The myth of the origin of the world. Creation myths - Myths and legends - Children's - Catalog of articles - bibliotechka

The history of the creation of the world has worried people since ancient times. Representatives of different countries and peoples have repeatedly thought about how the world in which they live appeared. Ideas about this have been formed over the centuries, growing from thoughts and conjectures into myths about the creation of the world.

That is why the mythology of any nation begins with attempts to explain the origins of the origin of the surrounding reality. People understood then and understand now that any phenomenon has a beginning and an end; and the natural question of the appearance of everything around logically arose among representatives of Homo Sapiens. groups of people in the early stages of development clearly reflected the degree of understanding of a particular phenomenon, including such as the creation of the world and man by higher powers.

People passed on the theories of the creation of the world by word of mouth, embellishing them, adding more and more details. Basically, the myths about the creation of the world show us how diverse the thinking of our ancestors was, because either gods, or birds, or animals acted as the primary source and creator in their stories. The similarity was, perhaps, in one thing - the world arose from Nothing, from Primordial Chaos. But its further development took place in the way that representatives of this or that people chose for it.

Restoration of the picture of the world of ancient peoples in modern times

The rapid development of the world in recent decades has given a chance for a better restoration of the picture of the world of the ancient peoples. Scientists of various specialties and directions were engaged in the study of found manuscripts, archaeological artifacts in order to recreate the worldview that was characteristic of the inhabitants of a particular country many thousands of years ago.

Unfortunately, the myths about the creation of the world have not survived in our time in full. From extant passages, it is not always possible to restore the original plot of the work, which prompts historians and archaeologists to conduct a persistent search for other sources that can fill in the missing gaps.

Nevertheless, from the material that modern generations have at their disposal, one can extract a lot of useful information, in particular: how they lived, what they believed in, who ancient people worshiped, what is the difference in worldviews among different peoples and what is the purpose of creating a world according to their versions.

Huge help in the search and recovery of information is provided by modern technologies: transistors, computers, lasers, various highly specialized devices.

Theories of the creation of the world, which existed among the ancient inhabitants of our planet, allow us to conclude that any legend was based on the understanding of the fact that everything that exists arose from Chaos thanks to something Almighty, Comprehensive, feminine or masculine (depending on the foundations of society).

We will try to briefly outline the most popular versions of the legends of ancient people in order to get a general idea of ​​​​their worldview.

Creation Myths: Egypt and the Cosmogony of the Ancient Egyptians

The inhabitants of the Egyptian civilization were adherents of the Divine principle of all things. However, the history of the creation of the world through the eyes of different generations of Egyptians is somewhat different.

Theban version of the appearance of the world

The most common (Theban) version tells that the very first God, Amun, appeared from the waters of the boundless and bottomless ocean. He created himself, after which he created other Gods and people.

In later mythology, Amon is already known under the name Amon-Ra or simply Ra (God of the Sun).

The first created by Amon were Shu - the first air, Tefnut - the first moisture. Of these, he created which was the Eye of Ra and was supposed to monitor the actions of the Deity. The first tears from the Eye of Ra caused the appearance of people. Since Hathor - the Eye of Ra - was angry with the Deity for existing separately from his body, Amon-Ra put Hathor on his forehead as a third eye. From his mouth, Ra created other Gods, including his wife, the Goddess Mut, and his son Khonsu, the lunar Deity. Together they represented the Theban Triad of the Gods.

Such a legend about the creation of the world gives an understanding that the Egyptians laid the Divine principle in the basis of their views on its origin. But it was the supremacy over the world and people not of one God, but of their whole galaxy, which was honored and expressed their respect by numerous sacrifices.

The worldview of the ancient Greeks

The richest mythology as a legacy to new generations was left by the ancient Greeks, who paid great attention to their culture and attached it paramount importance. If we consider the myths about the creation of the world, Greece, perhaps, surpasses any other country in their number and variety. They were divided into matriarchal and patriarchal: depending on who his hero was - a woman or a man.

Matriarchal and patriarchal versions of the appearance of the world

For example, according to one of the matriarchal myths, the progenitor of the world was Gaia - Mother Earth, who arose from Chaos and gave birth to the God of Heaven - Uranus. The son, in gratitude to his mother for his appearance, poured rain on her, fertilizing the earth and awakening the seeds sleeping in it to life.

The patriarchal version is more extended and deep: in the beginning there was only Chaos - dark and boundless. He gave birth to the Goddess of the Earth - Gaia, from whom all living things came, and the God of Love Eros, who breathed life into everything around.

In contrast to the living and striving for the sun, a gloomy and gloomy Tartarus was born under the earth - a dark abyss. Eternal Darkness and Dark Night also arose. They gave birth to Eternal Light and Bright Day. Since then Day and Night replace each other.

Then other creatures and phenomena appeared: Deities, titans, cyclops, giants, winds and stars. As a result of a long struggle between the Gods, Zeus, the son of Kronos, who was raised by his mother in a cave and overthrew his father from the throne, stood at the head of the Heavenly Olympus. Starting with Zeus, other well-known people who were considered the progenitors of people and their patrons take their history: Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Athena, Hephaestus, Hermes and others.

People revered the Gods, propitiated them in every possible way, erecting luxurious temples and bringing countless rich gifts to them. But in addition to the Divine creatures living on Olympus, there were also such respected creatures as: Nereids - sea inhabitants, Naiads - guardians of reservoirs, Satyrs and Dryads - forest talismans.

According to the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, the fate of all people was in the hands of three goddesses, whose name is Moira. They spun the thread of each person's life: from the day of birth to the day of death, deciding when to end this life.

Myths about the creation of the world are full of numerous incredible descriptions, because, believing in forces that are higher than man, people embellished themselves and their deeds, endowing them with superpowers and abilities inherent only to gods to rule the fate of the world and man in particular.

With the development of Greek civilization, myths about each of the deities became more and more popular. They were created in great numbers. The worldview of the ancient Greeks significantly influenced the development of the history of the state that appeared at a later time, becoming the basis of its culture and traditions.

The emergence of the world through the eyes of the ancient Indians

In the context of the topic "Myths about the creation of the world", India is known for several versions of the appearance of everything that exists on Earth.

The most famous of them is similar to the Greek legends, because it also tells that at the beginning the impenetrable darkness of Chaos dominated the Earth. She was motionless, but full of latent potential and great power. Later, Waters appeared from Chaos, which gave rise to Fire. Thanks to the great power of heat, the Golden Egg appeared in the Waters. At that time, there were no heavenly bodies and no measurement of time in the world. However, in comparison with the modern account of time, the Golden Egg floated in the boundless waters of the ocean for about a year, after which the progenitor of everything named Brahma appeared. He broke the egg, as a result of which its upper part turned into Heaven, and the lower part into Earth. Between them, Brahma placed an air space.

Further, the progenitor created the countries of the world and laid the foundation for the countdown of time. Thus, according to Indian tradition, the universe came into being. However, Brahma felt very lonely and came to the conclusion that living beings should be created. Brahma was so great that with her help he was able to create six sons - great lords, and other goddesses and gods. Tired of such global affairs, Brahma transferred power over everything that exists in the Universe to his sons, and he himself retired.

As for the appearance of people in the world, then, according to the Indian version, they were born from the goddess Saranyu and the god Vivasvat (who turned from God into a man by the will of the elder gods). The first children of these gods were mortals, and the rest were gods. The first of the mortal children of the gods died Yama, who in the afterlife became the ruler of the kingdom of the dead. Another mortal child of Brahma, Manu, survived the Great Flood. It was from this god that humans originated.

Revelers - The First Man on Earth

Another legend about the creation of the world tells about the appearance of the First Man, called Pirusha (in other sources - Purusha). characteristic of the period of Brahmanism. Purusha was born due to the will of the Almighty Gods. However, Pirushi later sacrificed himself to the Gods who created him: the body of the primordial man was cut into pieces, from which the heavenly bodies (the Sun, the Moon and stars), the sky itself, the Earth, the countries of the world and the estates of human society arose.

The highest class - the caste - was considered the Brahmans, who emerged from the mouth of Purusha. They were the priests of the gods on earth; knew the sacred texts. The next most important class were kshatriyas - rulers and warriors. Primordial Man created them from his shoulders. From the thighs of the Purusha came merchants and farmers - vaishyas. The lower class that arose from the feet of Pirusha became the Shudras - forced people who acted as servants. The most unenviable position was occupied by the so-called untouchables - they could not even be touched, otherwise a person from another caste immediately became one of the untouchables. Brahmins, kshatriyas and vaishyas, upon reaching a certain age, were ordained and became "twice-born". Their life was divided into certain stages:

• Student (a person learns life from wiser adults and gains life experience).
• Family (a person creates a family and is obliged to become a decent family man and householder).
• Hermit (a person leaves the house and lives the life of a hermit monk, dying alone).

Brahmanism assumed the existence of such concepts as Brahman - the basis of the world, its cause and essence, the impersonal Absolute, and Atman - the spiritual principle of each person, inherent only to him and striving to merge with Brahman.

With the development of Brahmanism, the idea of ​​Samsara arises - the circulation of being; Incarnations - rebirth after death; Karma - fate, the law that will determine in which body a person will be born in the next life; Moksha is the ideal to which the human soul should aspire.

Speaking about the division of people into castes, it is worth noting that they should not have been in contact with each other. Simply put, each class of society was isolated from the other. Too rigid caste division explains the fact that exclusively brahmins, representatives of the highest caste, could deal with mystical and religious problems.

However, later more democratic religious teachings appeared - Buddhism and Jainism, which occupied a point of view opposed to the official teaching. Jainism has become a very influential religion within the country, but has remained within its borders, while Buddhism has become a world religion with millions of followers.

Despite the fact that the theories of the creation of the world through the eyes of the same people differ, in general, they have a common beginning - this is the presence in any legend of a certain First Man - Brahma, who eventually became the main deity believed in Ancient India.

