Creation myths

Superb, in-depth survey explores animism, totemism, fetishism, creation myths,... 

MacLagan, D. Creation myths man s introduction to the world. London Thames Hudson, 1977. 77p. ISBN 0-500-81010-9... 

A similar connection between the world around us and cosmology can be found in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates. The Earth was regarded as a flat disc, surrounded by a vast hollow space which was in turn surrounded by the Armament of heaven. In the Sumerian creation myth, heaven and Earth formed... 

In the Nordic creation myth, which can be found at the beginning of the Edda, we encounter Ginnungagap, a timeless, yawning void. It contains a type of supreme god, Fimbultyr, who willed the formation of Niflheim in the north, a cold, inhospitable land of fog, ice and darkness, and in the south Muspelheim (with light and fire). Sparks from Muspelheim flew onto the ice of Niflheim. This caused life to emerge, and the ice giant Ymir and the huge cow Audhumbla were formed. 

Several hundred kilometres further east, in Finnish Karelia, the nineteenth century saw the birth of legends which were passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. Elias Lonnrot, a doctor, collected these fables and used them to create the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala , which starts with a creation myth. In the first rune, the daughter of the air lets herself fall into the sea. She is made pregnant by the wind and the waves. The duck, as water mother, comes to her, builds a nest on her knee, and lays her eggs. These roll into the sea and break, giving rise to the Earth, the heavens, the sun, the moon and the stars ... 

Tales of Traditional Wisdom Folklore and Mythology Of Gods and Men General Folklore and Mytholo( Mythology in Western Art Creation Myths... 

Water is alone among the traditional four elements - earth, air, fire, and water - in being, not indeed an element, but a pure chemical compound. As Hall has noted "Water appeared repeatedly as a life-giver in the creation myths of Greece,... 

Lane has written a wonderful book about the dual role of oxygen in life and death. . . This is a scientific saga as compelling as any creation myth and Lane tells it with appropriate zeal/... 

The author then provides a mythological aetiology, not for evil, but for the existence of the chaos he perceived in the world around him. To articulate this explanation, he wove an elaborate creation myth based not only upon the book of Genesis, but on the period before Genesis begins. ... 

The best, most thoughtful and thought-provoking analysis of Orig.Wld s creation myth... 

Their creation myth tapped directly into experience the rising of a primeval hill from the waters. Joyce Tyidesley charts how the forms of simple funeral mounds developed into stone mastabas, then stepped pyramids, finally becoming geometric prisms to meet eternity. ... 

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