Creation Mythology: The Motifs Of Creation

Mythology Creation Myth Motif All over the world in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Mestoptianiam, and Africa there were different ideas of how the Earth and Humans were created. Most of the creation myths are similar. From the creation of the Earth to how their creators ruled there are many that have the same idea or principle in there story. This is an examples of a motif. A motif is an object or an idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work. In this essay there will be discussions on different types of motifs such has the idea of creator’s using natural resources to make humans, the idea of a bloody struggle between generations, and the idea of humans being killed by flood. The first motif that will be discussed is

In the Mayan creation myth humans were created to worship the gods Tepeul and Gucumatx. The first creatures that were made where animals. They could not speak so therefor they couldn’t worship the great gods Tepeul and Gucumatx. There next attempt was to create people out of clay. To no avail, the clay was too soft and the apart. There next attempt was to make humans out of wood however, the humans couldn’t care for themselves so Tepeul and Gucumatz killed all of them. The gods last attempt was to make humans out of something good and pure like corn. This time humans were perfect, but they were too much like the gods so they took some of the human's eyesight enabling them to see the world so clearly. In the Yourban creation myth Obatala get drunk off of palm wine. He decides that he is lonely and wants some company so he starts to create humans out of clay. The next day Obatala looks at what he has created by he realizes that all of the humans are deformed. Obatala sworn from then on that he wouldn’t drink ever again, then he created new humans out of clay that weren’t deformed. In the Norse creation myth Odin make humans out of trees. An Ash tree and an Elm tree. In the Chinese creation myth Nuwas makes humans out of mud, but when she realizes that making humans by hand takes to long she started flinging mud all around the world. However, in doing so

For example, In the Greek creation myth Cronus was defeated by his son Zeus. Zeus overthrew his father and became ruler of the gods. Another example is the Norse creation myth. Ymir was cruel and Brutal so Odin and the other gods couldn’t abide by his evil acts anymore so they annihilated him. So many creation myths have these motif because not all families get along as they are suppose to. As some people may be aware, families fight and bicker. It’s a normal for humans to argue and fight so humans back then would describe this the god family fighting. All thought this is an extreme scenario humans back then made sense of it. Not only did the Greek and Norse creation have the idea of Generations killing one another but so did the Babylonian creation myth. Apsu and Tiamat wanted to kill Ea and his brothers for being loud and rambunctious. Ea heard these plans and decided to kill Apsu first. Tiamat was struck with anger and revenge and wanted created an army of scriopen men and vipers. Ea created Marduk (who was made of pure gold and towered over the gods). Unfortunately Tiamat lost the battle to Marduk so Marduk turned her body into the