Cosmogony of Ancient India

The latest version of the cosmogony of Ancient India sees at the foundation of the world a triad of Gods (the so-called Trimurti), which included Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Guardian, Shiva the Destroyer. Their responsibilities were clearly defined and delineated. So, Brahma cyclically gives birth to the Universe, which Vishnu keeps, and destroys Shiva. As long as the Universe exists, the day of Brahma lasts. As soon as the universe ceases to exist, the night of Brahma begins. 12 thousand Divine years - such is the cyclic duration of both day and night. These years are made up of days, which are equal to the human concept of a year. After a hundred years of Brahma's life, he is replaced by a new Brahma.

In general, the cult significance of Brahma is secondary. Evidence of this is the existence of only two temples in his honor. Shiva and Vishnu, on the contrary, received the widest popularity, which was transformed into two powerful religious movements - Shaivism and Vishnuism.

Creation of the world according to the Bible

The history of the creation of the world according to the Bible is also very interesting from the point of view of theories about the creation of all things. The sacred book of Christians and Jews explains the origin of the world in its own way.

The creation of the world by God is covered in the first book of the Bible - "Genesis". Just like other myths, the legend tells that in the very beginning there was nothing, there was not even the Earth. There was only darkness, emptiness and cold. All this was contemplated by the Almighty God, who decided to revive the world. He began his work with the creation of the earth and sky, which did not have any definite forms and outlines. After that, the Almighty created light and darkness, separating them from each other and naming, respectively, day and night. It happened on the first day of creation.

On the second day, the firmament was created by God, which divided the water into two parts: one part remained above the firmament, and the second - below it. The name of the firmament became Heaven.

The third day was marked by the creation of land, which God called the Earth. To do this, he collected all the water that was under the sky in one place, and called it the sea. To revive what had already been created, God created trees and grass.

The fourth day was the day of the creation of the luminaries. God created them to separate day from night, and also to ensure that they always illuminate the earth. Thanks to the luminaries, it became possible to keep track of days, months and years. During the day, the big Sun shone, and at night - the smaller one - the Moon (stars helped him).

The fifth day was devoted to the creation of living beings. The very first to appear were fish, aquatic animals and birds. God liked what was created, and he decided to increase their number.

On the sixth day, creatures that live on land were created: wild animals, cattle, snakes. Since God still had a lot to do, he created a helper for himself, calling him Man and making him look like himself. Man was supposed to become the master of the earth and everything that lives and grows on it, while God left behind the privilege to rule the whole world.

From the ashes of the earth a man appeared. To be more precise, he was molded from clay and named Adam (“man”). God settled him in Eden - a paradise country, along which a mighty river flowed, overgrown with trees with large and tasty fruits.

In the middle of paradise, two special trees stood out - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Adam was assigned to guard and look after him. He could eat fruit from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God threatened him that, having eaten the fruit from this particular tree, Adam would immediately die.

Adam was bored alone in the garden, and then God ordered all living beings to come to the man. Adam gave names to all birds, fish, reptiles and animals, but did not find someone who could become a worthy helper for him. Then God, taking pity on Adam, put him to sleep, took a rib out of his body and created a woman out of it. Waking up, Adam was delighted with such a gift, deciding that the woman would become his faithful companion, assistant and wife.

God gave them parting words - to fill the earth, to possess it, to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and other animals that walk and crawl on the earth. And he himself, tired of the labors and satisfied with everything created, decided to rest. Since then, every seventh day is considered a holiday.

This is how Christians and Jews imagined the creation of the world by day. This phenomenon is the main dogma of the religion of these peoples.

Myths about the creation of the world of different nations

In many ways, the history of human society is, first of all, a search for answers to fundamental questions: what was in the beginning; what is the purpose of the creation of the world; who is its creator. Based on the worldviews of peoples who lived in different eras and under different conditions, the answers to these questions acquired an individual interpretation for each society, which, in general terms, could come into contact with interpretations of the emergence of the world among neighboring peoples.

Nevertheless, each nation believed in its own version, revered its own god or gods, tried to spread among representatives of other societies and countries their teachings, religion, concerning such an issue as the creation of the world. The passage of several stages in this process has become an integral part of the legends of ancient people. They firmly believed that everything in the world arose gradually, in turn. Among the myths of different peoples, there is not a single story where everything that exists on earth would appear in an instant.

Ancient people identified the birth and development of the world with the birth of a person and his growing up: first, a person is born into the world, every day acquiring more and more new knowledge and experience; then there is a period of formation and maturation, when the acquired knowledge becomes applicable in everyday life; and then comes the stage of aging, fading, which involves a gradual loss of vitality by a person, which ultimately leads to death. The same phasing applied in the views of our ancestors to the world: the emergence of all living things due to one or another higher power, development and flourishing, extinction.

Myths and legends that have survived to this day are an important part of the history of the development of the people, allowing you to associate your origin with certain events and get an understanding of how it all began.

Disputes between supporters of the theory of creationism and evolutionary theory do not subside to this day. However, unlike the theory of evolution, creationism includes not one, but hundreds of different theories (if not more). In this article we will talk about the ten most unusual myths of antiquity.

Disputes between supporters of the theory of creationism and evolutionary theory do not subside to this day. However, unlike the theory of evolution, creationism includes not one, but hundreds of different theories (if not more). In this article we will talk about the ten most unusual myths of antiquity.

The myth of Pan-gu

The Chinese have their own ideas about how the world came into being. The most popular myth can be called the myth of Pan-gu, a giant man. The plot is as follows: at the dawn of time, Heaven and Earth were so close to each other that they merged into a single black mass.

According to legend, this mass was an egg, and Pan-gu lived inside it, and he lived for a long time - many millions of years. But one day he got tired of such a life, and, waving a heavy ax, Pan-gu got out of his egg, splitting it into two parts. These parts subsequently became Heaven and Earth. He was unimaginably tall - about fifty kilometers long, which, by the standards of the ancient Chinese, was the distance between Heaven and Earth.

Unfortunately for Pan-gu, and fortunately for us, the colossus was mortal and, like all mortals, died. And then Pan-gu decomposed. But not the way we do it - Pan-gu decayed really cool: his voice turned into thunder, his skin and bones became the firmament of the earth, and his head became Cosmos. So, his death gave life to our world.

Chernobog and Belobog

This is one of the most significant myths of the Slavs. He tells about the confrontation between Good and Evil - the White and Black gods. It all started like this: when there was only one solid sea around, Belobog decided to create land by sending his shadow - Chernobog - to do all the dirty work. Chernobog did everything as expected, however, having a selfish and proud nature, he did not want to share power over the firmament with Belobog, deciding to drown the latter.

Belobog got out of this situation, did not allow himself to be killed, and even blessed the land erected by Chernobog. However, with the advent of land, there was one small problem: its area grew exponentially, threatening to swallow everything around.

Then Belobog sent his delegation to Earth in order to find out from Chernobog how to stop this business. Well, Chernobog sat on a goat and went to negotiations. The delegates, seeing Chernobog galloping towards them on a goat, were imbued with the comedy of this spectacle and burst into wild laughter. Chernobog did not understand humor, was very offended and flatly refused to talk to them.

Meanwhile, Belobog, still wanting to save the Earth from dehydration, decided to spy on Chernobog, making a bee for this purpose. The insect coped with the task successfully and found out the secret, which was as follows: in order to stop the growth of land, it is necessary to draw a cross on it and say the cherished word - “enough”. What Belobog did.

To say that Chernobog was not happy is to say nothing. Wanting to take revenge, he cursed Belobog, and cursed him in a very original way - for his meanness, Belobog was now supposed to eat bee feces all his life. However, Belobog did not lose his head, and made bee feces sweet like sugar - this is how honey appeared. For some reason, the Slavs did not think about how people appeared ... The main thing is that there is honey.

Armenian duality

Armenian myths are reminiscent of Slavic ones, and also tell us about the existence of two opposite principles - this time male and female. Unfortunately, the myth does not answer the question of how our world was created, it only explains how everything around is arranged. But that doesn't make it any less interesting.

So, here is a summary: Heaven and Earth are husband and wife separated by the ocean; The sky is a city, and the Earth is a piece of rock, which is held on its huge horns by an equally huge bull - when he shakes his horns, the earth bursts at the seams from earthquakes. That, in fact, is all - this is how the Armenians imagined the Earth.

There is also an alternative myth where the Earth is in the middle of the sea, and Leviathan swims around it, trying to grab onto its own tail, and constant earthquakes were also explained by its flopping. When Leviathan finally bites his own tail, life on Earth will end and the apocalypse will come. Have a nice day.

Norse myth of the ice giant

It would seem that there is nothing in common between the Chinese and the Scandinavians - but no, the Vikings also had their own giant - the origin of everything, only his name was Ymir, and he was icy and with a club. Before his appearance, the world was divided into Muspelheim and Niflheim - the realms of fire and ice, respectively. And between them stretched Ginnungagap, symbolizing absolute chaos, and there, from the merging of two opposite elements, Ymir was born.

And now closer to us, to the people. When Ymir began to sweat, a man and a woman emerged from his right armpit along with the sweat. It's strange, yes, we understand this - well, that's how they are, harsh Vikings, there's nothing to be done. But back to the point. The man's name was Buri, he had a son Bor, and Bor had three sons - Odin, Vili and Ve. The three brothers were gods and ruled Asgard. This seemed not enough to them, and they decided to kill Ymir's great-grandfather, making the world out of him.

Ymir was not happy, but no one asked him. In the process, he shed a lot of blood - enough to fill the seas and oceans; from the skull of the unfortunate brothers created the vault of heaven, they broke his bones, making mountains and cobblestones out of them, and they made clouds out of the torn brains of poor Ymir.

Odin and the company immediately decided to populate this new world: so they found two beautiful trees on the seashore - ash and alder, making a man out of ash, and a woman out of alder, thereby giving rise to the human race.

Greek myth of balls

Like many other peoples, the ancient Greeks believed that before our world appeared, there was only continuous Chaos around. There was no sun, no moon - everything was dumped into one big heap, where things were inseparable from each other.

But then a certain god came, looked at the chaos reigning around, thought and decided that all this was not good, and set to work: he separated the cold from the heat, the foggy morning from the clear day, and all that sort of thing.

