Chinese Creation Myth - Pan Gu

In the beginning , the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos. The universe was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside itself. After 18 thousand years Pan Gu woke from a long sleep. He felt suffocated, so he took up a broadax and wielded it with all his might to crack open the egg. The light, clear part of it floated up and formed the heavens, the cold, turbid matter stayed below to form earth. Pan Gu stood in the middle, his head touching the sky, his feet planted on the earth. The heavens and the earth began to grow at a rate of ten feet per day, and Pan Gu grew along with them. After another 18 thousand years, the sky was higher, the earth thicker, and Pan Gu stood between them like a pillar 9 million li in height so that they would never join again.

When Pan Gu died, his breath became the wind and clouds, his voice the rolling thunder. One eye became the sun and on the moon. His body and limbs turned to five big mountains and his blood formed the roaring water. His veins became far-stretching roads and his muscles fertile land. The innumerable stars in the sky came from his hair and beard, and flowers and trees from his skin and the fine hairs on his body. His marrow turned to jade and pearls. His sweat flowed like the good rain and sweet dew that nurtured all things on earth. According to some versions of the Pan Gu legend, his tears flowed to make rivers and radiance of his eyes turned into thunder and lighting. When he was happy the sun shone, but when he was angry black clouds gathered in the sky. One version of the legend has it that the fleas and lice on his body became the ancestors of mankind.

The Pan Gu story has become firmly fixed in Chinese tradition. There is even an idiom relating to it: "Since Pan Gu created earth and the heavens," meaning "for a very long time." Nevertheless, it is rather a latecomer to the catalog of Chinese legends. First mention of it is in a book on Chinese myths written by Xu Zheng in the Three Kingdoms period (CE 220-265). Some opinions hold that it originated in south China or southeast Asia.

from http://www.crystalinks.com/chinacreation.html

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Norse myth from the Edda

In the beginning there was the void. And the void was called Ginnungagap.   What does Ginnungagap mean? Yawning gap, beginning gap, gap with   magical potential, mighty gap; these are a few of the educated   guesses. Along with the void existed Niflheim the land of fog and   ice in the north and Muspelheim the land of fire in the south.   There seems to be a bit of confusion as to whether or not these   existed after Ginnungagap or along side of it from the beginning.

In Niflheim was a spring called Hvergelmir from which the Elivagar   (eleven rivers - Svol, Gunnthra, Fiorm, Fimbulthul, Slidr, Hrid, Sylg, Ylg, Vid, Leiptr, and Gioll) flowed. The Elivargar frozen layer upon layer until it filled in the northerly portion of the   gap. Concurrently the southern portion was being filled by sparks   and molten material from Muspelheim.

The mix of fire and ice caused part of the Elivagar to melt forming the figures Ymir the primeval giant and the cow Audhumla. The cow's milk was Ymir's food. While Ymir slept his under arm sweat begat two frost giants, one male one female, while his two legs begat another male.

While Ymir was busy procreating Audhumla was busy eating. Her nourishment came from licking the salty ice. Her incessant licking formed the god Buri. He had a son named Bor who was the father of Odin, Vili, and Ve.

For some reason the sons of Bor decided to kill poor Ymir. His blood caused a flood which killed all of the frost giants except for two, Bergelmir and his wife, who escaped the deluge in their boat.

Odin, Vili, and Ve put Ymir's corpse into the middle of ginnungagap and created the earth and sky from it. They also created the stars, sun, and moon from sparks coming out of Muspelheim.

Finally, the brothers happened upon two logs lying on the beach and created the first two humans Ask [Ash] and Embla [vine?] from them.

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Genesis 1  

The Beginning

  1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

  2 Now the earth was [ a ] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

  3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.

  6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning--the second day.

  9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

  11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning--the third day.

  14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning--the fourth day.

  20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning--the fifth day.

  24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

  26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [ b ] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

  27 So God created man in his own image,

       in the image of God he created him;

       male and female he created them.

  28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

  29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

  31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day.

Genesis 2

  1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

  2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested [ a ] from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

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Hopi Creation Myth

Way back in time all men emerged from a single hole in the earth. There was a mockingbird there at the entrance to the hole. He gave each a name and a language. To one he would say, "You shall be a Hopi and speak that tongue." To another, "You shall be an Apache and speak that language." And so it went for all who came from the hole, including the White People. The earth was still covered in darkness in those days so the peoples came together and decided to change things. They made the sun and the moon and placed them in the sky. With light and warmth things got easier for the people so the chiefs of all the races and tribes got together and decided to break up and go to different places. They decided to go eastward to where the sun rises and that whoever got there first was to cause a shower of stars to fall from the sky, and then everyone would see this and stop where they were. The Whites, always impatient, soon grew tired. Their women rubbed flakes of skin from their bodies and molded them into horses. Thus, mounted on these speedy animals, the Whites were first to arrive in the east. Thereupon a shower of stars fell to the ground and all remained where they were at the time.

