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Creation Myth Motif Examples

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“Creation Myth Motif”

Ever since the beginning of time, humans have had many myths and stories about how the earth was made and how we became as we are. These are called creation myths; they have different variations, but all have the same thought process. In these creation myths they include “motifs”; which are definitive recurring themes and instances that happen throughout myths. Now, concerning creation myths, there are three main recurring motifs, which are War/Chaos, People Created from Organic Matter (of some sort) , and One main Ruler or Creator/ Many Creators Rulers.

Motif #1
With the creation motif War/Chaos, this is a fairly common thought among creation myths. The earth was young, so destruction …show more content…

And, these materials sometimes came from nature and is slightly logical in theory, which leads to humans thinking that they were “One with Nature” from perusing over these creation myths. This has always been in play in many of these creation myths similar to the Mayan one. In this creation myth the humans that were made were decreed by the gods that they were to tend the earth and make it suitable to their liking.
Not only are the humans being made from organic materials,but we were also given some form of a supernatural gift to make us living and breathing. An example would be according to the Norse creation myth when Odin had used his breath on us to give us life. This made us living, breathing, and it gave us the ability to move around so we could tend to the world as they so devised.
But, there are instances according to the creation myth with Raven when he was unaware that he had made humans. The first was a man that had risen up out of a pea pod plant already living and aware of life around him. Yet, while he did not make the first man he had to construct the second human which was the woman. By doing this, he sculpted her out of soft clay, then flapped his wings over her making her living kind of like the supernatural breath of life that Odin had

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708 Words | 3 Pages

Odin was married to Frigg, the guardian of marriage. many people believed that before the world existed, Odin and his two younger brothers, Vili and Ve, killed the primal frost giant Ymir. They used Ymir's bones, blood, and flesh to form the universe. Odin arranged the heavens for the gods, the middle world for humans and dwarfs, and the underworld for the dead. He then created the first man and woman from an ash tree and an elm tree.

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590 Words | 3 Pages

The first race of beings were made from wet clay. This material was weak which lead to the beings falling apart before they were able to speak. The next race was made from the wood and the bark of the trees. These beings were much stronger, they had the ability to walk, talk and multiply.

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Afterwards, the Creating Power brought out all the animals and plants from his pipe bag and used the earth to form humans. He brought all the creatures and humans to life and assigned them to their tribes. After he finished with his creation of the current world, the Creating Power explained to the humans that this is not the first world he created, but the third. Further, he explained that the people in the first world misbehaved inappropriately, so he decided to scorch the world.

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807 Words | 4 Pages

It is fascinating how the human mind can come up with many ideas of the birth of the world. In the story of The World on a Turtle’s Back there is mention that in the beginning there was no world, or land; but there was a great ocean and above it a great void of air. That void of air was the Sky World where the story commences. Then there is The Four Creations and The Tohono O'odham Creation Story. All three of these have their similarities and the differences on how the world was built.

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Deep inside the earth, Aba, the great spirit created man and grasshoppers. After the earth was created, men and grasshoppers came to the earth’s surface through a passageway that came deep into the earth’s interior and to the top of Nane Chaha. (Bushnell, 1910). In the second emergence myth, the Nane Chacha is created first with a passageway leading from the summit to the bottom of the earth. After everything was created on earth, including trees, plants and lakes, the Choctaw emerged through the passageway and were scattered all over the place.

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167 Words | 1 Pages

In this story, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” there is many examples of motif. One example I have came across was the communities that Jaine lived in. None of them fit her and she didn't fit in them. Even in her hometown when she was little. “Us lived dere havin’ fun till de chillun at school got to teasin’ me ‘bout livin’ in de white folks’ back-yard.

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763 Words | 4 Pages

This is compared to the second pillar of Enuma Elish where it states, “He created the evil wind, and the tempest, and the hurricane… He sent forth the winds which he had created.” He was looking over His creation, not just earth but all of the foundation of the universe. Now in Enuma Elish Marduk the Babylonian god is said to have created the earth as a purpose to serve the gods, which he did with Ea, his father who helped him create humans.

