Creation Myths
Jackie Fuchs January 11, 2014
Who are we and where did we come from? It’s a question as old as humankind, and everyone seems to have an answer. What’s surprising is not how our creation stories differ, but how much they have in common, even when they originate in vastly different places.
China’s Cosmic Egg
The first living being was P’an Ku, who grew for 18,000 years inside a cosmic egg. When he hatched, the shell above him became the sky while the piece below became the earth. The opposites in nature were separated as well—male and female, wet and dry, light and dark, yin and yang, etc.
After all this effort, P’an Ku literally fell to pieces and his features became the natural world. His limbs turned into mountains, his blood to rivers, his breath the wind, his voice the thunder, his hair the grass, his sweat the rain, and so on. His left eye became the sun and his right became the moon. Some people say that the parasites on P’an Ku’s body became mankind.
Others say that, many centuries after P’an Ku’s death, a lonely goddess named Nü Wa saw her reflection in a pond and made some beings like herself out of mud. These became the aristocrats. Creating these beings was hard work, though, so Nü Wa swung a muddy vine through the air and its droplets became the commoners. Years later, the heavens collapsed, creating holes in the earth through which waters rose to form a great flood. Nü Wa patched the earth, but became exhausted by her labors and died. Her body became yet more features of the world.
Yanomamo Sanema’s Moonblood (South America)
The Sanema people are part of the Yanomamo group of tribes who live in the Amazon rain forest. Each tribe has its own collection of stories, passed orally from generation to generation. Because of this, their creation myths vary. Generally, however, the Sanema believe that all the living things are descended from “original ancestors,” whose spirits still inhabit the forest.
One story has Peribo, the Moon, eating the souls of children. This angered Suharina, who shot Peribo in the belly with an arrow. His blood spilled to the earth, forming puddles from which mortal men arose. The most belligerent human beings were created where large amounts of blood fell, and where only a few drops fell, less violent men were born.
In another myth, Naro (Opposum), who was ugly and smelly, was jealous of his brother, Yamonamariwa (Honey Bee), who was beautiful and had two wives. Naro shot charms made from his pubic hair at Yamonamariwa and killed him. A third brother, Reha (Lizard), discovered Naro’s treachery and denounced him. The Ancestors destroyed Naro and transformed themselves into spirits and animals by painting themselves with his blood. The sloth, however, was created with a small amount of Naro’s excrement.
India: Create, Preserve, Destroy, Repeat
Brahma began from nothingness. By thought alone, he created the waters, into which he deposited his semen. This grew into a golden egg, out of which he was born. By thought again, he split the egg in two, and the halves became heaven and earth. Brahma grew lonely, so he split himself in two to form male and female. In one variation of the story, Brahma repeatedly splits himself in two until all living things are created from his body. In another, the first man and woman mate in different animal forms until life forms are born.
Together, Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer) make up the Supreme One. Each universe Brahma creates is eventually destroyed by Shiva, after which there is nothing but a vast ocean on which Vishnu floats, resting on a great snake. In some versions of the myth, Brahma comes not from an egg, but from a lotus flower that springs from Vishnu’s navel. Eventually, our world, too, will be destroyed by Shiva and the cycle will begin anew.
Scandinavia’s Fire Demons And Frost Giants
Before time existed, there was a place of fog and ice called Niflheim. Across a great void was Muspelheim, where fire demons and fire giants dwelled. Fire from Muspelheim eventually melted Niflheim’s ice, which dripped and formed a giant cow named Audhumla and a frost giant named Ymir. More giants grew from Ymir’s armpit sweat and were breastfed by Audhumla, who created more giants by licking blocks of salty ice.
These giants mated and gave birth to the god Odin and his brothers. Odin and his brothers killed Ymir and the earth was made from his flesh, the heavens from his skull, the sea from his blood, the clouds from his brains, mountains from his bones, and trees from his hair. Odin built Asgard as a dwelling place for the gods and linked it to Midgard (Earth) by a rainbow bridge called Bifrost. The maggots in Ymir’s corpse become dwarfs and remained beneath the surface of the earth in what was left of Ymir’s body. The Gods found two tree trunks on Midgard and breathed life into them, creating Ask and Embla, the first man and woman.
The Australian Aborigines’ Rainbow Serpent
Aboriginal creation stories begin with the Dreaming, when the world was bare and cold. The Rainbow Serpent slept underground with all the animal tribes in her belly. When the time was right, she emerged and spewed forth the animals, along with the features of the natural world.
The Rainbow Serpent was the maker of laws, which all creatures must obey. In some variations of the myth, she swallowed wrongdoers and spat out their bones to form rocks and hills. In others, she rewarded those who obeyed the law by giving them human form and turned the lawbreakers into stone.
The Rainbow Serpent is sometimes called the Old Woman, and it was she who taught humans how to get food. In tribes who believe they are descended from animals, the Rainbow Serpent was said to have given each a totem and ruled that no man could eat the animal it represented. This way, she ensured there would be enough food for all.