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Throughout the centuries, human beings have sought explanations for the origin of the creation of the universe and life.
The different cultures through their myths and legends try to explain the origin of life, and tried to make sense of nature and weather phenomena, since they considered them inexplicable facts.
We have represented the origin of the earth and the universe in the different cultures since time immemorial.
Here we will review the creation myths of the Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Nordic and Chinese cultures. To find out if the have common ideas about the origin.
The myth of creation according to Egyptian culture
Africa is the cradle of humanity, and the ancient Egyptians are regarded as one of the richest cultures of prehistory.
In Egypt, the clergy of all important cities tried to explain the creation of the world through two opposing forces in continuous struggle: order and chaos.
The most important creation myths of ancient Egypt are those that were developed in the cities of Heliopolis, Hermopolis, Memphis, Thebes and Esna.
All of them have the following aspects in common:
- The primordial ocean where the gods were born, the Nun.
- The main hill where life originates, which is a metaphor for the islets of land left uncovered after the flooding of the Nile.
- The sun as the being that makes the development of life possible.
- The creative deity.
The myth of the creation of the city of Heliopolis
According to the Bremmen-Rhind papyrus, the city of Heliopolis is said to have had Nun, the primordial water, in complete disarray before the world is created. From this water emerges the God Atum because he can create himself.
Throughout the centuries, human beings have sought explanations for the origin of the creation of the universe and life.
The different cultures through their myths and legends try to explain the origin of life, and tried to make sense of nature and weather phenomena, since they considered them inexplicable facts.
We have represented the origin of the earth and the universe in the different cultures since time immemorial.
Here we will review the creation myths of the Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Nordic and Chinese cultures. To find out if the have common ideas about the origin.
The myth of creation according to Egyptian culture
Africa is the cradle of humanity, and the ancient Egyptians are regarded as one of the richest cultures of prehistory.
In Egypt, the clergy of all important cities tried to explain the creation of the world through two opposing forces in continuous struggle: order and chaos.
The most important creation myths of ancient Egypt are those that were developed in the cities of Heliopolis, Hermopolis, Memphis, Thebes and Esna.
All of them have the following aspects in common:
- The primordial ocean where the gods were born, the Nun.
- The main hill where life originates, which is a metaphor for the islets of land left uncovered after the flooding of the Nile.
- The sun as the being that makes the development of life possible.
- The creative deity.
The myth of the creation of the city of Heliopolis
According to the Bremmen-Rhind papyrus, the city of Heliopolis is said to have had Nun, the primordial water, in complete disarray before the world is created. From this water emerges the God Atum because he can create himself.
Atum created himself and so did with the rest of the gods through his bodily fluids. The first God he created was Re. Later he created Shu and Tefnut. The Goddess Tefnut is the Goddess of the humid air, and her brother Shu is the God of the space between the sky and the earth that allows the life of the human beings.
From the Gods Shu and Tefnut were born Geb (god of the earth) and Nut (god of the sky). Atum forbade Geb and Nut to copulate, because if the sky and the Earth are joined nothing can exist. To avoid this, it placed the God Shu was placed in the middle. This prohibition lasted the 360 days of the Egyptian calendar. The God Tot created the five complementary days of the solar calendar and in these five days, the Gods Geb and Nut had four children: Osiris, Set, Isis and Netfis.
The myth of the creation of the city of Hermopolis
The city of Hermópolis wortshipped the God Tot. In the creation’s myth of this city, there is no mention of a god who created himself. Creation arises when the gods that existed before the sun in the chaos noticed themselves and the process of creation begins through four pairs of frogs (representing the feminine) and serpents (representing the masculine).
These pairs engendered an egg from which Ra (god of the sun) emerges. They also created Nefertem, a child with a finger in his mouth that personifies the sun and when he opens his eyes, he illuminates the world.
The myth of the creation of the city of Thebes
In the city of Thebes, the god of creation is Amon. The texts of the pyramids speak of creation through Amon. In the intermediate period, the city of Thebes became the capital of Egypt, and this moment Amun becomes the official god of creation of the Egyptians.
Amun is a god of air that can be felt but never seen. He is also a great warrior and protector of the oases.
The myth of the creation of the city of Memphis
In this city the creator god of the world is Ptah, a god that appears at the end of the pre-dynastic times. It describes the theory of the creation of the God Ptah and it is engraved on a marble stone that can be seen today in the British Museum.
The God Ptah created the world, plants, animals and humans through the word. He is also the king of Egypt and he united the country.
The myth of the creation of the city of Esna
Two different creation myths took place in the temple of Esna. In the first myth they worshipped the god Cnum, the god of water and the origin of life. During the reign of the woman pharaoh Hatshepsut they named him the creator god of animals, men and plants.
In second place is the myth of the goddess Neit was written in the 2nd century AD. Neit is a self-creating goddess who was in the water, shaped herself and from there created the universe.
Of all the creation myths of the world, the only self-creating goddess is Neit.
The myth of creation according to Chinese culture
An ancient legend in China claims that before everything existed, when absolute chaos ruled, the early universe was actually a big dark egg. Inside the egg lived and slept the God P’an-Ku (Pangu).
The moment arrived when the god Pangu woke up and broke the shell of the egg.
When Pangu was born, the whitest part of the egg, the brightest part, ascended to the heavens (Yang) and the dark and cold matter descended to the earth (Yin). Pangu remained in the middle, separating the sky from the earth.
For 18000 years, Pangu continued to grow. From his hair were born the stars and the Milky Way. From his left eye the sun and from his right eye the moon.
From his voice the thunder and lightning were created and from his breath the wind and the clouds.
His trunk and limbs became the four cardinal points, and from his skin the trees and flowers were born.
