A creation myth is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to

inhabit it. While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, cultures
regard their creation myths as true to varying degrees.[4][5]In the society in which it is told, a
creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths, metaphorically, symbolically
and sometimes in a historical or literal sense. They are commonly, although not always,
considered cosmogonical myths—that is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state
of chaos or amorphousness.
Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred accounts and
can be found in nearly all known religious traditions. They are all stories with
a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and
transform easily. They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past. Creation myths address
questions deeply meaningful to the society that shares them, revealing their
central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a
universal context. Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple
versions and are the most common form of myth, found throughout human culture.

India

The creation myths of India, in keeping with the complexities ofHinduism, range from familiar themes
such as dismembered giants and magical eggs to the most delicately expressed doubts as to the
possibility of knowledge on such a matter. 
 
In an early story Purusha is a primal man sacrificed by the gods as the act of creation. The sky comes
from his head, the earth from his feet, the sun from his eye and the moon from his mind. The four
castes of Hindu society also derive from his body - see the Caste system). The birds and animals come
from the fat which drips from him during the sacrifice. 

A much later Indian story involves the god Brahma. Beginning from nothing, he goes through a lengthy
process. First he creates, by thought alone, the waters. In them he deposits his seed, which grows into
a golden egg. He himself is born in the egg. After a year, again by thought alone, he splits the egg in
two. The halves become, in the usual way, heaven and earth. 
 
But Indian philosophy also produces a less literal response to these eternal mysteries. One of the hymns
in the Rigvedaspeculates on various cosmic forces which might have fashioned the universe. It
concludes with a passage of mostSophisticated scepticism, beginning: 'But, after all, who knows, and
who can say whence it all came, and how creation happened.' 

The Bible story

In strong contrast with all other creation myths, the Hebrewversion has a simplicity and confidence
deriving from a rugged monotheism. The Old Testament opens with a magnificently confident
statement: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.' 
 
This first chapter of Genesis, in which the creation is described, is believed to be the work of priests in
the 5th century BC. They give the impression of looking around them - to see what God needed to
create - and then devising his programme. Since the sabbath is probably already sanctified as a day of
rest, they need to fit the task into a working week of six days. 

The resulting programme is eminently practical, from the first moment when everything is void and dark  
yet also somehow awash with water. Day 1, separate light from darkness, day from night. Day 2, make
space among the encircling waters by pushing up the vault of the sky. Day 3, divide the material
beneath this vault into earth and sea; and on the earth let there be vegetation. Day 4, attention returns
to the vault of heaven; create sun and moon and stars. Day 5, it is time for creatures in water and air;
create fishes and birds. Day 6, earth too must be populated; create land animals of all kinds, and man
in God's image to supervise the creatures. 

The task is done. God rests on the seventh day, and sanctifies it. 

In this account there is only one flaw. God's world sounds perfect, and surely must be so. But we know
it is not. There are such things as disease, guilt, violence, sexual shame, even death. How can this be? 

The Hebrew story provides an immediate answer in the second chapter of Genesis. Everything is indeed
 
perfect in the Garden of Eden, and would have remained so if Eve had not tempted Adam into eating the
fruit of a tree which God had forbidden them to touch. Its fruit brings an awareness of good and evil,
which leads to sexual shame. After this act of disobedience Adam and Eve are in the real world. What
happens there is their fault, not God's. 

China

Of various creation stories which evolve in China, the most striking is that of P'an Ku. He is hatched
from a cosmic egg. Half the shell is above him as the sky, the other half below him as the earth. He
grows taller each day for 18,000 years, gradually pushing them apart until they reach their appointed
places. 
 

After all this effort P'an Ku falls to pieces. His limbs become the mountains, his blood the rivers, his
breath the wind and his voice the thunder. His two eyes are the sun and the moon. The parasites on his
body are mankind. 

Greece

The Greeks acquire a vague attachment to a great many different gods during their gradual movement,
as a group ofIndo-European tribes, into the region of modern Greece. The result is an extremely
complex account of how everything began, with deities jostling for a role. Zeus, ruler of the sky,
eventually emerges as the chieftain of the gods. It is likely that he is the original god whom the Greeks
brought with them. But in the first Greek account of the beginning of the universe, written down by  
Hesiod in about 800 BC, Zeus arrives late on the scene. 

