Creation Myths Research Paper

Since humanity was first made, people have created many civilizations and myths to explain the unknown. Today, researchers are able to study these ancient civilizations and gather insight on the ancestors; this is called Mythology. When studying Mythology, many people become confused between the differences of a fable, legend, and myth. A fable is usually an animal tale with a moral to its ending and a legend is usually a traditional story that is believed to be true (Mercatante and Dow XI). A myth, however, is different. For years, scholars have argued over what exactly a myth is, but it is generally understood as a “story or narrative that is traditional in a certain culture, having been passed down from early times, and regarded as true,”

Almost all “beginning” myths start with the universe as nothing. However, this “nothing” is seen in different ways. Some saw it as chaos, while others saw it as absolutely nothing. For example, “in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, the creation of the world proceeds from nothing” (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia 1). In Egyptian Mythology, Nun is the god of space and is seen as “organized chaos, nothingness, or a formless mass without structure,” (El-Aswad, Garry and El-Shamy 24-31). This means Ancient Egypt’s beginning was “nothing” just like in the Book of Genesis. In contrast to the Ancient Egyptians, the Chinese saw it as “an immense, formless cosmic egg encompassing all the elements of a featureless universe, intermingling and mixing together,” (El-Aswad, Garry and El-Shamy 24-31). The correlation between this myth and the others are all the same. All of these creation myths started the world as nothing. By showing a number of creation myths from around the world, this proves there is at least one similarity in

One example is in Ancient Greek Mythology: Apollo and Artemis. Apollo is the God of the Sun, whereas Artemis is the Goddess of the Moon. The Ancient Greeks saw the Sun as male and the Moon as female, symbolizing Artemis and Apollo as opposites. Another example is in Zoroastrianism, in Persia. Ahura Mazda, also known as Lord Wisdom, “fathered twins, Spenta Mainyu ‘holy spirit’ and Angra Mainyu, god of lies,” (Garry and El-Shamy 458-463). There are many myths about the struggle between these twins in hymns from a book, dating back to the second millennium before Christ existed. The relationship of these twins proves that there is symbolism in twins not only in Greek Mythology but also in Persian Zoroastrianism Mythology. Likewise, in Northeast America, there is also a myth about opposite twins; one was born normally and the other was from her armpit (Garry and El-Shamy 458-463). The unnatural born, “who would engender evil people” would kill “his mother and blamed it on his brother,” (Garry and El-Shamy 458-463) who would symbolize good people. These myths prove there is opposite symbolism in twins. Subsequently, these myths from around the world prove there are similarities throughout