CREATION MYTHS Think of your own version of

CREATION MYTHS Think of your own version of creation. The idea is not to judge other cultures’ stories. www. webexhibits. org/colorart/michelangelo. html

Definition • Creation myth=creation story • A symbolic narrative of a culture, tradition, or people. • Describes their beginnings (how the world was made, how they got into the world) • www. aish. com/ci/a/48939082. html

Oral traditions • Creation myths begin as stories told by elders macyapper. blogspot. com/2010/04/bang-edit. . .

“truths” • Convey profound “truths” of culture • Not meant in a historical or literal sense www. chl. kiev. ua/prince/dd/sotvore. htm

Sacred stories • Usually considered sacred • Found in every known religious tradition mesagrandeacademy. org/391736. ihtml

commonalities • No matter what culture, tradition, religion… – Stories that have a plot – Characters who are deities, humanlike gods, or animals who speak or transform – Set in a dim & nonspecific past (no dates) www. northernsun. com/n/s/6330. html

ALL MYTHS MUST • Answer deeply meaningful questions of the society • Reveal their central worldview www. danshamptons. com

THERE ARE FIVE BASIC TYPES (you need to know these) www. istockphoto. com/file_closeup/concepts

Ex nihilo • Creation through the thought, word, dream, or bodily secretion of a divine being www. evokeone. com/v 4/display. php? id=1754

Ex nihilo • THE MOST COMMON TYPE • A. K. A. “creation from nothing” • Genesis in the Bible in Judaism & Christianity • Koran’s Sura VII in Islam

Earth diver • A diver (bird or amphibian) sent by a creator, plunges into sea through primordial ocean to collect sand or mud • Sand or mud becomes terrestrial world flickr. com/ph otos/shooting chris/178436 0907/

Earth diver • Supreme being sends an animal to find material from which he can build a habitable world • Beginning from the depths (from evil)

Emergence • Progenitors pass through a series of worlds and metamorphoses • Eventually become or reach the present world www. crystalinks. com/australiacreation. html

emergence • Humanity emergences from a different world into this one • Like giving birth • Women-centered philosophies (female deities play larger role)

dismemberment • World is created by the dismemberment of the primordial being – (leg of a god becomes a person, etc. )

Cosmic egg • A cosmic (divine) egg cracks or splits & brings form from chaos freakytrigger. co. uk/. . . /

• Chaos = nothingness (a void or vacuum) • Chaos usually symbolizes evil • Order (cosmos) symbolizes good • Chaos myths mean that creation is goodness in a world that was evil dlibrary. acu. edu. au/. . . /aejt_2/Casey. htm