Then he set about the Earth, rolling it into a ball and dividing this ball into five parts: it was very hot at the equator, extremely cold at the poles, but between the poles and the equator - just right, you can’t imagine more comfortable. Further, from the seed of an unknown god, most likely Zeus, known to the Romans as Jupiter, the first man was created - two-faced and also in the shape of a ball.

And then they tore it in two, making a man and a woman out of it - the future of us.

Egyptian god who loved his shadow very much

In the beginning there was a great ocean whose name was "Nu", and this ocean was Chaos, and there was nothing else besides it. It was not until Atum, by an effort of will and thought, created himself from this Chaos. Yes, the man had balls. But further - more and more interesting. So, he created himself, now it was necessary to create the earth in the ocean. Which he did. Having wandered around the earth and realizing his total loneliness, Atum became unbearably bored, and he decided to plan more gods. How? And so, with an ardent, passionate feeling for his own shadow.

Thus fertilized, Atum gave birth to Shu and Tefnut, spitting them out of his mouth. But, apparently, he overdid it, and the newborn gods were lost in the ocean of Chaos. Atum grieved, but soon, to his relief, he nevertheless found and regained his children. He was so happy about the reunion that he wept for a long, long time, and his tears, touching the earth, fertilized it - and people grew out of the earth, many people! Then, while people were fertilizing each other, Shu and Tefnut also had coitus, and they gave birth to other gods - more gods to the god of gods! - Gebu and Nutu, who became the personification of the Earth and the sky.

There is another myth in which Atum replaces Ra, but this does not change the main essence - there, too, everyone fertilizes each other en masse.

The myth of the Yoruba people is about the Sands of Life and the chicken

There is such an African people - the Yoruba. So, they also have their own myth about the origin of all things.

In general, it was like this: there was one God, his name was Olorun, and one fine day the thought came to his mind - that the Earth should be arranged somehow (then the Earth was one continuous wasteland).

Olorun did not really want to do this himself, so he sent his son, Obotalu, to Earth. However, at that time, Obotala had more important things to do (in fact, a chic party was planned in heaven then, and Obotala simply could not miss it).

While Obotala was having fun, all the responsibility was thrown on Odudawa. With nothing at hand but chicken and sand, Odudawa nevertheless set to work. His principle was as follows: he took sand from a cup, poured it on the Earth, and then let the chicken run along the sand and trample it well.

Having carried out several such simple manipulations, Odudava created the land of Lfe or Lle-lfe. This is where the story of Odudava ends, and Obotala reappears on the stage, this time completely drunk - the party was a success.

And so, being in a state of divine alcoholic intoxication, the son of Olorun set about creating us humans. It went out of his hands badly, and he made invalids, dwarfs and freaks. Having sobered up, Obotala was horrified and quickly corrected everything, creating normal people.

According to another version, Obotala never recovered, and Odudava also made people, simply lowering us from the sky and at the same time assigning himself the status of the ruler of mankind.

Aztec "War of the Gods"

According to the Aztec myth, no original Chaos existed. But there was a primary order - an absolute vacuum, impenetrably black and endless, in which, in some strange way, the Supreme God - Ometeotl lived. He had a dual nature, having both a feminine and a masculine beginning, was kind and at the same time evil, was both warm and cold, truth and falsehood, white and black.

He gave birth to the rest of the gods: Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and Xipe-Totec, who, in turn, created giants, water, fish and other gods.

Tezcatlipoca ascended to heaven, sacrificing himself and becoming the Sun. However, there he encountered Quetzalcoatl, entered into battle with him and lost to him. Quetzalcoatl threw Tezcatlipoc from the sky and became the Sun himself. Then, Quetzalcoatl gave birth to humans and gave them nuts to eat.

Tezcatlipoka, still holding a grudge against Quetzalcoatl, decided to take revenge on his creations by turning people into monkeys. Seeing what happened to his first people, Quetzalcoatl fell into a rage and caused a powerful hurricane that scattered vile monkeys around the world.

While Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoc were at enmity with each other, Tialoc and Chalchiuhtlicue also turned into suns in order to continue the cycle of day and night. However, the fierce battle of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca also affected them - then they, too, were thrown from heaven.

In the end, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoc ended the enmity, forgetting past grievances and creating new people, the Aztecs, from the dead bones and blood of Quetzalcoatl.

Japanese "World Cauldron"

Japan. Chaos again, again in the form of an ocean, this time as dirty as a swamp. Magical reeds (or reeds) grew in this ocean swamp, and from this reed (or reeds), like our children from cabbage, the gods were born, there are a great many of them. All together they were called Kotoamatsukami - and this is all that is known about them, for, as soon as they were born, they immediately hurried to hide in the reeds. Or in reeds.

While they were hiding, new gods appeared, including Ijinami and Ijinaga. They began to stir the ocean until it thickened and formed the land - Japan. Ijinami and Ijinaga had a son, Ebisu, who became the god of all fishermen, a daughter, Amaterasu, who became the Sun, and another daughter, Tsukiyomi, who turned into the Moon. They also had one more son, the last - Susanoo, who, for his violent temper, received the status of the god of wind and storms.

Lotus flower and "Om-m"

Like many other religions, Hinduism also features the concept of the emergence of the world from the void. Well, as from the void - there was an endless ocean in which a giant cobra swam, and there was Vishnu, who slept on the cobra's tail. And nothing more.

Time passed, days succeeded each other one after another, and it seemed that it would always be like this. But one day, a sound that had never been heard before - the sound of "Om-m" - sounded all around, and the previously empty world was overwhelmed with energy. Vishnu awakened from his sleep, and Brahma appeared from the lotus flower at his navel. Vishnu ordered Brahma to create the world, and in the meantime he disappeared, taking with him a snake.

Brahma, sitting in a lotus position on a lotus flower, set to work: he divided the flower into three parts, using one to create Heaven and Hell, another to create Earth, and a third to create heaven. Then Brahma created animals, birds, people and trees, thus creating all living things.

GREEK MYTH ABOUT THE CREATION OF THE WORLD

In the beginning there was nothing, neither Heaven nor Earth. Only Chaos - dark and boundless - filled everything with itself. He was the source and beginning of life. Everything came from him: the world, and the Earth, and the immortal gods.

Initially, Gaia emerged from Chaos, the goddess of the Earth, a safe universal shelter, giving life to everything that lives and grows on it. In the bowels of the deep earth, in its darkest core, the gloomy Tartarus was born - a terrible abyss full of darkness. As far from the earth to the bright Sky, so far lies Tartarus. Tartarus is fenced off from the world with a copper fence, the night reigns in his kingdom, the roots of the earth entwine him and washes the bitter-salty sea.

From Chaos, the most beautiful Eros was also born, which, with the power of Love, poured into the world forever, can conquer hearts.

Boundless Chaos gave birth to the Eternal Darkness - Erebus and the Black Night - Nyukta, they, combined, gave life to the eternal Light - Ether and bright Day - Hemera. Light spread over the world, and night and day began to replace each other.

The foremother of the gods, Gaia, gave birth to an equal Starry Sky - Uranus, which, like an endless cover, envelops the Earth. Gaia-Earth reaches out to him, raising sharp mountain peaks, giving birth to the world, not yet united with Uranus, the ever-noisy Sea.

Mother Earth gave birth to Heaven, Mountains and the Sea, and they have no father.

Uranus took the fruitful Gaia as his wife, and six sons and daughters - mighty titans - were born to a divine couple. Their firstborn, the son of Oceanus, deep, whose waters gently wash the Earth, shared a bed with Tethys, giving life to all the rivers that rush to the sea. Three thousand sons - river gods - and three thousand daughters-oceanids - gave birth to a gray-haired Ocean, so that they would give joy and prosperity to all living things, filling it with moisture.

Another pair of titans - Hyperion and Theia - gave birth to the Sun-Helios, Selena-Moon and the beautiful Eos-Dawn. From Eos came the stars that sparkle in the sky at night, and the winds - the swift north wind Boreas, the east wind Eurus, the moist southern Notes and the gentle west wind Zephyr, bringing white-foam clouds of rain.

Three more giants - the Cyclopes - were also born by Mother Gaia, who are similar to the titans in everything, but having only one eye in their forehead. Gaia also gave birth to three hundred-armed and fifty-headed hecatoncheir giants, possessing immeasurable strength. Nothing could stand against them. They were so strong and terrible that Father Uranus hated them at first sight, and imprisoned them in the bowels of the Earth so that they could not be born again.

Mother Gaia suffered, crushed by her terrible burden, enclosed in her depths. And then she called her children, telling them that the first lord Uranus planned villainy, and punishment should fall on him. However, the titans were afraid to go against their father, only the cunning Kronus, the youngest of the titan children born by Gaia, agreed to help the Mother overthrow Uranus. With the iron sickle that Gaia handed over, Cronus cut off his father's genital member. From the drops of blood that spilled onto the ground, the terrible Erinyes were born, knowing no mercy. From the foam of the sea, which washed a piece of divine flesh for a long time, the beautiful Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was born.

The crippled Uranus was angry, cursing his children. Terrible deities born by the Goddess of the Night became punishment for villainy: Tanata - death, Eridu - discord, Apatu - deceit, Ker - destruction, Hypnos - a dream with a swarm of gloomy, heavy visions, Nemesis who knows no mercy - revenge for crimes. Many deities that bring suffering to the world, Nyukta gave birth.

Horror, discord and misfortune were brought into the world by these gods, where Kron reigned on the throne of his father.

PRE-HELLENIC MYTH OF CREATION

In the beginning, Eurynome, goddess of all things, rose naked from Chaos and found herself with nothing to lean on. So she separated the sky from the sea and began her lonely dance over its waves. In her dance she moved towards the south, and behind her a wind arose, which seemed to her quite suitable to begin creation. Turning around, she caught this north wind, squeezed it in her palms - and the great serpent Ophion appeared before her eyes. To keep warm, Eurynome danced more and more furiously, until desire arose in Ophion, and he wrapped his divine loins around her to possess her. That is why the north wind, which is also called Boreas, fertilizes: that is why mares, turning their backs to this wind, give birth to foals without the help of a stallion. In the same way, Eurynome conceived a child.