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Creation of the World Greek

  In the begining there was only chaos. Then out of the void appeared Erebus, the unknowable place where death dwells, and Night. All else was empty, silent, endless, darkness. Then somehow Love was born bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and Day. Once there was Light and Day, Gaea , the earth appeared.

  Then Erebus slept with Night, who gave birth to Ether, the heavenly light, and to Day the earthly light. Then Night alone produced Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Nemesis , and others that come to man out of darkness.

  Meanwhile Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus , the heavens. Uranus became Gaea's mate covering her on all sides. Together they produced the three Cyclopes , the three Hecatoncheires , and twelve Titans .

However, Uranus was a bad father and husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires. He imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's womb. This angered Gaea and she ploted against Uranus. She made a flint sickle and tried to get her children to attack Uranus. All were too afraid except, the youngest Titan, Cronus .

Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush of Uranus as he lay with Gaea at night. Cronus grabed his father and castrated him, with the stone sickle, throwing the severed genitales into the ocean. The fate of Uranus is not clear. He either died, withdrew from the earth, or exiled himself to Italy. As he departed he promised that Cronus and the Titans would be punished. From his spilt blood came the Giants , the Ash Tree Nymphs , and the Erinnyes . From the sea foam where his genitales fell came Aphrodite .

  Cronus became the next ruler. He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires in Tartarus . He married his sister Rhea , under his rule the Titans had many offspring. He ruled for many ages. However, Gaea and Uranus both had prophesied that he would be overthrown by a son. To avoid this Cronus swallowed each of his children as they were born. Rhea was angry at the treatment of the children and ploted against Cronus. When it came time to give birth to her sixth child, Rhea hid herself, then she left the child to be raised by nymphs. To concel her act she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as the baby to Cronus, who swallowed it.

This child was Zeus . He grew into a handsome youth on Crete. He consulted Metis on how to defeat Cronus. She prepaired a drink for Cronus design to make him vomit up the other children. Rhea convinced Cronus to accept his son and Zeus was allowed to return to Mount Olympus as Cronus's cupbearer. This gave Zeus the opertunity to slip Cronus the specially prepaired drink. This worked as planned and the other five children were vomitted up. Being gods they were unharmed. They were thankful to Zeus and made him their leader.

Cronus was yet to be defeated. He and the Titans, except Prometheus , Epimetheus , and   Oceanus , fought to retain their power. Atlas became their leader in battle and it looked for some time as though they would win and put the young gods down. However, Zeus was cunning. He went down to Tartarus and freed the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires. Prometheus joined Zeus as well. He returned to battle with his new allies. The Cyclopes provided Zeus with lighting bolts for weapons. The Hecatoncheires he set in ambush armed with boulders. With the time right, Zeus retreated drawing the Titans into the Hecatoncheires's ambush. The Hecatoncheires rained down hundreds of boulders with such a fury the Titans thought the mountains were falling on them. They broke and ran giving Zeus victory.

  Zeus exiled the Titans who had fought against him into Tartarus. Except for Atlas, who was singled out for the special punishment of holding the world on his   shoulders.

  However, even after this victory Zeus was not safe. Gaea angry that her children had been imprisoned gave birth to a last offspring,   Typhoeus . Typhoeus was so fearsome that most of the gods fled. However, Zeus faced the monster and flinging his lighting bolts was able to kill it. Typhoeus was burried under Mount Etna in Sicily.

  Much later a final challenge to Zeus rule was made by the Giants . They went so far as to attempt to invade Mount Olympus, piling mountain upon mountain in an effort to reach the top. But, the gods had grown strong and with the help of Heracles the Giants were subdued or killed.

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African Bushmen Creation Myth

People did not always live on the surface of the earth. At one time people and animals lived underneath the earth with Kaang (Käng), the Great Master and Lord of All Life. In this place people and animals lived together peacefully. They understood each other. No one ever wanted for anything and it was always light even though there wasn't any sun. During this time of bliss Kaang began to plan the wonders he would put in the world above.

First Kaang created a wondrous tree, with branches stretching over the entire country. At the base of the tree he dug a hole that reached all the way down into the world where the people and animals lived. After he had finished furnishing the world as he pleased he led the first man up the hole. He sat down on the edge of the hole and soon the first woman came up out of it. Soon all the people were gathered at the foot of the tree, awed by the world they had just entered. Next, Kaang began helping the animals climb out of the hole. In their eagerness some of the animals found a way to climb up through the tree's roots and come out of the branches. They continued racing out of the world beneath until all of the animals were out.