The story begins, like so many others, with a gaping emptiness, Chaos. Within this there emerges Gaea,
the earth. 

Gaea gives birth to a son, Uranus, who is the sky. The world now exists, earth and heaven, and together
Gaea and Uranus provide it with a population, their children. First Gaea produces the Titans, heroic
figures of both sexes, but her next offspring are less satisfactory; the Cyclops, with only one eye in the
middle of their foreheads, are followed by unmistakable monsters with a profusion of heads and arms.
 
Uranus, appalled by his offspring, shuts them all up in the depths of the earth. 

Gaea's maternal instincts are offended. She persuades the youngest Titan, Cronus, to attack his father.
He surprises him in his sleep and with a sharp sickle cuts off his genitals, which he throws into the sea. 

Cronus frees his brothers and sisters from their dungeon, and together they continue to populate the
world. But an inability to get on with their offspring characterizes the males of this clan. Cronus, who
has six children with his sister Rhea, eats each of them as soon as it is born. 
 
Once again maternal instincts intervene. To save her youngest child, Rhea wraps a stone in swaddling
clothes. Cronus swallows the bundle and Rhea sends the baby to foster parents. He is Zeus. As an adult
he overwhelms his father, defeats all the other Titans in a great war, and then settles upon Mount
Olympus to preside over a world which has at last achieved a certain calm. 

During this, imperceptibly, mankind has arrived on earth - it is not clear how. But men are certainly  
there, because a free-thinking Titan, Prometheus, smuggles them the valuable gift of fire. These first
men are not considered direct ancestors by most Greeks, and there are several versions of how the
present race of humans originated. 

One is that Zeus, exasperated by Prometheus, sends a flood to drown mankind. Two humans escape in
an ark. When the flood has subsided, the oracle at Delphi tells these two to cast behind them the bones
of their first ancestor. That ancestor, they reason, is Gaea, the earth. They throw stones over their
shoulders, and from each stone a human being is created. 

Japan

The Japanese story of creation leads not so much to the first man as to the first emperor - not
surprisingly, since the legends are collected and written down early in the 8th century AD by command
of the imperial family, eager to establish a direct link back to the gods. It transpires that the gods have
a lengthy and complex existence before we reach the emperor. 
 

The story begins with a floating amorphous mass, similar to the slithery substance of an egg but moving
more like a jelly-fish. From this there emerges a reed-like object, which produces eight generations of
brother-and-sister gods. 

The eighth pair of gods are Izanagi (The Male Who Invites) and Izanami (The Female Who Invites).
Standing on the Floating Bridge of Heaven, they lean down to stir the brine of the sea with a lance. The
liquid begins to curdle and forms an island. The two gods come down on to it, and build a Central Pillar.
Behind this they come together, in a delightful passage ofDivine innocence, to try and create more
islands and gods.   

Their first products are flawed (a child which cannot stand at the age of three, an island composed of
foam). This turns out to be because the woman spoke first in their sexual encounter. With due formality
established, they create many gods - including those of the eight islands of Japan. 

The gods proliferate (soon there are 8 million) and they have many dramatic adventures, establishing
such basic patterns of life as day and night, summer and winter. Eventually the Sun goddess sends her
grandson, Ninigi, to rule the Central Land of Reed Plains. This is Japan. 
 
Ninigi is granted three treasures as symbols of his rule - a jewelled necklace (symbolizing benevolence),
a mirror (purity) and a sword (courage). His great-grandson Jimmu-Tenno is listed in Japanese legend
as the first emperor. A necklace, mirror and sword are still the Japanese imperial symbols, kept in an
inner sanctuary of Shinto shrines. 

Norse legends

The main northern story of creation is probably shared by all the people forming one distinct part of
the Indo-European family - the German tribes, who gradually move south through Europe from the
shores of the Baltic. But it is in Scandinavia that the Germanic legends are eventually recorded and
preserved, in the stories of the Norse gods. 