Then she turned into a dove, sat down, like a mother hen, on the waves and, after the allotted time, laid the World Egg. At her request, Ophion wrapped himself seven times around this egg and hatched it until it split in two. And everything that only exists in the world appeared from it: the sun, the moon, planets, stars, the earth and its mountains, rivers, trees, grasses and living beings.

Eurynome and Ophion settled on Olympus, but he offended her by declaring himself the creator of the universe. For this, she hit him on the head with her heel, knocked out all his teeth and banished him to gloomy underground caves.

After that, the goddess created seven planetary forces, putting a titanide and a titan at the head of each. Theia and Hyperion owned the Sun - which shone for all living things; Phoebe and Atlas - the Moon, created for witchcraft, Dione and Crius - Mars, giving growth; Metis and Coy - Mercury, the source of wisdom; Themis and Eurymedon - Jupiter, the creator of laws; Tethys and the Ocean - Venus, giving love; Rhea and Kron - Saturn, bringing peace.

But the first man was Pelasg, the ancestor of all Pelasgians. They were born from Ophion's teeth that fell to the ground.

__________

Introduction

One of the most important and interesting questions for every person is the question of the origin of the world. This question arises naturally, since the example of many changeable things, phenomena or processes of the surrounding world, the example of the birth and existence of living beings, man, society and cultural phenomena teaches us that everything has its beginning. Much in the world once began, originated and began to change and develop over a relatively short or long period of time. True, before the eyes of man there were examples of such long-lived things that seem to be eternal. For example, the ocean, rivers flowing into it, mountain ranges, the shining sun or moon seemed eternal. These examples suggested the opposite idea, that the world as a whole could be eternal and have no beginning. Thus, human thought, human intuition suggested two opposite answers to the question posed: the world once began to exist and the world has always existed and had no beginning. Between these two extreme points of view, various options are possible, for example, that the world arose from the primary Ocean, which itself has no beginning, or that the world periodically arises and then is destroyed, etc. This content of human thought is reflected in mythology, religion, philosophy and later in natural science. In this work, we will briefly consider the most famous myths about the creation of the world and allow ourselves a small comparative analysis of mythological plots with the Biblical story of creation. Why might we be interested in mythology? Because in mythology, in the collective consciousness of people, which is a special way of understanding the world around us, inherent in people in the early stages of historical development, certain ideas of people were reflected. And these ideas may have a historical, speculative or some other basis.

1 Creation myths

Let's make some introductory remarks. Firstly, we will confine ourselves to considering only the cosmogonic part of the myths and Holy Scripture, leaving out of sight the story of the human settlement in Paradise. Secondly, the content of the myths will be abbreviated, since a full description of the adventures of the gods and their genealogies will take up a lot of space and distract us from the main goal - a comparative analysis of mythologies with the Biblical narrative about the creation of the world and man.

1.1 Myths of ancient Egypt. Memphis, Hermopol, Heliopolis and Theban cosmogony

All four ancient Egyptian cosmogonies have significant similarities in the story of the creation of the world and are therefore united. At the same time, there are certain differences in the nature and sequence of creations and births of deities, people and the rest of the world. As a preliminary analysis, we will single out three main stages in creation, following one after another: A - the existence of the primordial Ocean, B - the birth of the gods and the creation of the world, C - the creation of man.

A) A common feature of these creation myths is the original existence of only one vast ocean, which was in itself. This ocean was lifeless, according to some myths, or full of potencies, according to others, but at the same time he himself turned out to be the first deity.

Memphis Cosmogony: The Nun Ocean was cold and lifeless.

Germanic cosmogony: in the beginning Chaos existed in the form of the primordial Ocean. The Primordial Ocean was full of forces and potentialities, both destructive and creative.

Heliopolis cosmogony: the vast Ocean of Chaos-Nun was a dark, cold, lifeless watery desert.

Theban cosmogony: there were initial waters.

B) Then gods are born from the Ocean, who give birth to other deities, with a list of genealogies, and create the whole world.

Memphis cosmogony: the very first god Ptah-Earth, by an effort of will, creates himself, his flesh from the earth. Then Ptah-Earth creates with Thought and Word, giving birth to her son - the solar god Atum, who arose from the Ocean of Nun. God Atum, helping his father, creates the great Ennead - the nine gods. Ptah-Earth endows the Ennead with divine attributes: power and wisdom, and also establishes a religion: temples, sanctuaries, festivals and sacrifices (but at the same time there was no man on earth yet). From his body, Ptah created everything that exists: living beings, rivers, mountains, established cities, crafts and work. The god Ptah, his wife, the goddess Sokhmet, and their son, the god of vegetation, Nefertum, made up the Memphis Triad of gods.

Germanic cosmogony: in the Ocean hid the forces of destruction - Darkness and Disappearance, Emptiness and Nothingness, Absence and Night, as well as the forces of creation - the great eight (Ogdoada) - 4 male and 4 female deities. The male deities are Huh (Infinity), Nun (Water), Kuk (Darkness), Amon (Air). Male deities have their own female deities, which act as their incarnations. This eight creative deities initially swam in the Ocean, but then the deities decided to engage in creation. They raised the Primordial Hill from the water and in complete darkness grew a lotus flower on it. From the flower appeared the baby Ra - the sun god, who for the first time lit up the whole world. Later, the god Ra gave birth to a couple of deities: the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut, from whom all other gods were born.

Heliopolis cosmogony: from the cold dark waters, the sun god Atum jumped out - the first of the gods. Atum created the Primordial Hill, and then created a pair of deities: the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut, spewing them out of his mouth. God Shu is the god of wind and air; the goddess Tefnut is the goddess of the world order. When Shu and Tefnut got married, they had twins: the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. This couple of twins, when they grew up and got married, gave birth to many children: stars, and then other gods: Osiris, Set, Isis, Nephthys, Harver, who, together with their parents and grandparents, formed the great Ennead. The god Shu cut off the sky from the earth so that Nut and Geb would not give birth to more gods (stars), and so that Nut would not eat her children. Thus heaven was separated from earth.

Theban cosmogony: the first god of the earth - Amon - created himself, standing out from the initial waters. Then Amon created everything that exists from himself: people and gods. Later, the god Amon became the sun god Amon-Ra. The god Amon-Ra, his wife, the goddess Mut, and their son, the lunar deity Khonsu, made up the Theban Triad of gods.

c) Gods create people. People appear after the first gods, but simultaneously with some other gods, or even before some of them.

Memphis cosmogony: as already mentioned, the god Ptah from his body creates everything that exists, including people. This happened after the creation of the Ennead and the establishment of religion. God Ptah, after creation, resides in the body of all creatures, animate and inanimate, endows people with a part of his creative power, which previously allowed him to create the world. In the place where Ptah created the world, the city of Memphis was formed.

Germanic cosmogony: when the baby Ra saw the wonderful world illuminated by its rays, he wept for joy. From these tears of Ra, dropped on the Primordial Hill, the first people arose. In the same place, on the Hill, the city of Germopol later arose.

Heliopolis cosmogony: the god Atum once temporarily lost his children: the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut. He sent his fiery divine Eye after them, which stubbornly wandered and illuminated the darkness. Instead of the first Eye, Atum created a second one for himself. This is how the sun and moon appeared. Meanwhile, the Eye of Fire found the children of Atum. For joy that there were children, the god Atum wept. From these tears of Atum that fell on the Primordial Hill, people arose. Later, the city of Heliopolis and its main temple were built on the Primordial Hill.

Theban cosmogony: the god Amon created everyone from himself. From his eyes appeared people, and from his mouth - gods. He taught people to build cities. Thebes was the first city built.

Aivazovsky. Among the waves

(Taken from the site: http://see-art.ru/art.php?genre=all)

Boundless Ocean or water Chaos at the beginning of creation

1.2 Myth of ancient Mesopotamia

Here we will apply the same three-step sequence of creation, since the Mesopotamian cosmogony is similar to the ancient Egyptian cosmogony.

A) At the beginning, only the World Ocean existed for a long time. In the bowels of the Ocean, his daughter, the goddess Nammu, was hiding.

B) Birth of gods (with pedigree) and creation of the world

A great mountain emerged from the womb of the goddess Nammu, on top of which the god An (heaven) lived, and the goddess Ki (earth) reclined below. The god An and the goddess Ki got married and gave birth to the mighty god Enlil, and then seven more gods. So the eight gods appeared, ruling the world. Then the world gradually overflowed with the younger Anunnaki gods, who gave birth to An and Ki, as well as the older gods. Then Enlil separated the sky from the earth (An from Ki), cutting off the firmament from the earth in order to stop the birth of new gods. Since then, a spacious and wide land has opened up, on which there was enough space for all the gods. God Enlil filled the vast earth with the breath of life and created in its center the city of Nippur with the temple of Enlil, where all the gods came to worship.

c) Gods create people.

Enlil's brother god Enki, the demiurge and sage, began to equip the world while Enlil dealt with the gods. Enki launched fish into the water, forbade the seas to flood the earth, filled the bowels of the earth with minerals, planted forests, established the procedure for irrigating the earth with rain, created birds and their singing. However, many lesser gods began to devastate the earth in search of shelter and food. Then Enki creates the divine Sheep - the god Lahar and the divine Grain - the goddess Ashnan. Thanks to them, cattle breeding and agriculture appeared on the earth. Then Enki created assistants for the younger gods - people, hardworking and reasonable. Enki and his wife Ninmah together began to mold people from clay and assign them a destiny and a job. So people were created - men and women, endowed with soul and mind, similar in image to the gods.

1.3 Myth of ancient Babylonia

Babylonian culture is seen as a continuation of Mesopotamian culture. Therefore, we will also apply the three-stage sequence of creation to the Babylonian cosmogony.

A) In the beginning there was the primordial Ocean. The seeds of life were already ripening in him.

B) The birth of the gods with their genealogy and the creation of the world.

