ARTH 101: Survey of Art and Culture I Essay 2- Creation Stories in Early Creation

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ARTH 101: Survey of Art and Culture I Essay 2- Creation Stories in Early Civilization

Creation Stories in Early Civilization

Introduction

Creation stories are traditional, cultural, or religious myths that describe the earliest beginnings of this present world that we are in. A creation myth (or creation stories) is regarded by those who subscribe to its conveying profound truths, even though not necessary ily in a literal or historical sense.

Ancient Egyptian creation story.

Ancient Egyptian creation story in early civilization are in the ancient Egyptian accounts of the creation of the world. The tomb wall decorations and writings, pyramid texts, dating back to the old kingdom have given us a lot of information about the early Egyptian creation stories. These stories form the earliest religious complications in Egypt with many creator gods and such associated legends. In all these stories, it said that the world emerged from an infinite, and a lifeless sea and when the sun rose for the first time, in a distant period that was known as Zep Tepi the first occasion. Many stories have attributed the creation to many different gods, examples; the mysterious, transcendent god Amun the self-engendered god Atum and many others. These creation stories have common elements. They held that the world had arisen out of a huge lifeless waters of chaos known as Nu. These stories also included the pyramid-shaped mound called ben bene which emerged from the waters as the first thing. This was associated with the flooding nature of River Nile each year where the receding floodwaters left a fertile soil in their wake, and the Egyptian equated this with the emergence of life from the primeval chaos. The pyramidal mound that emerged from the highest mounds of earth emerged as the river receded. Sun is also associated with the creation story and is said that it rose first from the mound as the general sun-god Ra who represented the newly risen sun.

The Egyptian creation is also explained by a theory known as Hermopolis. This creation story focuses on the nature of the inverse before the creation of the world. It said that the inherent qualities of the primeval waters that were represented by a set of eight gods BY THE NAME Ogdoad. Primeval waters were part of the creation process, and the deities representing them could be seen as creator gods. These eight gods were divided into male and female groups. The males were represented by frogs while females by snakes. The two groups converged leading to a great upheaval that produced the pyramidal mound. From this, the sun emerged and rose into the sky to light the world.

Japanese creation story

According to Japanese, it’s said that at the beginning, the universe was immersed in a shapeless and a beaten kind of matter sunk in silence. A sound indicating the movement of particles was explained. With this movement of particles, the light particles rose but they could not go higher as the light. The light was at the top of the world and below it the particles formed the clouds and then the Heaven that was called Takamagahara. The other particles that had not risen formed a huge mass, dark, and dense called earth. After Takamagara had been formed, the first three gods of Japanese known as; Amenominakanushi, Taka-mi-Mushi-no-kami, Kami-Mushi-no-kami appeared.This is how the Japanese believe that the world was formed. It is also said that the earth started as a formless void of nothing but muddy water. From the water, a green shoot sprung out and inside this shoot, there was the first god who is believed to make the other gods. The land of Japan was formed when again poked his staff through the clouds to see what was on the earth surface. As Izanami lifted the staff from the muddy water, clumps of mud are said to fall on top of the water and formed the islands of Japan. The pair went down to earth and everywhere it went, plants and flowers sprouted. They had four son where one was the moon, the sun, and one lived in the water and created storms and other things. From these, the line of emperors of Japan was established.

In conclusion, we see that the creation stories of both Japanese and Egyptians most of there details are very similar to the Japanese myth. The world starts out covered in water, from one god all the others are created as it is in Egyptians. Creation Stories in Early Civilization

References

David A. (2010). Creation Myths of the World (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO.

Margaret Adams (2009). A Dictionary of Creation Myths (Oxford Reference Online ed.). Oxford University Press.