In the beginning there is nothingness. Gradually this space fills with water, which freezes and then
partially melts. From the drops of melting water a giant in human form emerges. This is Ymir. From his
armpit a man and a woman appear - giants like himself, but capable of producing others by more
conventional means. Meanwhile a cow has licked the melting ice and has revealed another giant, from
 
whom the god Odin (or Wotan) descends. Odin and his brothers kill the aged Ymir. Of his flesh they
make the earth, of his skull the heavens, of his blood the sea, of his bones the mountains and of his hair
the trees. 

Odin builds a place for himself and the other gods to dwell in, linked to earth by the bridge of the
rainbow, and he arranges for the maggots in Ymir's corpse - who have taken stunted human shape as
dwarfs - to remain in what is now his body, beneath the surface of the earth. On earth itself Odin and
his colleagues breathe life into two tree trunks, turning them into Ask and Embla, the first man and
woman. 
What are myths, legends and folktales/fairytales?

Storytelling is common to every culture. Most people enjoy listening to stories.

Storytellers have catered for the need for a 'good story' since the beginning of
civilization. 

Most people have their own favourite story from childhood and, often, these tales are
both fascinating and frightening. These stories include legends, myths and folktales.

What are legends? 

A legend is a semi-true story, which has been passed on from person-to-person and has
important meaning or symbolism for the culture in which it originates. A legend usually
includes an element of truth, or is based on historic facts, but with 'mythical qualities'.
Legends usually involve heroic characters or fantastic places, journeys, and the final
realization of a universal truth. It incorporates heroic searches or rescues, battles and
often encompass the spiritual beliefs of the culture in which they originate.

What are myths?

A myth is a story based on tradition or legend, which has a deep symbolic meaning. A
myth 'conveys a truth' to those who tell it and hear it, rather than necessarily recording
a true event. Although some myths can be accounts of actual events, they have become
transformed by symbolic meaning or shifted in time or place. Myths are often used to
explain universal and local beginnings and involve supernatural beings. The great power
of the meaning of these stories, to the culture in which they developed, is a major
reason why they survive as long as they do - sometimes for thousands of years. 

What are folktales?

A folktale is a popular story that was passed on in spoken form, from one generation to
the next. Usually the author is unknown and there are often many versions of the tale.
Folktales comprise fables, fairy tales, old legends and even 'urban legends'. Again, some
tales may have been based on a partial truth that has been lost or hidden over time. It
is difficult to categorize folktales precisely because they fit into many categories. 

What is the difference between legends, myths and folktales?

Myths, legends and folktales are hard to classify and often overlap. Imagine a line (or
continuum) as illustrated below, with an historical account based on facts at one end
and myths or cultural folktales at the other; as you progress towards the
mythical/folktale end of the line, what an event symbolises to people, or what they
feel about it, becomes of greater historical significance than the facts, which become
less important. By the time you reach the far end of the spectrum, the story has taken
on a life of its own and the facts of the original event, if there ever were any, have
become almost irrelevant. It is the message that is important.

India

Mahisha, the fierce buffalo demon, was on a terrible mission: to conquer the world and rout the
gods. He gored and slashed his way through battle after battle. The gods retired; the monster
ruled — until a stupendous sound shook the earth.

Durga spoke!

The great goddess had sprung forth full-grown, created by the energy of the gods, who knew
Mahisha could only be killed by a woman. Durga roared her challenge to Mahisha; the buffalo
demon was enraged!

The red-robed goddess charged into battle on her magnificent lion. Her 18 arms whirled
furiously overhead, each one brandishing some weapon of the gods: a thunderbolt, a trident, a
bow and arrow, a rope of snakes. The buffalo demon quickly changed shapes. He became a lion,
a warrior, an elephant; Durga slew each of his demon forms. Mahisha was no match for the
mighty goddess. She was beautiful, invincible, fearless. Mahisha was forced to assume his
monstrous buffalo shape again. He hurled mountains at the goddess. Durga dodged his attack —
and then leaped up and cut off the buffalo demon's head!