His blood became the rivers and his veins were the paths they travelled; metals and stones came out of his teeth and his bones.
The spinal cord became jade and pearls, their sweat became dew, and from the parasites in their body human beings were born. After the wonderful creation, Pangu died falling into eternal sleep.
The myth of creation according to the Greeks
The poet Hesiod (700 BC) wrote the creation myth. He relates how at the beginning of everything there was Chaos, and Gaea and Eros appeared later on.
Chaos, Gaea, and Eros are the trilogy of power for the creation of the universe. Chaos gives birth to two opposing entities, Erebus and Night (Nux) and their children Ether (Aither) and Daylight (Hemere).
Gaea begets herself and gives birth first to Uranus, the starry sky, and creates it in her likeness to cover and envelop her.
From the embrace of Uranus, Gaea will give birth to three series of sons: the twelve titans and titanites, the three cyclops, and the three Hecatonchires.
The goddess Gaea created the seven planetary powers and had each of them ruled by the titans, so that:
- Teie and Hyperion ruled the sun.
- Phoebus and Atlas on the moon.
- Dionesa and Sirius on Jupiter.
- Thetis and Ocean on Venus.
- Rhea and Cronus on Saturn.
Uranus was evil, and whenever Gaea wanted to give birth, she held her children in her womb. Tired of suffering, Gaea came up with a plan and she generated a sickle and gave it to her son Cronus to castrate his father while he was sleeping.
When Uranus was peacefully asleep, Cronus castrates him and from this castration the earth is fertilized and all kinds of beings develop such as the Erinias, the nymphs, the giants and from the genitals that fell into the sea Aphrodite was born.
The myth of creation according to the Hebrews
We find the creation myth of the Hebrew world in the book of Genesis in the Bible. The myth tells how God creates the world in seven days. When God set out to create the heavens and the earth, he found nothing around him but Tohu and Bohu, chaos and emptiness. On the first day he created light and on the second day he made heaven. On the third day he created the seas and made the earth emerge. On the fourth day he created the stars, the moon and the sun. The sea monsters, fish and birds were created on the fifth day. On the sixth day he created the beasts of the earth and man. On the seventh day he rested satisfied with his work.
For centuries Jewish and Christian theologians agreed that the accounts of the origin of the world in Genesis owed nothing to other scriptures. In 1876 this belief banished when several versions of the Arcadian (i.e. Babylonian and Assyrian) creation poem appeared.
The first creation account (Genesis 1, 1-2,3) was composed in Jerusalem shortly after the Babylonian exile. In this account, God is called Elohim.
The second creation story in Genesis tells of how God created the heavens and the earth by causing a spring to germinate into grass and trees. Then he created a garden in Eden and a man named Adam to tend it. He created all the beasts and ultimately the woman.
The second story of Genesis comes from Judea (Genesis 2:4-22). Here God is called the LORD.
It linked the order of creation in these texts to the order of the planetary gods of the Babylonian week, and therefore to the seven arms of the Menorah or sacred candelabra. Zechariah makes this comparison (4.10) and Favio Josephus (War V 5.5).
The Nordic creation myth
According to Nordic mythology, at the beginning of time there was nothing, neither earth, nor sky, nor stars, nor sky. There was only a nebulous world and a world of fire that kept burning.
The world of mist was in the north and was called Niflheim, and the world of fire was in the south and was called Muspell.
Between Niflheim and Muspell there was a void, a shapeless space and without content. When the two worlds met, life emerged, a being larger than all the worlds and much bigger than any giant. It was neither a man nor a woman, but both at the same time.
That creature was the ancestor of the giants and called itself Ymir.
From the fusion of ice and fire a cow called Audhumla was also born and with her milk she fed Ymir. Audhumla licked blocks of ice and met another being. The first day she found the hair, the second day the head and the third day her complete body. This being was Buri.
Buri is the ancestor of the gods.
Ymir went to sleep one day and while he rested several giants were born from his body: a man and a woman from his left armpit and a six-headed creature from his legs.
Buri took the giant woman as his wife and they had a son named Bor. Bor married Bestla and three children were born: Odin, Vili and Ve.
The time came for the creation of all things, and in order to create the world, it was necessary to kill Ymir. Odin, Vili, and Ve executed him.
From Ymir’s body came life. From his blood, the seas and oceans were created. From his flesh the earth was created and from his bones the mountains and the cliffs.
The stones, sand, gravel and pebbles are Ymir’s teeth.
If we look up to the sky, we see the inside of the skull. The stars that shine at night are the sparks of Muspell, and the clouds are tatters of Ymir’s brain.
Common features among the different myths
Each of the myths has developed in a different time and place. Despite this spatial-temporal separation between them, we can see common features. The creation myth of the Egyptian city of Hermópolis and the Chinese creation myth have in common the primeval egg. The Egyptian god Ra and the Chinese god Pangu are born from an egg.
The Egyptian myth of the City of Esna tells us how the goddess Neit engenders herself, just like the Greek goddess Gaea.
The Egyptian god Atum (myth of the creation of the city of Heliopolis) through his bodily fluids creates the rest of the gods. The Chinese god Pangu through his corporal fluids creates the world, and the same happens with the Nordic myth of Ymir.
The Hebrew myth has in common with the Greek and Chinese myth the chaos and emptiness at the origin of time.
Myths and legends together with the oral tradition can break the barrier of space-time. Many are the creation myths that have developed throughout the world, each one more singular and curious, but all of them have the common denominator of explaining life, where we come from and where we are going.
Note from the autor and illustrator: We would like to thank Elena del Arco for her support and help. Elena is a wonderful English teacher and thanks to her corrections our articles are of exceptional quality.
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Wilkinson, R. H (2003). The complete gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt. The american University in Cairo Press. Cairo.