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Similarities Between Greek And Iroquois Creation Stories

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Civilizations throughout time have sought to explain how humans and the earth came into existence. Although all creation stories are similar, there are glaring differences as is the case between the Greek and Iroquois creation stories. The differences begin with the core spiritual belief system. The Greeks believed in multiple Gods and Goddesses contrasting with the Iroquois who believe in the Sky Woman and that everything from plants to animals has a spirit.
The beginnings of the stories are somewhat similar in that there was basically nothing before the main entity or creator came into being. According to the Iroquois Creation Story, “the sky women was falling from the sky when she landed on the back of the turtle but became pregnant with the twin brothers. The animals that lived in the …show more content…

In the Iroquois story, the Sky Woman gave birth to twin boys one was the good mind the other the bad mind. The good mind created the good things in the world that were useful to man, from the fish in the rivers to edible plants. The bad mind wanted to undo all the good that his brother created so he added things such as bones in fish and thorns to bushes that would make it difficult for humans. In the Greek story, Gaia and Uranus soon had children and grandchildren including Zeus. Zeus sent his sons Prometheus and Epimetheus to the earth to create man and animals. Zeus gave his sons gifts to give to their creations. Epimetheus gave all the gifts to the animals and left nothing for Prometheus to give to man. Again, both stories are similar in that both sets of boys created man and the other beings on it. They differ in a couple of aspects, in the Iroquois story one brother was good and while the other was basically evil and in the Greek story not only were the boys in charge of creating man and animals but they were to give a special gift to each creation. (Greek

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Hello, everybody. After reading all the assigned stories and viewing the lecture, I gained a strong interest for The Iroquois Creation Story. I was quite drawn to one of the beliefs over the piece once it was mentioned in the lecture because I shared the same thought while reading the narrative. Numerous individuals find it odd that Enigorio is said to be the good twin in the story while Enigonhahetgea is said to be the evil twin. The peculiarity seen in this aspect of the story originated because the readers of the tale learn that the “evil” twin attempts to prevent the human beings from eating the animals, which may be seen as a good deed.

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To begin with, the sky people in both myths rely on nature. In “The World on the Turtle’s Back,” the sky gods worship a sacred tree. They forbid harming the tree, which “stood at the center of the universe” (1). To the Iroquois, the tree is the most important object that exists; all the fruit the Iroquois eat came from this tree. The Iroquois also perform rituals to the sky woman’s daughter to ensure that their crops would grow.

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The two stories of creation we 're very similar in both Christianity, and the Iroquois. They both had the same outline, but each of them added their own personal twists that made it their own. Their first similarity was the amount of children they had. They both had 2 kids, that we 're opposites. One of the differences about this was that one of the stories was how in one, the kids we 're dire opposites.

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Some differences in the stories Iroquois and the Judeo Christian is having an almighty god. In the Judeo Christian story they believe that god created the heavens and the earth. Unlike in the Iroquois story where they believe that there is no almighty god and that the earth was made on a turtle's back. In the Iroquois story animals play a huge part starting with the two birds breaking Sky Womens fall. Also in a way they are viewed as a god or a power source.

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Mythical Origins The Iroquois people are one of the earliest cultures in American history, Their culture remains filled with an abundance of myths and legends that explain the nature of life itself. Their creation story, The World On Turtle 's Back, outlines not only the creation of Earth, but also the complex nature of people. The legend states that the Earth resided on the back of a great sea turtle, constituted first by a pregnant woman. The daughter of whom would birth the twins who would become the duality of deceit and order in every living being. This legend has been passed down through the generations, first through oral tradition and later translated to writing.

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“These two brothers, as they grew up, represented two ways of the world which are in all people.” “They called them the straight mind and the crooked mind.” (Iroquois 18) These quotes simply explain that the brothers were both good and bad and this balanced the world. For example, one brother made the deer, and the other made the mountain lion which killed the deer.

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In both stories we see a similarities of basic rule. Every action has a reaction. When the woman in the Iroquois story Sinned, or brought harm to the sacred tree, She fell to the earth from the sky world. As for the other story the lady Eve sinned by eating a piece of fruit from the tree of knowledge, which in return Adam and Eve were evicted. When we look at the Iroquois story the woman fell from the sky world, but caught by birds.

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