Most of India's myths, like the story of Durga, are part of Hinduism, one of the world's oldest
religions. Hindu beliefs and myths are driven by two very powerful forces: creation and
destruction. Everything in the cosmos, even gods and goddesses, spirals through an everlasting
cycle of birth, death or dissolution, and reincarnation.

Africa
  

Hare looked out over his field. If he was going to have food to eat, he would have to plant a crop.
But if he was going to plant a crop, he'd have to clear the field first. That was a lot of work —
more work than Hare wanted to do.

Hare was a clever animal, so he soon had an idea. He dragged a length of rope behind him and
lay in wait in the bushes outside his field. A big African elephant came lumbering along. Hare
bet the elephant he could beat him in a tug-of-war. The large elephant laughed at the idea,
coming as it did from such a small animal. He scooped up the rope with his trunk. Hare picked
up the other end and scampered through the bushes and across his field. There he hid behind
another row of bushes.

Soon enough a muddy hippopotamus waddled by. Hare dared the hippo to beat him in a tug-of-
war. The proud hippo picked up the rope with his teeth. Hare hopped into the bushes and gave
the rope a tug. When the elephant and the hippo felt the rope move, they each pulled hard. The
powerful animals dragged the rope, back and forth, back and forth, until night fell. Each time the
rope moved, it plowed another row in clever Hare's field.

Africa did not develop one overall myth system because Africa itself does not have one people,
one history. Its different peoples speak more than 1,000 languages and its mythologies are just as
vast and varied. African myths, legends, and tribal histories were shared through ritual
storytelling, proverbs, chanted poems, or songs. Stories about wily animal tricksters like Hare or
Anansi the Spider, are particularly popular.

Celtic Lands

Cuchulainn was ready for battle. His hair bristled and stood on end. One eye sunk into his head and the other
became a big red, bulging orb. His foaming mouth spread from ear to ear and a column of blood shot out of his
head. "The Hound of Culann" was ready to lead his Ulster men against the invasion by his bitterest enemy,
Queen Medb. Unfortunately, Cuchulainn would have to advance alone — the Queen immobilized his army
with a curse.

The mighty Irish warrior took up arms anyway. Single-handed, he tore through Medb's ranks, leaving broken
bodies on either side of him. The queen was frantic. Cuchulainn must be defeated. She joined forces with
Morrigan, goddess of war, whose love Cuchulainn had rashly spurned, and three sorcerer daughters of a warrior
he had killed. Their magic and betrayal brought a madness upon the Celtic hero. He was mortally wounded
with his own spear.

Bloody, pierced by spears, bruised by blows, Cuchulainn refused to fall in his final battle. He lashed himself to
a stone pillar and died on his feet. Still, his enemies didn't dare approach his body, until three days later
Morrigan flew down as a crow and settled on the corpse's shoulder.

The Celts were not a nation, but a combination of peoples who spoke related languages. Ancient Celtic tribes
migrated as far east as Asia Minor and as far west as Ireland. A good Celtic myth, like that of Cuchulainn,
always involved fighting, honor, love, or a quest, complicated further by oaths and obligation or magic and
enchantment.

Greece

The baby Heracles lay fast asleep. Two serpents slithered around his crib and reared their ugly
heads. Before they could strike, Heracles woke up, grabbed the giant snakes and strangled them.

The hero of Greece had just performed his first famous feat.

Heracles was the son of the great god Zeus and a mortal woman. This made him a powerful
enemy: Zeus's wife Hera. It was she who had sent in the serpents. When Heracles grew into
manhood, the jealous queen smote him with a frenzy of madness. The hero committed the
unthinkable crime: he killed his wife and children.

To atone for his heinous deed, Heracles was condemned to perform 12 deadly labors. Any one of
these tasks would have felled the mightiest of heroes. Heracles did not flinch. He quickly sought
out his first challenge and wrestled a ferocious lion to death.

Heracles draped his eight-foot body in the lion's skin; he wore the wild beast's head as his hood.
Then he waded through the swamp to find his next foe: the dreaded Hydra.
This hideous monster had the body of a wild dog and nine serpent heads. Its mere breath alone
was poisonous — and fatal. Heracles, armed with club and sword attacked. But each time he
chopped off one of the Hydra's heads, two more fanged ones grew back. The battle raged, the
hissing grew louder, the air was filled with the Hydra's venom. Finally, Heracles bested the
monster. Each time Heracles lopped off a head, his servant seared shut the neck with a burning
branch.

