xHannah Naeger
Motif Essay
Mythology
11 April 2022 Creation Myths and Motifs
Myths are more than just stories told by the people of their culture; myths are sacred tales that explain the world and man's experience. All over the world, there are different myths about each culture people come across. They are all almost entirely different until there is a motif. A motif is a recurring event that has happened in more than one myth. An excellent example of a motif in more than one of the myths; the creator sends a flood upon the people and the land to either destroy humans or teach humans a lesson. Concerning creation myths, there are three central motifs: the idea that the younger generation in the myth tends to take over, the idea that women
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In Theology, there is a recurring topic of the murder of fathers by their sons or the younger generation taking over. Uranus is the first God to lead the gods, then Cronus takes his place when he dies. Zeus takes Cronus' place when he is killed. Zeus is furious with Cronus when he decides to try to kill Zeus and his sibling. As a result of the father's death, the younger generation always reins. Sons rebel against their father and take control of the universe. Likewise is the Enuma Elish creation myth. Apsu was the sweet water, and Tiamat was the saltwater sea. These two were the first creators. They then created two children, the Gods Lahmu and Lahamu, and they then created Ansharm Kishar and …show more content…
Only in the Mayan Creation Myth did some of the humans survive. The gods sent humans to the forest, where they became monkeys and became an example to the next race of men. The Mayan and Greek Creation Myths made their humans resemble the Gods too much. In the Mayan Creation Myth, the creator attempted three different tries to create humans. They were upset with their last trial of humans; they were upset with them being ¨too perfect¨. These humans could see forever through things and to the edges of the Earth. Luckily they didn't destroy these humans, and they only took away the men's vision so they could see as normal. As in the Theology Creation Myth, the humans were too much like Zeus, and he did not accept that. Zeus was furious and took them all