Two primogenitors lived in the Ocean, interfering with its waters: the all-creator god Apsu and the mother goddess Tiamat. Then, pairs of gods were born from the Ocean: Lahmu and Lahamu, Anshar and Kishar, as well as the god Mummu. Anshar and Kishar gave birth to the god Anu, and this one gave birth to the god Ey. When the god Eya dealt with his evil great-grandfather Apsu (he was annoyed by the hubbub and restlessness of the gods), he married Damkin, and they gave birth to the god Marduk. This Marduk then became the supreme god. Marduk dealt with the great-grandmother Tiamat, and from her corpse he created the whole world - heaven and earth. Marduk adorned the sky with planets, stars, sun and moon; made clouds and rains, made rivers flow; created animals. Marduk also instituted religious rites. Later, many younger gods appeared, and the younger gods worked for the benefit of the older ones.

c) Gods create people.

Marduk decided to create people from divine clay, mixed with the blood of one of the younger gods who fought on the side of Tiamat against Marduk, so that people would serve many gods. People appeared industrious and intelligent.

1.4 Myths of ancient Greece. Five variants of cosmogonies

Let's apply the three-step sequence of creation to ancient Greek cosmogony.

A) Primordial existence of Chaos, Ocean or Darkness, full of potencies and essentially being deities.

The first option: in the beginning there was Chaos.

The second option: at first the whole world was covered by the Ocean.

The third option: in the beginning there was the goddess Night and the god Wind.

The fourth option: in the beginning there was Chaos.

Fifth option: Darkness and Chaos existed in the beginning.

B) The birth of the gods with a listing of their genealogies, and the creation of the world.

The first option: Eurynome, the goddess of all things, rose naked from Chaos, separated the sky from the sea and began her lonely dance over its waves. It was cold; behind the goddess came the north wind. The goddess caught the north wind, and the great serpent Ophion appeared before her eyes. The goddess danced more and more furiously, warming herself, and Ophion embraced her and possessed her. The pregnant Eurynome laid the World Egg, and Ophion incubated it. From this Egg the whole world was born. After a quarrel between Eurynome and Ophion, the goddess herself created the planets and gave birth to the titans and titanides.

The second option: gods are born in the streams of the Ocean. Mother progenitor of all gods - the goddess Tefis.

The third option: the goddess Night responded to the courtship of the god of the Wind and laid a silver Egg. From it came the androgynous god Eros. Eros set the whole world in motion, made the earth, sky, sun and moon. The world began to be ruled by the triune Night - the triad of goddesses.

The fourth option: the Earth arose from Chaos and gave birth to Uranus in a dream. Uranus poured fertilizing rain on the Earth, and it gave birth to the gods. From the rain came the waters.

Fifth option: Chaos and Darkness gave birth to all the titans and gods, Sky, Gaia-Earth, Sea.

c) Gods create people.

The first option: Eurynome and Ophion settled on Mount Olympus after the creation of the world. They then had a quarrel as Ophion declared himself the creator of the universe. The goddess drove the snake into the underground, knocking out his teeth. From these teeth of Ophion, people were born.

Fifth option: humans were created by the titan Prometheus and the goddess Athena. Prometheus made people out of earth and water, and Athena breathed life into them. The soul in people appeared thanks to the wandering divine elements that have been preserved since the time of creation.

1.5 Myths of ancient India. Three variants of cosmogony

Indian myths have gradually undergone strong changes, so there is no single system of views on the origin of the world. We will consider three storytelling options.

1.5.1 One of the oldest variants of cosmogony is as follows. The gods created the Primordial Man Purusha. Then this Man was sacrificed by the gods, his body was cut into pieces. The moon, sun, fire, wind, sky, cardinal points, earth and various classes of human society arose from parts of the body.

1.5.2 The next best-known version of cosmogony is somewhat reminiscent of the creation myths discussed above. Therefore, we will present it according to the same three-stage scheme.

A) In the beginning, there was nothing but the primordial Chaos, which rested without movement, but concealed great powers.

B) From the darkness of the primordial Chaos, waters arose before other creations. The waters gave birth to fire. The Golden Egg was born in them by the great power of warmth. Since there was no sun, no moon, no stars, there was nothing and no one to measure time, there was no year; but as long as the year lasts, the Golden Egg floated in the boundless and bottomless ocean. After a year of swimming, the ancestor Brahma arose from the Golden Egg. Brahma broke the egg: the upper half of the Egg became the Sky, the lower half became the Earth, and between them Brahma placed the air space. And he established the earth among the waters, created the countries of the world and laid the foundation for time. This is how the universe was created. By the power of his thought, Brahma gave birth to six sons - six great lords, as well as other gods and goddesses. Brahma gave them power over the universe, and he himself, tired of creation, retired to rest.

C) People are born from Vivasvat and goddess Saranyu. Vivasvat was the son of the goddess Aditi and became a man after the gods remade his nature (later he became the god of the sun). The first children of Vivasvat and Saranyu were mortal people: Yama, Yami and Manu. The younger children of Vivasvat and Saranyu were gods. The first person to die is Yama. After his death, he became the lord of the realm of the dead. Manu was destined to survive the Great Flood. From him come the people who now live on earth.

1.5.3 Late Hindu cosmogony. There is a trinity of gods - Trimurti - Brahma the creator, Vishnu the guardian and Shiva the destroyer, whose functions are not strictly delineated. The universe is cyclically born by Brahma, kept by Vishnu and destroyed by Shiva. The day of Brahma lasts as long as the universe exists; night of Brahma - when the universe perishes and does not exist. The day of Brahma and the night of Brahma are equal every 12 thousand divine years. The divine year consists of a day equal to one human year. The life of Brahma lasts 100 years of Brahma, after which there will be another Brahma. (It can be calculated that the period of existence of the Universe is 4 million 380 thousand years, and the life of Brahma lasts 159 billion 870 million years.)

Relationship" href="/text/category/vzaimootnoshenie/" rel="bookmark"> relationships of deities, their marriages and conflicts, their divine lineage, who was born from whom. In many mythologies, deities act as personified forces or times of nature: the deity Ocean -Nun, the god Ptah-Earth, the god Atum-Sun, the god An-Heaven, the goddess Ki-Earth, the daughter of Brahma, the goddess Virini-Night, etc.

The third common feature of myths is the story of the creation of the world and man by one or more of the elder gods. Moreover, some narratives state that man was created to serve the gods, while others tell of the creation of man as an accidental, side event of divine history.

2.2 Comparison of creation myths with the Biblical account of the creation of the world and man

We believe that the reader is familiar with the content of the Biblical narrative about the creation of the world and man (Six Days), so there is no need to quote it. Let us point out that the three common features of cosmogonies listed above are fundamentally different from the Biblical Six Days.

Instead of the primordially, eternally existing progenitor of the Ocean-Chaos, the Bible asserts that God created the world out of nothing. That is, according to the Biblical legend, once the world did not exist, but then it was created by God.

Instead of long, intricate and fabulous stories about the relationship of the gods and their genealogies, the Bible tells in ascetic language about the one God (monotheism), who is the true Creator of the entire existing world. The God of the Bible and Christianity is not a personified force of nature, not dissolved in natural elements, but He is transcendent to the world, exists outside the world, outside physical space and time, unlike mythological deities.

Instead of ideas about the creation of man by one of the elder gods, Christianity asserts that the true creator of man is the one God the Creator. Moreover, according to Christianity, the whole world was created only for the sake of the existence of man, who is the image of God and who is destined to reign over the material world. While in mythologies, the appearance of a person looks like a minor event against the background of stories about the adventures of the gods.

An essential distinguishing feature of the Biblical Six Days is the statement about the sequential, stepwise creation of the world during the six days (periods) of creation. At the same time, each time after the next stage of creation, God characterizes the primordial nature and creation as perfect in His eyes. We will never find this recognition of the perfection of the creature in mythologies.

So, in its main features, the Biblical, Christian understanding of the creation of the world and man does not coincide with pagan mythologies.

But at the same time, there are some similarities, analogies between these narratives, which we will now consider.

1) In mythologies, the initial state of the world is characterized as Chaos-Ocean-Darkness. In the Biblical Six Days, the initial state of the created earth appears formless and empty, covered with water and immersed in darkness.

2) Primordial Chaos-Ocean-Darkness of mythologies conceals forces and potencies and is the environment for the birth of gods. In the Bible, the Spirit of God hovers over the waters and gives them life.

3) In many mythologies, land appears from the waters. In the Bible, God collects the waters under the sky into one place, revealing dry land.

4) Some analogy between the stories is the birth of many gods in mythology and the creation of spiritual entities - angels in the Christian Holy Tradition. True, the Biblical Shestodnev does not directly say this. But many interpreters of the Bible understand the creation of the angelic world under the phrase about the creation of heaven by God.

5) In some mythologies, there is a motif of separation (separation), for example, the separation of heaven from earth. In the Biblical Six Days, the separation motif is clearly visible: the separation of light from darkness, the separation of water from water by the heavenly firmament, the actual separation of land from water.

6) In some mythologies, the gods mold people from clay or earth. And, for example, in the Babylonian cosmogony, clay was mixed with the blood of one of the younger gods to create a person. In the Bible, God molded Adam from the dust of the ground, then breathed life into him. The name Adam itself can mean "clay" or, as they say, "red clay".