The peoples of many ancient civilizations bowed down to a remote or almighty god-king, whose
rule they never questioned. The Greeks put human beings in this powerful position. Many Greek
myths were about extraordinary, but mortal heroes (or half-mortal, like Heracles) from a past
era. In their divine myths, the Greeks made their gods and goddesses immortal, endowed them
with remarkable powers — and gave them very human personalities!

Japan

Izanagi and Izanami glided down the rainbow-striped Floating Bridge of Heaven. They stared
into the oily, primeval ocean of chaos below. Izanagi dipped his jeweled spear and stirred the
swirling jellyfish-like mass; a glistening droplet fell from his spear point and turned into an
island.

Izanagi and Izanami descended to the island they created and built a tall, sacred column. Izanagi
circled the column in one direction, Izanami went in the other. When they met face to face, they
married. Izanami then gave birth to the eight islands of Japan, the mountains, the seasons, the
gods of land and water and all the forms of nature. After giving birth to the fire god, Izanami
died of a burning fever.

Izanagi was so crazed with grief that he chased after his wife into the dark Underworld. He
pulled a comb from his hair and lit it, just to get a glimpse of his beautiful beloved.

He sprang back in horror! Izanami had become a rotting corpse. She shrieked in rage at being
seen. Izanagi fled; his hideous wife and her horde of demons and devils were at his heels. He just
barely reached the mouth of the Underworld and rolled a boulder into it. Izanami wailed that she
would kill 1,000 people a day in revenge. Izanagi vowed that 1,500 people would be born each
day. As they had married from either side of the column, Izanagi and Izanami divorced from
either side of the boulder. The living and the dead were separated forever.

Like the rising sun on its flag, Japan's mythology celebrates two important concepts: nature and
nation. Japanese myths, like the story of Izanagi and Izanami, explain the origins of its islands
and the divine line of its emperors. They honor the nature spirits of an agricultural community
and the warriors and gods of an imperial culture.

South America

In ancient time, Jaguar, the Master of Fire, ate his meat cooked, while people ate their meat raw.
People scrambled to catch the animals that were their food. Jaguar, the great hunter, had bows
and arrows.

Jaguar, with his flared nostrils and pointed teeth, was a powerful being. But he took pity on a
poor hungry man he met in the jungle. He took the man back to his home, where a warm fire
burned. The grilled meat had a delicious smell, so new to the man. He ate hungrily. Jaguar was
generous with his weapons, too. He taught the man to hunt with bows and arrows. The man
repaid Jaguar by killing his wife and stealing his fire.

Since then, the people have feared Jaguar's wrath. And the ferocious feline has lived alone in the
jungle, wary of civilization, waiting for revenge.

Many of the ancient cultures throughout the South American Continent held some kind of belief
in the supernatural power of jaguars or anacondas. They also worshipped not only the sun, but
the moon, the stars, and a whole host of nature deities. Sun gods were particularly important; the
Incas even called themselves the children of the sun.

Rome

Aeneas tightly clasped a golden tree bough in his hand. It would give him safe passage on his
terrible journey — to the underworld to seek out his father, Anchises.
The Trojan hero followed his guide, the wise woman, the Sibyl of Cumae, deep into the dark
forbidding cave that led to the land of the dead. They traveled the road of lost spirits, shadows
adrift, and frightening horrors of disease, death, and discord until they reached two rivers.
Charon, the ferryman of the dead and buried, reluctantly rowed them across while Cerebus, the
three-headed dog of hell, furiously barked at these visitors from the world of the living.

Aeneas kept going. He passed through places of sorrow and punishment until finally he reached
his destination: the Elysian Fields, the beautiful eternal home of those who had lived a good life.
His father was waiting. Anchises embraced his son. Then he showed him a wondrous vision: the
future! Aeneas looked in awe at his own descendants to come. He saw that they would do great
deeds and become a great people, the Romans. Aeneas was dazzled by the revelation. He held
his father close one more time, then returned to the land of the living — and set sail for Italy.

