Creation Motifs In Mythology

Throughout all of mythology, there are multiple similarities, or motifs. This is because there are multiple constants throughout every man’s life; having to eat, encountering animals, seeing the largest thing before them; the sun, weather, etc. Many peoples also share ideas, morals, beliefs, etc., and these are common as well. Sometimes these creation motifs are communicated from people to people; and sometimes people come up with similar ideas. The three motifs that I believe to be the most important, or relevant are: man taking care of earth, Man being created first, and Imperfect creators.

Man taking care of Earth Many cultures used the idea of man taking care of Earth in their idea of creation because they found it imperative

At first, Raven did not know about his creation. When the first man popped out of the peapod, he discovered him when he was soaring above the Earth. When he first approached him, they just stared at each other for a long time; then whenever they did start talking, Raven found out that soon there would be many more men, he created other beings and plants for him. Soon after this, he witnessed man experiencing the same loneliness that he had known himself. Raven then fashioned the first woman out of clay and gave her to man. The Cheyenne creation is very similar to Hebrew creation, in the aspects of creation of man. Maheo took his right rib, and created the first man, much like god did. Maheo then took his left rib and created

This shows that the people who believed in these gods, knew that they too, were not perfect. The Greek creation myth is a great example of this because all of the gods they believed in were flawed. Prometheus for example, loved his creation too much, by doing so, he let his own feelings get in the way of his task; in fact, he loved man so much, that he stole for them. Zeus had anger issues, and threw a fit when things didn’t go his way. Hera got jealous and punished men who were unfaithful. Babylonians included this myth as well, in the Enuma Elish, which included many different imperfect gods. At first there was only two creators, Apsu and Tiamat, then they had children. Apsu’s and Tiamat’s children were Lahmu and Lahamu, which joined, and had their own offspring; which sprang off to be more and more gods. Ea and his brothers were a group of gods, who would go over the waters all the time, which happened to be very noisy. This caused Apsu and Tiamat to not be able to get any sleep. Apsu plotted the murder, of his grandchildren. However, Ea found out about their plans, and killed Apsu. Obviously these gods were imperfect, because if they were perfect there wouldn’t be any troubles or