The question arises how to interpret the differences and similarities of mythological cosmogonies with the Biblical narrative. How to evaluate the degree of similarity and the degree of difference? Was the Biblical Six Day borrowed from earlier myths of other peoples? Isn't the similarity of cosmogonies an effect of parallel independent collective creativity, a manifestation of the archetype, the collective unconscious of many peoples? And if so, then Who or what put this archetype into the minds of mankind. Or maybe there is a single Source of true knowledge, from which all known myths about creation originated, only different peoples decorated them in accordance with their inclinations, their mentality? This is the most difficult question. Moreover, the presence of a real mystery is felt behind this question ... And the reader, in the end, must come to comprehend it on his own. In atheistic and non-Christian literature, one can find claims that the Biblical account of the creation of the world and man is borrowed from earlier Babylonian and Egyptian or other mythology. After all, there are some analogies between them. But the brief comparative analysis presented here speaks against this, according to which there is a significant difference between these stories. More precisely, we want to say that there are differences between the Bible and pagan cosmogonies, while there are many similarities between the cosmogonies themselves. And, on the contrary, Orthodox literature speaks of the polemical aspect of the Biblical Shestodnev, that it was written (including) against the religious and philosophical views of the pagans then dominant, i.e. against the myths of creation among the peoples surrounding the ancient Jews. All the same essential differences between the Bible and creation myths speak in favor of this. Moreover, the Bible looks aloof: the language of the Bible is ascetic, there are no stories about the adventures of the gods, there are no divine genealogies. If the Bible were written simply as a Hebrew myth, then instead of the Six Days, we would most likely have a Jewish version of the relationship of spiritual entities and their genealogies, against which people appear as a secondary detail, either from the tears of a deity, or from the teeth of a snake, and even then only to serve the gods. Then one could say that the Biblical narrative is the same as other myths, a product of the collective creativity of the people, a product of an archetype or a simple borrowing from more ancient legends. But it doesn't look like it. The biblical story in fundamental points differs from pagan cosmogonies. But then the question may arise: did not Moses personally come up with all this? Did he not take the Egyptian myths of creation as a basis and rework them in favor of the assertion of a single Creator of heaven and earth? It is, of course, possible to assume this. Moses could theoretically get people to confess Bible truth, but this is only theoretical. It is hard to imagine that a person himself, without the will of God, was able to achieve such colossal authority among the Jews, in order to impose on an entire people, and a very stubborn people, the strict Shestodnev instead of popular myths. That same Six Days, in which greenery and trees flourish before the Sun is created, contrary to everyday observations, contrary to the natural worship of the luminary and contrary to all common sense! And thus the Biblical story became fundamentally different from pagan myths. And in this one should see the manifestation of the will of God.

But we still did not sufficiently elucidate such a question: where did the individual analogies between the narratives come from? Do they have a common source? The hypothesis of the existence of a common archetype does not solve the problem, but only pushes it back, since then the question of the reason for the existence of this archetype follows. Here we adhere to the point of view, the logic of which let the reader evaluate for himself: there are at least two reasons for the existence of analogies between the Bible and pagan cosmogonies. The first and main probable reason is that they all have a common Source - Divine revelation, transmitted from generation to generation through tradition. Perhaps Adam knew this tradition when he had the closest communion with the Creator. After the fall of Adam and Eve, people fell away from God and the content of tradition began to be lost. On the basis of tradition, various pagan myths grew and blossomed. The pagan peoples embellished the ancient legend by composing fabulous genealogies of the gods, adding speculative moments, for example, the birth of the world from the Silver or Golden Egg, and obscuring the reason for the appearance of man, making the destiny of man in this world secondary. But at the right moment, the Divine revelation was once again revealed to Moses to shape it into Holy Scripture and to educate the Jewish people, and then all Christians in worship of God. That is why the language of the Bible is ascetic, the texts of which stand apart from the myths of other peoples. The second probable reason for the presence of analogies between the Bible and pagan myths is that, by denying these myths, arguing with them, Holy Scripture is partly expressed in their own language. Apparently, otherwise the Jewish people, who were captured by the pagans, heard their cosmogonies and tempted to worship their gods, could not have penetrated the essence of the story of Moses. Thus we see the reasons for the existence of analogies between narratives.

The following question may arise: if the pagan creation myths are distorted retellings of an ancient tradition, then why do we claim that there are more fundamental similarities between the myths themselves than with the Bible? They would have to differ more from each other than each from the original source. The answer is this. In fact, if the reader has noticed, great similarities are observed only between the myths of ethnically related and geographically close peoples, for example, the cosmogony of the Semitic-Hamitic peoples is very similar: Egyptian (Memphis, Hermopolis, Heliopolis and Theban), Mesopotamian and Babylonian, as descended from one branches of interpretation of ancient tradition. The further the mutual kinship and location of peoples, the less similarities in their mythologies, since they already come from different branches of retellings of tradition. Further. The distortion of the ancient legend among the pagan peoples could go along a certain general channel, conditioned by the collective consciousness and the collective unconscious of mankind, prone to polytheism, deification of the elements and times of nature. In all likelihood, this allowed us in this work to single out a common three-stage scheme for the creation of the world among many peoples: A - the existence of the primordial Ocean-Chaos-Darkness, B - the birth of the gods and the creation of the world, C - the creation of man. Let us explain this using the example of stage A. The ancient tradition, judging by the Bible, should have stated that in the beginning there was no world, but God always existed, that He created heaven and earth, and that the initial state of the created earth seemed formless and empty, covered with water. and plunged into darkness. But the pagan consciousness of the peoples could not keep this truth, this secret of the creation of the universe unchanged, but began to see here the original state of the world as Chaos-Ocean-Darkness, which itself is a deity. So there was a distortion of tradition in favor of the deification of the elements of nature.

Conclusion

This work does not claim to be complete. And it is impossible to fully illuminate one of the most important mysteries of the universe - the mystery of its creation. We limited ourselves to considering only the cosmogonic part of pagan myths and Holy Scripture, leaving out of sight the story of a man's settlement in Paradise and his expulsion from Paradise. In general terms, the similarities and differences between pagan myths and the Biblical story of the creation of the world are considered. It has been suggested that pagan cosmogonies are distorted retellings of the Divine revelation given to mankind from Adam and revealed a second time to Moses for shaping it into Holy Scripture and for educating the Jewish people, and then all Christians in worship of God.

Literature

1. Ovchinnikova A. G. Legends and myths of the Ancient East. - St. Petersburg: Publishing House "Litera", 2002. - 512 p.

2. Graves R. Myths of Ancient Greece. Publishing house "Progress", 1992.

3. Myths of ancient India. Literary presentation by V. G. Erman and E. N. Temkin. M.: The main editorial office of oriental literature of the publishing house "Nauka", 1975. - 240 p.

4. Priest Oleg Davydenkov. Dogmatic Theology. Part three. About God in relation to the world and man. Section I. God as the Creator and Provider of the world. http://www. sedmitza. ru/index. html? id=239&did=3686

5. Alexander Men. Experience of the course in the study of the Holy Scriptures. Old Testament. Sacred writing before the era of prophetic writers. Prologue of the Book of Genesis. http://www. krotov. info/library/m/menn/1_8_104.html

6. Deacon Andrei Kuraev. Polemicality of Six Days.

http://ao. orthodoxy. ru/arch/012/012-kuraev. htm

WORLD CREATION. MYTHS ABOUT CREATION

V. Yu. Skosar, Dnepropetrovsk

annotation

In general terms, the similarities and differences between pagan myths and the Biblical story of the creation of the world are considered. It has been suggested that pagan cosmogonies are distorted retellings of the Divine revelation given to mankind from Adam and revealed a second time to Moses for shaping it into Holy Scripture and for educating the Jewish people, and then all Christians in worship of God.

Introduction

1. The nature of creation myths

2. Creation myths

2.1 Ancient religions

2.2 Modern world religions

2.3 Religions of South and East Asia

Conclusion

List of sources used

Introduction

Even the people of the first civilizations wondered about the origin of mankind and the origin of the rest of the world. Where did people and animals, trees and shrubs, herbs and cereals come from on earth? When did the sun begin to shine - a bright sun, dispelling the darkness, driving away the fears of the night? Who lit the stars in the sky and placed the moon to replace the sun at night? How did people appear on earth and what awaits a person after death? Then, in the absence of scientific knowledge, people were looking for religious overtones in everything.

This question arises naturally, since the example of many changeable things, phenomena or processes of the surrounding world, the example of the birth and existence of living beings, man, society and cultural phenomena teaches us that everything has its beginning. Much in the world once began, originated and began to change and develop over a relatively short or long period of time. True, before the eyes of man there were examples of such long-lived things that seem eternal. For example, the ocean, rivers flowing into it, mountain ranges, the shining sun or moon seemed eternal. These examples suggested the opposite idea, that the world as a whole could be eternal and have no beginning. Thus, human thought, human intuition suggested two opposite answers to the question posed: the world once began to exist and the world has always existed and had no beginning. Between the two extreme points of view, various options are possible, for example, that the world arose from the primary Ocean, which itself has no beginning, or that the world periodically arises and then is destroyed, etc.

Purpose of the work: to study the nature of myths about the creation of the world.

To do this, we will solve the following tasks:

clarify the concept of myth and mythology;

reveal the nature of myths about the origin of the world and natural phenomena;

briefly consider the most famous myths about the creation of the world.

1. The nature of creation myths

First, let's clarify the concept of myth and mythology.

Myth (Greek "tradition", "tale") - the most ancient legends, legends, conveying the idea of ​​ancient peoples about the origin of the world and various natural phenomena.

Mythology is not just a story about what a god looked like, what he did, and what came of it. This is not a set of disparate stories and characters. First of all, this is a detailed description of the world as it is imagined by this people. Mythology includes:

ideas about how the world works, where it came from, why everything in the world happens this way and not otherwise;

stories about certain deeds of gods and people;

explanations for why people act the way they do;

prescriptions for how and why one should behave at every moment of one's life;

describes the essence of human life and what will happen to him after death.

All these aspects are merged, fused into a single all-encompassing whole, and it is impossible to fully explain one thing without touching on almost every other aspect in detail. Therefore, it is very difficult to break mythology into separate "themes" - the creation of the world, myths about gods, etc.

The creation of the world is a group of cosmogonic myths and legends in mythologies and religions, the feature of which is the presence of a demiurge or God the Creator, whose actions or will are the cause and driving force of a successive chain of acts of creation.

In most mythologies, there are common plots about the origin of everything that exists: the separation of elements of order from the primordial chaos, the separation of maternal and paternal gods, the emergence of land from the ocean, the infinite and timeless, etc.

Let's look at the geography of the main mythologies of the world:

for the Indians of North America, the coyote is a sacred animal, thanks to which the moon and the sun illuminate the world;

one is the god of victory, the supreme god of the Vikings, who takes the warriors who fell in battle to him;

the Greeks call the king of the gods - Zeus; the Romans call him Jupiter;

meadow - the Celtic god of light, he is a brave, strong man, musician and wizard;

ra - the supreme god of Egypt, the god of the sun - he must not stop his run across the sky, otherwise the world will plunge into darkness;

vishnu - one of the three gods in India, stands at the cradle of the world;

in Australia Rainbow Serpent - created nature;

in Russia - Svarog gave life to the sun (Dazhdbog), Perun, Yarila.