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605 Words | 3 Pages

They came together to create the world.” The Maya told of their creators in colorful detail, and the serpents’ bright feathers and the light-filled water in which they dwelled contrasted with the darkness surrounding them. In Inuit legend, a half human/half raven created the universe and everything in it with just the beats of its wings. Unlike the god Puritans worshiped, neither are omniscient; the Maya gods had to try many different materials before successfully creating man, and the Inuit raven god was even unaware of its creation at first. The creators imagined in ancient Native American myth are living beings that exist as a part of the world they created, consistent with their cultures’ reverence towards nature.

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The most important way to think about myths is that they are symbolic stories that attempt to answer difficult human questions about the universe. For instance, where did we and the world come from? And what is the meaning of life?. “We all want to know where we came from, but because our earliest beginnings are lost in the mists of prehistory, we have created myths about our forefathers that are not historical but help to explain current attitudes about our environment, neighbors and customs” (6). Myth functions as a guidance that explains everything that we come into contact with in the universe.

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217 Words | 1 Pages

When reading the origin myth from the Cherokee, it is clear that animals and plants were valued for assisting in creating the earth, receiving special gifts, and sharing the land with humans. Throughout the story, animals help with the development of the world. The Water Beetle made the land from mud, while the Buzzard made the mountains and valleys. The animals even positioned the sun perfectly so every creature could enjoy the light wherever they are. Some plants and animals were even singled out to show the unique qualities they were given.

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888 Words | 4 Pages

Each every creation myth is unique in its own way. Of course, creation myths have their similarities, but each of them has at least one detail that separates them from every other myth. The question is how those similarities came about, considering for some of these groups that didn’t even know that each other existed. It would have nearly impossible and extremely unlikely for them to communicate with each other let alone, share their stories with each other. Yet, despite this there are some extremely common themes and events throughout these myths.

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848 Words | 4 Pages

There are hundreds of motifs scattered throughout the world about many vastly different creation myths. There are some myths linked with only a few motifs, and they originated from the same continent. Then there are also myths which originated from the other side of the world and share so many motifs one would think they were just a hundred miles away. With so many different motifs, it remains unclear and unproven as to how so many different cultures can share the same theory about how Earth and humans were created. Although there are so many fascinating motifs about the creation of the world and everything on it, I believe these three are the most common motifs shared by creation myths: nothingness (chaos) in the beginning of time, humans

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871 Words | 4 Pages

There are over hundreds of creation stories from many various cultures, religions, or areas. Though we may never know if any are true, creation stories are the basis of every culture and religion. One of the most popular and well-known stories about the foundation of the world is the Catholic creation story about God constructing the Earth in six days and resting on the seventh. Two other recognized legends are the Hawaiian creation myth and the Iroquois creation myth, also known as “The World on the Turtle’s Back.” Each account of creation is diverse in several aspects, but the most interesting thing is they are similar in many points also.

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1820 Words | 8 Pages

In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the creation myths of Brahma, the Hindu Creator God, and The Ennead of Heliopolis of Ancient Egypt. I will be highlighting the following; how, according to these cultures, did the world begin, how did humans originate, are there any thematic similarities between the creation myths of these two cultures, what are the most striking differences and do they have any beliefs about how the world will end, or do they believe in some kind of cyclical renewal of creation. Brahma is the Hindu Creator god:

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1092 Words | 5 Pages

Not only do these shared themes point to an innate psychology present in all people in every culture, but perhaps even to a direct influence of “The Epic of Gilgamesh” on these holy texts. In the book of Genesis, the creation story of The Old Testament, God creates all things, the earth and the Heavens. He makes the animals and then finally mankind to watch over it all, as God says, “Let us make a human in our image...to hold sway over the fish...and all the crawling things that crawl upon this earth” (2. 1-4). Depending on the variation of the story, God either creates both Adam and Eve from soil, or Adam from soil and then Eve from his rib to be his companion.

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