Assignment:
1. Choose a particular theme that can be seen within more than one of the creation myths that you have read (i.e. floods, how humans were created, how women were created, how humans came to labor/agriculture, the end of the world, the role of animals, the persistence/necessity of evil, the value of humans, etc.). Consider how two or three different myths treat this theme, how it is similar and different and what these similarities and differences say about the culture from which they evolved. What do they say about mankind in general? Do not rank the myths or rate them against one another or describe which one you find "better" or "more satisfying"; our goal in this course is not to judge other cultures but to understand them.
Timeless Questions - Timeless Answers
Throughout the history of time, humans have striven to answer the same basic questions: "Where did we come from?", and "Why are we here?". One of the first poems ever constructed, "Theogony" by Hesiod, attempted to answer this by explaining the long history of how the world came to be. Similarly, thematic connections of how the world was created can be seen between the poems, "Enuma Elish" and "Metamorphoses". Each of these poems, with creation developing out of a state of chaos, attempts to provide answers to some of our most fundamental human curiosities. Though the accounts of the various myths dovary, the metaphysical aspect still stand: the poems all show the definitive outlook that higher deities exist, in agreement with most cultures around the world. It is evident in each of these creation accounts that elements of the earth led to the formation of everything on our planet (usually with a little help from the gods). These common themes of creation, as found in many societal myths and religions, demonstrate a definate positive correlation with the human species' need to find a self purpose.
One answer that is popular in many present-day societies is that our purpose in being here is to worship and praise our god. The "Enuma Elish" explains a similar dedication in its texts:
"O Marduk, you are honoured among the great gods...May your utterance be law, your word never be falsified. None of the gods shall transgress your limits. May endowment, required for the gods shrines Wherever they have temples, be established for your place." The Epic of Creation, Pg.49.
A parallel can be pulled from this quote when it talks about Marduk being honored among the great gods. The way that the writer refers to Marduk shows us that humans could have been the topic of discussion; instead of the lower gods looking up to Marduk. Humans claimed to have communicated with the gods, and then spread their "divine word." This shows us that beliefs have not changed much since the BCE era.
Several cultures have wrote that when humans were first created they were in a "golden" or "first age" of civilization, in which all people kept faith, making them more righteous, and favorable to the god(s). Ovid's "Metamorphoses" puts a higher emphasis on this, but puts a different spin on how the world came to be in comparison to the "Enuma Elish" and "Theogony". In this Roman account, no gods are specifically named when talking about the creation of the world, "When he - whichever god it was - arrayed that swarm, aligned, designed, allotted, made each part into a whole" Introduction to Mythology, Pg.48. Instead, Ovid focused more on the balance of the universe leading to the creation of matter. He thought of a concept similar to a myth that had been in China, "Yin and Yang"; where something can only exist in the middle if the fundamental opposites of that middle exist.
"No thing maintained its shape; all were at war; in one same body cold and hot would battle; damp contended with the dry, things hard with soft, and weighty things with weightless parts." Introduction to Mythology, Pg.48.
Though both are starting something from chaos, the "Theogony" focuses more heavily on the succession of how each part of our world came to be. The author Hesiod does so by explaining the lineage of the gods that led to the creation of the planet (In retrospect to the fundamental extremes creating the earth). In his account the gods actually are the aspects of our universe such as night, day, and space; and from these, the rest of creation is spawned. "From Chaos came black Night and Erebos. And Night in turn gave birth to Day and Space Whom she conceived in love to Erebos." Intro to Mythology, Pg.32. The skepticism behind this fickle change in opinion between Ovid and Hesiod's myths, within essentially the same culture was due to the 700 year time frame difference between the writings of the accounts. Ovid's account had arguably more scientific data proving his idea to be more "credible" because he lived in a newer time with more information. Nevertheless, several pieces of information about the time period of these two accounts, can still be drawn from the readings.
The period of time in which these accounts were being written often played an important role in how the myths were told; often, the society the writer was in, was undergoing some sort of conflict or struggle for power. This influenced some of the myths being told, and was most likely a parallel to the real world they were living in. The myth "Enuma Elish" was told around 5000 BCE, and during this time in the Mesopotamian valley, the Babylonian forces were trying to exert dominance and control over the other tribes in the surrounding area. After winning a battle, the sky god Marduk from Babylon was thought to beat the other tribe's god in an immaculate fight similar to the one that took place between the people of Mesopotamia. "When he has slain Tiamat, the leader, He broke up her regiments; her assembly was scattered...Although he allowed them to come out and spared their lives, they were surrounded, they could not flee." The Epic of Creation, Pg.52. Tiamat happened to be the god of the tribe Uruk which was the largest of the four Mesopotamian tribes. The fall of this tribe meant that Babylon was now the strongest of the Mesopotamian tribes, which is clearly reflected in the myth when Marduk (the Babylonian god) prevails over Tiamat. Myths similar to this can be looked at as solid evidence regarding ancient battles and their victors. You can tell who won by which ever culture's gods were more wide spread through out the world.
These ancient cultures generally attributed their success to the god(s) that gave them strength to fight, food to live off of, and shelter to live in. When a society prevailed over another, they tended to bring their god(s) along with them. This trend is why we have more information about some myths than others. Now we study myths to learn about the cultures, rather than (the person?) who wrote them or the realism present within them. Though myths around the world may disagree on specific details within them, this is likely due to the time and location in which they were written. However, most of the writers do agree on the fundamental issues that we are here for a reason, and the existence of a "god(s)".