So, myths in the life of ancient people played a practical role, because. with the help of myths they tried to explain the world in which they lived. Myths gave a complete picture of the world order. They were passed down from generation to generation and were perceived as the spiritual testament of ancestors, which concentrated the experience and age-old wisdom of previous generations.

Through myth, an immutable system of values ​​and norms of behavior was affirmed, the existing order in the world was fixed on the basis that it had always been. In those distant times, there were no sciences, there were no space rockets, ocean liners capable of traveling around the world and thus giving people an idea of ​​the boundaries of the world, therefore, in all corners of the planet, their own mythologies were born that could explain the secrets of nature and draw their own picture of the world, which we will consider in the next chapter.

2. Creation myths

Everywhere, on all continents, people told stories that describe the deeds of the gods and help explain the secrets of the world. All the myths that have come down to us about the creation of the world and people, at first glance, can amaze with their contradictory diversity. The creators of the gods, people and the universe in them are either animals, or birds, or gods, or goddesses. The ways of creation and the creators are also different. Common to all legends is, perhaps, only the idea of ​​primitive chaos, from which certain gods gradually arose and created the world in different ways.

Unfortunately, almost none of the myths about the creation of the world has survived to this day in its entirety. Quite often it is not possible to restore even the plot of a particular legend. Such fragmentary information about some variants had to be supplemented with the help of other sources, and in some cases the legend had to be restored according to separate fragmentary data, on the basis of both written and material monuments. Nevertheless, despite the incompleteness of the material, upon closer examination of the whole variety of myths that have come down to us, so different and seemingly mutually unrelated, it still turns out to be possible to establish a number of common features. And, despite such contradictory, confusing and diverse views, people “believed in one supreme god, self-born, self-sufficient, omnipotent and eternal, who created other gods, the sun, moon and stars, the earth, and everything that is on it.

We, modern people, are interested in the myths of ancient peoples because they tell about how they lived, what they believed in, how our ancestors understood the world. Consider briefly the creation myths that existed in the ancient world, as well as in modern world religions.

2.1 Ancient religions

In most mythologies, there are common plots about the origin of everything that exists: the separation of elements of order from the primordial chaos, the separation of maternal and paternal gods, the emergence of land from the ocean, the infinite and the timeless, etc. In cosmogonic (about the origin of the world) and anthropogonic (about the origin man) in myths, a group of plots is distinguished about the creation of the world as the earth or the universe, the creation of the animal and plant worlds, the creation of man, describing their origin as an arbitrary act of “creation” on the part of a higher being.

Myths of Ancient Egypt. God Ra appeared from the Water Abyss, and then all living beings came out of his mouth. First, Ra exhaled Shu - the first Air, after - the first moisture Tefnut (Water), from which a new couple was born, Geb Earth and Nut Sky, who became the parents of Osiris Birth, Isis Rebirth, Set Desert and Neptides, Horus and Hathor. From air and moisture, Ra created the Eye of Ra, the goddess Hathor, to see what he was doing. When Ra had an eye, he began to cry, and people appeared from his tears. Hathor was angry with Ra because she existed separately from his body. Then Ra found a place for Hathor on his forehead, after which he created snakes, from which all other creatures appeared.

Myths of Ancient Greece. In Greece, there was more than one myth about the creation of the world - there were patriarchal and matriarchal versions. First there was Chaos. The gods that emerged from Chaos are Gaia Earth, Eros Love, Tartarus the Abyss, Erebus Gloom, Nikta Night. The gods that appeared from Gaia are Uranus Sky and Pontus More. The first Gods gave birth to the Titans. One of the matriarchal versions sounded like this: Mother Earth Gaia arose from Chaos and gave birth to Uranus (“Sky”) in a dream. Uranus ascended to his assigned place in the sky and poured out his gratitude to his mother in the form of rain, which fertilized the earth, and the seeds that had fallen asleep in it were awakened to life.

Patriarchal version: in the beginning there was nothing but Gaia and Chaos. From Chaos came Erebus (darkness), from night - ether and day. The earth gave birth to the sea, and then the great Ocean and other children. The father of the children, Uranus, planned to destroy them, envious of the love that Gaia felt for them. But the youngest of the children - Kronos, in retaliation, castrated his father and threw the cut-off parts into the sea - this is how Aphrodite appeared, and the blood of Uranus, which fell to the ground, gave birth to Furies. Kronos became the supreme deity and married Rhea. His children (Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon), Kronos, fearing to be overthrown, swallowed. Only the youngest, Zeus, managed to escape, who overthrew Kronos a few years later. Zeus freed his brothers and sisters and became the supreme deity. Zeus is one of the main gods of the ancient Greek pantheon.

Myths of Mesopotamia. According to the Sumerian-Akkadian cosmogonic epic Enuma Elish, Tiamat mixed her waters with Apsu, thereby giving rise to the world. The words Apsu and Tiamat have a dual meaning, in mythology they were understood as the names of the gods, but when writing these words in Enuma Elish, there is no determiner DINGIR, meaning "deity", so, in this context, they should be considered rather natural elements or elements, than gods.

An interesting concept of the universe was created by the Zoroastrians. According to this concept, the world has existed for 12 thousand years. Its entire history is conditionally divided into four periods, each of 3 thousand years.

The first period is the preexistence of things and ideas. At this stage of celestial creation, there were already prototypes of everything that was later created on Earth. This state of the world is called Menok ("invisible" or "spiritual").

The second period is the creation of the created world, that is, the real, visible, inhabited by "creatures". Ahura Mazda creates the sky, the stars, the Moon, the Sun, the first man and the first bull. Beyond the sphere of the Sun is the abode of Ahura Mazda himself. At the same time, however, Ahriman begins to act. He invades the sky, creates planets and comets that are not subject to the uniform movement of the celestial spheres. Ahriman pollutes the water, sends death to the first man Gayomart and the primeval. But from the first man are born a man and a woman, from whom the human race descended, and all animals come from the first ox. From the collision of two opposing principles, the whole world comes into motion: waters become fluid, mountains arise, celestial bodies move. To neutralize the actions of "harmful" planets, Ahura Mazda assigns his spirits to each planet.

The third period of the existence of the universe covers the time before the appearance of the prophet Zoroaster. During this period, the mythological heroes of the Avesta act: the king of the golden age - Yima the Shining, in whose kingdom there is no heat, no cold, no old age, no envy - the creation of the devas. This king saves people and livestock from the Flood by building a special shelter for them. Among the righteous of this time, the ruler of a certain region Vishtaspa, the patron of Zoroaster, is also mentioned.

During the last, fourth period (after Zoroaster), in each millennium, three Saviors should appear to people, appearing as the sons of Zoroaster. The last of them, the Savior Saoshyant, will decide the fate of the world and humanity. He will resurrect the dead, destroy evil and defeat Ahriman, after which the world will be cleansed by a “stream of molten metal”, and everything that remains after that will gain eternal life.

In China, the most important cosmic forces were not the elements, but the male and female principles, which are the main active forces in the world. The famous Chinese yin and yang sign is the most common symbol in China. One of the most famous creation myths was recorded in the 2nd century BC. e. It follows from it that in ancient times there was only gloomy chaos, in which two principles gradually formed by themselves - Yin (gloomy) and Yang (light), which established the eight main directions of world space. After the establishment of these directions, the spirit of Yang began to rule the heavens, and the spirit of Yin - the earth.

The earliest written texts in China were divinatory inscriptions. The concept of literature - wen (drawing, ornament) at the beginning was designated as an image of a person with a tattoo (hieroglyph). By the VI century. BC e. the concept of wen acquired the meaning - the word. The first books of the Confucian canon appeared: the Book of Changes - Yijing, the Book of History - Shu Jing, the Book of Songs - Shi Jing XI - VII centuries. BC e. Ritual books also appeared: The Book of Ritual - Li ji, Notes on Music - Yue ji; annals of the kingdom of Lu: Spring and Autumn - Chun qiu, Conversations and judgments - Lun yu. A list of these and many other books was compiled by Ban Gu (AD 32-92). In the book History of the Han Dynasty, he wrote down all the literature of the past and his time. In the I - II centuries. n. e. one of the brightest collections was Izbornik - Nineteen ancient poems. These poems are subject to one main idea - the transience of a brief moment of life. In ritual books, there is the following legend about the creation of the world: Heaven and earth lived in a mixture - chaos, like the contents of a chicken egg: Pan-gu lived in the middle (this can be compared with the Slavic representation of the beginning of the world, when Rod was in an egg).

Japan. In the beginning there was only the boundless oily sea of ​​Chaos, then the three spirits "kami" decided that the world should be created from this sea. The spirits gave birth to many gods and goddesses, including Izanaki, who was given a magical spear, and Izanami. Izanaki and Izanami descended from the sky, and Izanaki began to disturb the sea with his spear, and when he pulled out the spear, several drops gathered on its tip, which fell back into the sea and formed an island.

Then Izanaki and Izanami discovered differences in their anatomy, causing Izanami to conceive many miraculous things. The first creature they conceived turned out to be a leech. They put her in a reed basket and let her float on the water. After Izanami spawned Foam Island, which was useless.

The next thing that gave rise to Izanami - the islands of Japan, waterfalls, mountains and other natural wonders. Then Izanami gave birth to the Five Spirits, which severely burned her, and she fell ill. Her vomit turned into the prince and princess of the Metal Mountains, from which all mines originated. Her urine became the spirit of Fresh Water, and her stool became clay.

