Throughout the creation myths, there are many common factors they share.
In many of the myths, including the Babylonian’s creation story, the Norse creation story and the Iroquois creation story, they talk about how in the beginning, the god/s ruled in the sky. They looked down upon the earth. I think this is significant and not just a coincidence. By putting them in the sky, they are showing that the gods have dominance over the people. That is another commonality I see in the creation myths. In all the myths I read, the people worship the gods, the gods don’t worship the people. I think this is because the people were created by the gods so they feel they aren’t as important as their creator.
Another trait I found common among the creation myths was that there was a tree of life/knowledge. In the Norse creation story, the tree was called Yggdrasil. It was so tall it grew through the three layers of their earth. It grew in the center of the world. In the Old Testament, the tree was represented as the tree of life. When Adam and Eve ate from it, they lost their mortality and God was very angry with them. I think the tree was the symbol for these stories because a tree is big and powerful. It starts out as a small seed and grows into a something that can be huge. This would represent life.
In many myths, the world started out as nothing. Complete nothingness. In the creation story for the Maori, the nothingness was called Te Kore. In the Norse creation myth, the nothingness was called Ginnungagap. In the Old Testment, it was said, “In the beginning, there was nothing.” I think this is weird to think about how far we’ve come. The world started out as nothing, I can’t even picture that. How could something so huge come out of nothing? It’s crazy.
In all the myths I read, the people have dominance over the animals. In the Old Testament, God tells Adam personally that he is more important than the animals. I think that this explains why we are the way we are. Imagine if humans were the ones who were domesticated by zebras! Life would be very different. I think that what happened in the creation story put this segregation in but it would probably happen anyway because humans are the most intelligent animals on the planet.
We may never know how the earth really came to be, but throughout the world many people have similar ideas.
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