Kaang gathered all the people and animals about him. He instructed them to live together peacefully. Then he turned to the men and women and warned them not to build any fires or a great evil would befall them. They gave their word and Kaang left to where he could watch his world secretly.

As evening approached the sun began to sink beneath the horizon. The people and animals stood watching this phenomenon, but when the sun disappeared fear entered the hearts of the people. They could no longer see each other as they lacked the eyes of the animals which were capable of seeing in the dark. They lacked the warm fur of the animals also and soon grew cold. In desperation one man suggested that they build a fire to keep warm. Forgetting Kaang's warning they disobeyed him. They soon grew warm and were once again able to see each other.

However the fire frightened the animals. They fled to the caves and mountains and ever since the people broke Kaang's command people have not been able to communicate with animals. Now fear has replaced the seat friendship once held between the two groups.

The Bushmen of Africa believe that not only are plants and animals alive, but also rain, thunder, the wind, spring, etc. They claim:

What we see is only the outside form or body. Inside is a living spirit that we cannot see. These spirits can fly out of one body into another. For example, a woman's spirit might sometime fly into a leopard; or a man's spirit fly into a lion's body.

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Indian Creation Myths

found in sacred texts called the Brahmanas which date back to 1000 BC.

This myth, from the Satapatha Brahmana, explains that in the beginning there was nothing but the primeval sea. The waters wanted to reproduce and became heated through devotions. They made a golden egg that floated around for some time. Prajapati came out of the egg, taking a year to do so, which is now the amount of time it takes for a woman or cow to give birth. Prajapati then rested on its shell for another year before trying to speak. The first sound he made became earth, the next became the sky, and others became the seasons.

He waited another year and then stood up in his shell. He could see through time, from the beginning of his life until its end which would come in a thousand years.

Prajapati gave himself the ability to reproduce. It is speculated that he created the god Agni out of himself. His hot breath directed at the sky created gods, and then there was light. When he directed his breath down, the Asuras were created, as was the darkness of earth. Prajapati overcame Asuras with evil to avoid a struggle between light and dark. Out of this, day and night emerged.

Prajapati is time, and with his creating beings, he had created time.

Prajapati and his daughter (the sky or dawn), in Aitareya Brahmana, come together as a stag and a doe. The gods are horrified by the act, so they created Rudra to punish Prajapati.

Prajapati was struck by Rudra's arrows and his seed was spilled and became a lake. The gods said the lake must remain pure, so the seed of man to this day remains pure. The seed was given heat by the gods and Agni made it flow. The seed became the Aditya (sun gods) and cattle, among other things.

The Kausitaki Brahmana explains that when Prajaptai wanted children, he practiced asceticism which created great heat, so that he gave birth to fire, the sun, the moon, the wind and the female dawn. Those five were ordered to pratice asceticism also, and so they did. Dawn took the form of a beautiful nymph, so that when the other four children saw her, their seed flowed. They told their father, and he made them a golden bowl to collect the seed in. A thousand-armed god came out of the bowl and demanded a name from his father before he would eat. He was given the name Bhava (existence).

Indian myths believe there were four ages of man. The world has been created and destroyed many times, and the only one who knows exactly the numbers is Brahma the Creator. In each cycle of creation there was an age of man to accompany it, and these were the following:

- the age of Satva (goodness; AKA golden age): which lasted 4000 years and was followed by a transition period that lasted 400 years. This was the age in which people were born in pairs, enjoyed life, were never sad, never worried, ate whatever they found, never worked, never hated and never became fatigued. These people didn't need homes because the weather was always perfect. Characteristic: meditation.

- the age of Rajas (energy): which lasted 3000 years and was followed by a transition period of 300 years. This was the age when trees grew and rain fell. The trees became homes and shelter for people and provided them with food. People made sacrifices to the gods. Negative emotions thrived, which led to coveting of material things, stealing and killing. This age died with miserable people. Characteristic: sacrifice.

- the 3rd age, a mixture of the first two: which lasted 2000 years and was followed by a transition period of 200 years. A sage called Vyasa appeared to instruct humanity on morality. People suffered much in this age as a result of things said, thought and done. These people became numb from all the suffering. Knowledge became important in this age because it led to ways of relieving the suffering, which was what the people wanted. Characteristic: knowledge.

- the age of Tamas (darkness): people walked in darkness, ignorant and blind to truth. They knew jealousy and hate and killed holy men who attempted to aid them in finding truth. They degenerated and ended up scavenging for food, having a difficult time doing anything. Those who survived the dark age would have a chance at finding peace and getting back some of the golden age of man.

from http://library.thinkquest.org/29064/summaries/india.html