When Izanami descended into the Land of Night, Izanaki wept and decided to get his wife back. But when he went down after her, he was frightened by her appearance - Izanami had already begun to decompose. Frightened, Izanaki ran away, but Izanami sent the Night Spirit to bring him back. The fleeing Izanaki threw his combs, which turned into vines and thickets of bamboo, and the Spirit of the Night stopped to feast on grapes and young shoots. Then Izanami sent eight thunder spirits and all the warriors from the Land of Night for her husband, but Izanaki began to throw peaches at them, and they fled. Then Izanami promised her husband that she would take a thousand people every day if he avoided her. To this, Izanaki replied that he would give life to a thousand people every day. So death came into the world, but the human race did not perish. When Izanaki washed off the dirt of the Land of Night, gods and goddesses were born - Amaterasu - the sun goddess and progenitor of the emperor, Tsukiyomi-no-Mikoto - the Moon and Susano-o - the god of the storm.

2 Modern world religions

Abrahamic religions are monotheistic religions originating from an ancient tradition dating back to the patriarch of the Semitic tribes, Abraham. All Abrahamic religions to one degree or another recognize the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament.

The creation of the world by one God, depicted in the Bible, is one of the central tenets of the faith of Judaism and Christianity. The main creation story is the first book of the Bible, Genesis. However, interpretations of this narrative and understanding of the process of creation among believers are very different.

Judaism. “Ten things were created on the first day. Here they are: heaven and earth, confusion and emptiness, light and darkness, spirit and water, the property of the day and the property of the night” Talmud (Tractate Chagigah 12:1) “The heavens were created by the Word of God” (Tehilim 33:6). In the Talmudic literature, it is often said about the Almighty: "He who spoke, and the world arose." “With ten sayings the world was made” (Tractate Avot 5:1).

The central dogma of creation in modern Christianity is Creatio ex Nihilo - "creation from nothing", in which the creator, who called everything that exists from non-existence, is God in his act of will lat. productio totius substantia^ ex nihilo sui et subjecti - transferring everything that exists from a state of non-existence to a state of being. God also acts as the primary cause of the existence of the world. The process of creation of the world is described in the first 3 chapters of Genesis. According to the Bible, the world was created in 6 days, when on the 6th, the last day, the first man was created. Some Christian denominations (for example, Catholics) do not require believers to understand the first chapters of Genesis as a literal description of the creation process and allow them to be regarded as an allegorical story about the creation of the world by God. Many of the modern Orthodox theologians prescribe here to understand by day a certain stage in the creation of the world, which in duration does not exactly correspond to astronomical days. The original source is the Hebrew word yom (yom), known to us by the word capacity, the capacity can be both large and small. Six logarithmic yomes (days) almost coincide with scientific chronology. At the same time, in modern Orthodoxy quite a lot of theologians insist on a literal understanding of the first chapters of the book of Genesis. Evangelical Christians and Protestants (Lutherans, etc.) basically adhere to the literally 6-day creation of the world.

Islam does not reject the idea of ​​a weekly holiday, which, as you know, is substantiated in the Bible by the message that the Lord God rested on this seventh day from work on the creation of the world, but Friday is considered a holiday. "Your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six days." "Al A raf "(7:54) According to modern researchers of the Qur'an, the word "ayam", one of the translations of which is "days", should be interpreted as a designation of a long period of time, an era, and not as a "day" (twenty-four hours). "Revelation from the One who created the earth and the heavens." "Taha" (20:4). The creation of heaven to earth and earth to heaven, here we are talking about Creation in general. “And Allah ascended to the sky, which was like smoke” “Fusilat” (41:11) “Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were united, and then We separated them?” "Al-Anbiya" (21:30) Creation of a single gaseous mass (durkhan), the elements of which, although initially connected (ratg), then become separate elements (fatg). “He created the day, the night, the sun and the moon. They move in their own circular path." "Al-Anbiya" (21:33) The Bible speaks of the Sun and the Moon as two luminaries - to control the day and control the night, and the Koran distinguishes them by using different epithets: light (nur) about the Moon and a torch (siraj) about the Sun.

3 Religions of South and East Asia

In Hinduism, there are at least three versions of the origin of the world:

from the "cosmic egg";

from "primary heat";

from the sacrifice of the first man Purusha to himself (from parts of his body).

The Rig Veda also mentions a certain cosmic sexual act. According to the author of the Creation Hymn:

“There was neither death nor immortality then.

There was no sign of day or night.

Breathed, not shaking the air, according to its own law

Something One, And there was nothing else but him.

There were fertilisers. Tensile forces were

Break down. Satisfaction at the top.

Where did this creation come from?

Maybe it created itself, maybe not -

He who oversees this world in the highest heaven,

Only he knows. Maybe he doesn't know either?

Sikhism is a religion that originated in the environment of Hinduism and Islam, but differs from them and does not recognize continuity. Sikhs believe in one God, an omnipotent and all-pervading Creator. Nobody knows his real name.

God is considered from two sides - as Nirgun (Absolute) and as Sargun (personal God inside each of the people). Before Creation, God existed as the Absolute in itself, but in the process of Creation, he expressed himself. Before Creation, there was nothing - neither heaven, nor hell, nor the three worlds - only the Formless. When God wanted to express himself (as Sargun), he first found his expression through the Name, and through the Name Nature appeared, in which God is dissolved and present everywhere and spreads in all directions, like Love.

The cosmology of Buddhism affirms the repetition of the cycles of the creation and destruction of the universe. The Buddhist religion does not have the concept of the creation of the world by a higher non-material being - God. The emergence of each new universe is due to the action of the total karma of living beings of the previous world cycle. Similarly, the cause of the destruction of the universe, which has passed its period of existence, is the accumulated bad karma of sentient beings.

Each world cycle (mahakalpa) is divided into four periods (kalpas):

emptiness (from the destruction of one world to the beginning of the formation of another) (samvartasthaikalpa);

formation (deployment) of the world (vivartakalpa);

sojourns (when the cosmos is in a stable state) (vivartasthaikalpa);

destruction (coagulation, extinction) (samvartakalpa).

Each of these four kalpas consists of twenty periods of waxing and waning.

With regard to the question of whether there was a beginning of world cycles, whether samsara itself has a beginning, Buddhism does not give any answer. This question, like the question of the finiteness or infinity of the world, refers to the so-called "uncertain", "unanswerable" questions, about which the Buddha kept a "noble silence". One of the Buddhist sutras says:

“Inaccessible to thought, O monks, the beginning of samsara. They cannot know anything about the beginning of samsara beings that, being embraced by ignorance and seized by passion, wander in its cycle from birth to birth.

The first being to appear in the new universe is the god Brahma, considered the Creator of the world in Hinduism. According to a Buddhist sutra, after Brahma, thirty-three gods appear who exclaim: “This is Brahma! He is eternal, he has always been! He created us all! This explains the idea of ​​the appearance of faith in the existence of God the Creator. Brahma in Buddhism is not the Creator, he is only the first divine being to be worshipped. Like all beings, he is not immutable and is subject to the law of cause and effect of karma.

Jain mythology contains detailed information about the structure of the world. According to her, the universe includes the world and non-world; the latter is inaccessible to penetration and knowledge. The world, according to the Jains, is divided into higher, middle and lower, and it all consists of three, as it were, truncated cones. In Jain mythology, the structures of each of the worlds and those who inhabit them are described in detail: plants, animals, people, inhabitants of hell, a huge number of deities.

The lower world, consisting of seven layers, is filled with stench and impurities. In some layers are the inhabitants of hell, suffering from torture; in others - disgusting creatures of black color, similar to ugly birds, sexless, constantly tormenting each other.

The middle world consists of oceans, continents, islands. There are mountains (some of gold and silver), groves with fabulous trees, ponds covered with blooming lotuses; palaces, the walls and lattices of which are studded with precious stones. In the legends there are descriptions of rocks on which there are thrones intended for the initiation of tirthankars. Some islands belong to lunar, solar and other deities. In the center of the middle world rises the world mountain, the so-called Mandara.

The upper world consists of 10 (for the Shvetambaras) or 11 (for the Digambaras) layers. Each layer is divided into sublayers inhabited by numerous deities; often their names are only mentioned and no description is given. In the uppermost part, in the special abode of Siddhakshetra (the highest point of the universe), there are siddhis - liberated souls.

Jainism has a huge number of deities that differ from each other in social status: some have the power of servants, warriors, advisers; others are described as earthly pariahs, the most disenfranchised and the poorest of people. Depending on their position, the deities live in the higher, middle or lower worlds. In different kingdoms of the upper world, people and animals are being reborn. When their divine being expires, they can return to their past state.

According to the concept of Taoism, the creation of the Universe occurs as a result of several simple principles and stages: in the beginning there was emptiness - Wu-chi, the unknown; From the vacuum come two basic forms or processes of energy: Yin and Yang. The combination and interaction of Yin and Yang form chi - energy (or vibrations) and ultimately everything that exists.

Thus, by reading the myths of different peoples, we learn more about the culture and beliefs of people. Getting to know them, we better understand their manners and customs.

Conclusion

People have always and everywhere worried about the same questions: what was there before heaven and earth appeared? Where did the first gods come from?

Myths are the oldest tales that tell about the origin of the universe and man, the secrets of birth and death, the wonders of the world, the exploits and love experiences of gods, kings and heroes.

All the peoples of the world have created myths since ancient times. They were born from the natural curiosity of people, their desire to understand and explain reality. Myths intertwine pre-scientific ideas about nature and society, early elements of religion, philosophy, and art.

Myths about the creation of the world tell us about how the world appeared on Earth, how the sky and stars, the sun and clouds appeared, from where animals and birds appeared on Earth, from where man appeared.

myth world world religion

List of sources used

1.Budge E.A. Wallis Ancient Egypt: spirits, idols, gods / E.A. Wallis Budge. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2009. - 478 p.

.Gerber H. Myths of Greece and Rome / H. Gerber; per. E. Lamanova. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. - 302 p.

.Ovchinnikova A.G. Legends and myths of the Ancient East / A.G. Ovchinnikova. - St. Petersburg: Publishing House "Litera", 2002. - 512 p.

.Skosar V.Yu. World creation. Creation myths / V.Yu. Skosar. - [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: #"justify">. World creation. At 2 p.m. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: #"justify">. World creation. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Creation_of_the world#cite_note-0

Tutoring

Need help learning a topic?

Our experts will advise or provide tutoring services on topics of interest to you.
Submit an application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.