Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Common Elements in Creation Myths


Myths come from all around the world. Although they emerged from different cultures, they all leave the same common factors which makes creation myths so great. The mythical supreme being forms the land, from nothing to something. For example in the Chinese myth, it speaks of a dragon called Pan Gu who molded the land with his bare hands. He died 18,000 years later but the world was still incomplete. There was no life. But following his death, the half dron goddess came to the world that Pan Gu created. Picking up the clay, she molded a creature with a pair of arms and a pair of legs. Thus began the human race. Another myth that emerged from a different culture is the native American myth which mentioned about Skywoman falling through a hole caused by the uprooted tree in heaven. She landed on a giant turtle that formed the land and there she gave birth to the first human. Thus besides common factors about a supreme being and creation of earth from nothing to something, another common factor is mentioning of an animal and human being. Although there is a difference in culture, however, in the myths, we can still see common factors in the creation myths which speaks of the beginning of the world.



1 comment:

Claire said...

There are great elements in this paragraphs however it reads quite jumbled. Your thesis statement is incomplete - there are two elements mentioned in it, and later in the writing clay pops up. This should have been in the thesis to make it clearer to read (and write).