Inuit Creation Myths

Amazingly, creation stories from complete opposite sides of the globe feature similar details. Both Greek creation myths and Inuit creation myths are almost identical in some elements. In Greek mythology, Prometheus and his brother, Epimetheus, were tasked with creating all the creatures that roam the earth. Prometheus shaped man out of clay, and Athena breathed life into it. Epimetheus quickly gave all of his allotted good qualities to animals, leaving none for man. Later, as punishment, Zeus sent the first woman, Pandora, who was deceptively beautiful, to Epimetheus. In Inuit mythology, the first man came from an exceptionally large peapod on Raven’s earth. When he fell from it , Raven knew that the man would need food. Raven sculpted all

Prometheus and Epimetheus were tasked with creating man as well as creating all animals in the Greek story of creation. To complete his task, Prometheus shaped a figure out of mud in the likeness of gods. He took this figure to Athena, how breathed life into it, creating man. Because mud is extremely common, it was an unusual thing for man to be created from. Similarly, Inuit mythology shows the first man coming from a peapod. After Raven created the earth, he populated it with plants, including peapods. One day, a peapod swelled to unreasonable size. Eventually, when the peapod burst, the first man fell out of it. Like mud, a peapod is a very unsuspecting item for the first man to be created from, but oddly, both Greek and Inuit creation myths show man coming from such common objects. Finally, woman was created simply as a counterpart to man in the pair of Greek and Inuit mythologies. In the Greek creation story, Zeus created the first woman, Pandora, as punishment for Epimetheus for leaving no gifts for man. Pandora was simply created for the purpose of men. Correspondingly, woman was created as man’s counterpart in Inuit mythology as well. When Raven saw how lonely the first man was, he created the first woman out of clay. Woman’s purpose in Inuit mythology was to ease man’s loneliness. Both Greek and Inuit myths showed woman being simply to compliment