The Romans renamed the Greek gods and goddesses, and redirected their myths. Greek myths
could overlap, interlock, or even contradict each other. They served many purposes. Roman
myths were for the sake of Rome. They were used to re-create the city's history, for example, its
descent from Aeneas, to explain Roman society and to reinforce its rules, rites, and customs.

____________________________________________________________________________

Elements Found in Fairy Tales

A fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters (such as fairies, goblins,
elves, trolls, witches, giants, and talking animals) and enchantments, often involving a far-
fetched sequence of events. The term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual
happiness, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairy tale romance," though not all fairy
tales end happily. Fairy tales are a genre in literature. They have their roots in the oral tradition.
Fairy tales with very similar plots, characters, and motifs are found spread across many different
cultures. Fairy tales also tend to take on the color of their location, through the choice of motifs,
the style in which they are told, and the depiction of character and local color.
 
A fable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate
objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that
illustrates a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy
maxim.
 
Special beginning and/or ending words
~ Once upon a time...and they lived happily ever after. Sometimes, there’s a surprise
ending…
 
Good character
~ Do you see a kind, innocent character? Is the good character clever? Is s/he helped by
others?
 
Evil character
 ~ Do you see a witch? A demon? An evil stepmother? A sinister gnome?
In the end, the evil character usually loses somehow…
 
Royalty  
~ Is there a castle? A prince? A princess? A king? A queen?
 
Poverty
~ Do you see a poor working girl, a poor family, a poor shepherd? – Do you see poor people
trying to eke out a living to have enough to eat
 
Magic and Enchantments
~ Do you see magical things happening? Do you see talking animals/objects? You might see
fairies, trolls, elves, goblins, etc.
 
Reoccurring Patterns / Numbers
~ Do you see any patterns? Often, you’ll see things, phrases, tasks appear in  "threes,"
“sixes,” and/or "sevens"
 
Universal Truths
~ the tale probably touches on some universal experiences (i.e., coming of age) or hopes (i.e.,
to have enough food and love)
 
Common motifs ~
·        Talking animals / objects
·        Cleverness / trickster / word games
·        Traveler’s tales
·        Origins ~ where do we come from?
·        Triumph of the poor
·        Human weakness explored (i.e., curiosity, gluttony, pride, laziness, etc.)
·        Human strengths glorified (i.e., kindness, generosity, patience, etc.)
·        Trickster (sometimes a hero, sometimes on the side of evil but benefitial)
·        Tall story (slight exaggeration – hyperbole)
·        Magic words or phrases; repetition of phrases/words (abracadabra!)
·        Guardians (fairy godmothers, mentors, magical helpers, guides, etc.)
·        Monsters (dragons, ogres, evil creatures, etc.)
·        Struggle between good and evil, light and dark
·        Youngest vs. Oldest (sons, daughters, sibling rivalry)
·        Sleep (extended sleep, death-like trances)
·        Impossible tasks (mind-numbing, fantastic effort needed to complete, etc.)
·        Quests for Glory, safety, success
·        Gluttony / Starvation
·        Keys, passes (opening new doors)
·        Donors, Benefactors, Helpers
 
Ways Fairy Tales Have Been Interpreted
When you think fairy tale, you think, “children.” But pay close attention to the stories and you
will see bigger meanings meant not just for children.
 
Jungian Archetypes
man’s collective subconscious, collective dream, shared experiences, deepest desires, fears
 
Freudian Psychoanalysis
the id, the ego, the superego are always warring – our primal needs at odds with our consciences
 
Feminist Theory
aims to understand the nature of inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and
sexuality; themes: fertility, discrimination, stereotyping, objectification (especially sexual
objectification), oppression, and patriarchy
 
Morphology
analyzes the function of each character / action = a tale is composed of thirty-one elements and
eight character types; Vladimir Propp, Russian fairytales
 
Historic Analysis
seeing tales a way to preserve history, legend, and customs
 
Moral Lessons
Most common versions all end with a lesson