bring a body to life. To this day Orisha Nla, through the agency of parents, makes the body, but only the Supreme Being can give it life.
Madagascar
THE THREE PEOPLE AND THE STATUE
T
he Creator made two men and a woman, each of whom wandered the earth alone unaware that the others existed. The first man was lonely and carved a statue of a beautiful girl out of wood. The second man happened to pass by and fell in love with the statue. However, the second man was shocked by its nakedness and clothed
it, covering the statue with beautiful flowers. Later, the woman happened to be passing by and she too was lonely. She took the statue home with her and asked the Creator to give it life. The statue slept in bed with her, and by morning, it was transformed into a living girl.
The two men searched for the statue and when the three people met for the first time, they argued. The woman would not turn the girl over to the two men. Then the Creator intervened.
He ordained that the first man, who had made the statue, was the father of the girl. The woman who had taken it home was the mother. The man who had clothed the statue and fallen in love with it was to be the girl’s husband. All human beings are descended from these two couples.
Madagascar
MOTHER EARTH AND THE CREATOR
T
he Creator was watching his daughter, Mother Earth, making little dolls out of clay and he became interested. He spoke to his daughter about them and breathed life into them, creating living human beings.
As time passed, however, the humans multiplied and prospered. They gave thanks to Mother Earth but forgot all about the Creator. He told his daughter that it was wrong for her to accept all of the sacrifices of the humans without sharing them. Thenceforth, he would take the souls of half the humans as tribute and leave the other half alive. The reason most of the souls he takes are from old people is that he is patient. As the Creator gave humans their souls, that is all that he can take; Mother Earth made their bodies and that is the part of humans that goes to her at their death.
THE WATERY ABYSS
B
efore the existence of Great Ra, the sun-god, was his father, the Watery Abyss. Ra emerged from the Watery Abyss and then all things came into being out of the words of his mouth. First, he blew out the first air (Shu), then he spat out the first moisture (Tefnut). These became the god of the air, Shu, who is the life force, and his wife, Tefnut, the organizing world order. Also out of the air and moisture, Ra created the Eye of Ra, the goddess Hathor, in order to see what he was making. When he had his eye, Ra began to weep. Human beings were created from his tears.
Hathor, the Eye of Ra, was angered that she was not attached to his body. So Ra found a spot for her on his forehead. Then Ra created the serpents, and other creatures came from them.
The Memphite Theology of Creation
THE ENNEAD
NOTE
: Memphis was the religious and theological center of ancient Egypt. The following myth is a product of the discourse that took place there. This text has been dated to about 2700
B.C
. and is a translation by John A. Wilson in
The Ancient Near East
.
T
here came into being as the heart and there came into being as the tongue [something] as the form of Atum. The mighty one is Ptah, who transmitted [life to all the gods] as well as to their kas [souls], through the heart, by which Horus became Ptah, and through the tongue by which Thoth [god of wisdom] became Ptah.Thus it happened that the heart and tongue gained control over [every other] member of the body, by teaching that he is in every body and in every mouth of all gods, all men, cattle, all creeping things, and [everything] that lives, by thinking and commanding everything that he wishes.
His Ennead [the nine chief gods] is before him [in the form of] teeth and lips. That is [the equivalent of] the semen and hands of Atum. Whereas the Ennead of Ptah, however, is in the teeth and lips in this mouth, which pronounced the name of everything, from which Shu and Tefnut came forth, and which was the fashioner of the Ennead.
The sight of the eyes, the hearing of the ears, and the smelling the air by the nose, they report to the heart. It is this which causes every completed [concept] to come forth, and it is the tongue which announces what the heart thinks.
Thus all the gods were formed and his Ennead was completed. Indeed, all the divine order really came into being through what the heart thought and the tongue commanded. Thus the ka-spirits were made and the hemsut-spirits were appointed, they who make all provisions and all nourishment, by this speech. [Thus justice was given to] him who does what is liked, [and injustice to] him who does what is disliked. Thus life was given to him who has peace and death was given to him who has sin. Thus were made all work and all crafts, the action of the arms, the movement of the legs, and the activity of every member, in conformance with [this] command which the heart thought, which came forth through the tongue, and which gives value to everything.
Thus it happened that it was said of Ptah: “He who made all and brought the gods into being.” He is indeed Ta-tanen, who brought forth all the gods, for everything came from him, nourishment and provisions, the offerings of the gods, and every good thing. Thus it was discovered and understood that his strength is greater than [that of the other] gods. And so Ptah was satisfied, after he had made everything, as well as all the divine order. He had formed the gods, he had made cities … he had put the gods in their shrines, he had established their offerings … he had made their bodies like that [with which] their hearts were satisfied. So the gods entered into their bodies of every [kind of] wood, of every [kind of] stone, of every [kind of] clay, or anything
which might grow upon him, in which they had taken form. So all gods, as well as their kas gathered themselves to him, content and associated with the Lord of the Two Lands [Upper and Lower Egypt].