A creation myth (or cosmogonic myth) is a symbolic narrative of how the world began

and how people first came to inhabit it.[2][3][4] While in popular usage the term
myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe
varying degrees of truth to their creation myths.[5][6] In the society in which it
is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths –
metaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally.[7][8] 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.[9]

Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred
accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions.[10] They are
all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures,
or animals, who often speak and transform easily.[11] They are often set in a dim
and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo
tempore ('at that time').[10][12] 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.[13]

Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple
versions;[3] found throughout human culture, they are the most common form of myth.
[7]

Contents
1 Definitions
2 Meaning and function
3 Classification
3.1 Ex nihilo
3.2 Creation from chaos
3.3 World parent
3.4 Emergence
3.5 Earth-diver
3.5.1 Motif distribution
3.5.2 Native American narrative
4 See also
5 References
6 Bibliography
7 Further reading
8 External links
Definitions

Structure of the world, according to Finnish mythology.

Creation myth definitions from modern references:

A "symbolic narrative of the beginning of the world as understood in a particular

tradition and community. Creation myths are of central importance for the valuation
of the world, for the orientation of humans in the universe, and for the basic
patterns of life and culture."[14]
"Creation myths tell us how things began. All cultures have creation myths; they
are our primary myths, the first stage in what might be called the psychic life of
the species. As cultures, we identify ourselves through the collective dreams we
call creation myths, or cosmogonies. … Creation myths explain in metaphorical terms
our sense of who we are in the context of the world, and in so doing they reveal
our real priorities, as well as our real prejudices. Our images of creation say a
great deal about who we are."[15]
A "philosophical and theological elaboration of the primal myth of creation within
a religious community. The term myth here refers to the imaginative expression in
narrative form of what is experienced or apprehended as basic reality … The term
creation refers to the beginning of things, whether by the will and act of a
transcendent being, by emanation from some ultimate source, or in any other
way."[16]
Religion professor Mircea Eliade defined the word myth in terms of creation:

Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial
Time, the fabled time of the "beginnings." In other words, myth tells how, through
the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of
reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality – an island, a species of plant,
a particular kind of human behavior, an institution.[17]

Meaning and function

In Daoist creation myth, "The Way gave birth to unity; unity gave birth to duality;
duality gave birth to trinity; trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures."
(Daodejing, 4th century BCE)[18]
All creation myths are in one sense etiological because they attempt to explain how
the world was formed and where humanity came from.[19] Myths attempt to explain the
unknown and sometimes teach a lesson.[20][21]

Ethnologists and anthropologists[which?] who study these myths say that in the
modern context theologians try to discern humanity's meaning from revealed truths
and scientists investigate cosmology with the tools of empiricism and rationality,
but creation myths define human reality in very different terms. In the past
historians of religion and other students of myth thought of them as forms of
primitive or early-stage science or religion and analyzed them in a literal or
logical sense. Today, however, they are seen as symbolic narratives which must be
understood in terms of their own cultural context. Charles Long writes, "The beings
referred to in the myth – gods, animals, plants – are forms of power grasped
existentially. The myths should not be understood as attempts to work out a
rational explanation of deity."[22]

While creation myths are not literal explications they do serve to define an
orientation of humanity in the world in terms of a birth story. They are the basis
of a worldview that reaffirms and guides how people relate to the natural world, to
any assumed spiritual world, and to each other. The creation myth acts as a
cornerstone for distinguishing primary reality from relative reality, the origin
and nature of being from non-being.[23] In this sense they serve as a philosophy of
life but one expressed and conveyed through symbol rather than systematic reason.
And in this sense they go beyond etiological myths which mean to explain specific
features in religious rites, natural phenomena or cultural life. Creation myths
also help to orient human beings in the world, giving them a sense of their place
in the world and the regard that they must have for humans and nature.[2]

Historian David Christian has summarised issues common to multiple creation myths:

Each beginning seems to presuppose an earlier beginning. ... Instead of meeting a

single starting point, we encounter an infinity of them, each of which poses the
same problem. ... There are no entirely satisfactory solutions to this dilemma.
What we have to find is not a solution but some way of dealing with the
mystery .... And we have to do so using words. The words we reach for, from God to
gravity, are inadequate to the task. So we have to use language poetically or
symbolically; and such language, whether used by a scientist, a poet, or a shaman,
can easily be misunderstood.[24]

Classification
See also: List of creation myths

In Maya religion, the dwarf was an embodiment of the Maize God's helpers at
creation.[25]
Mythologists have applied various schemes to classify creation myths found
throughout human cultures. Eliade and his colleague Charles Long developed a
classification based on some common motifs that reappear in stories the world over.
The classification identifies five basic types:[26]

Brahmā, the Hindu deva of creation, emerges from a lotus risen from the navel of
Viṣņu, who lies with Lakshmi on the serpent Ananta Shesha.
Creation ex nihilo in which the creation is through the thought, word, dream or
bodily secretions of a divine being.
Earth diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or amphibian sent by a
creator, plunges to the seabed through a primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud
which develops into a terrestrial world.
Emergence myths in which progenitors pass through a series of worlds and
metamorphoses until reaching the present world.
Creation by the dismemberment of a primordial being.
Creation by the splitting or ordering of a primordial unity such as the cracking of
a cosmic egg or a bringing order from chaos.
Marta Weigle further developed and refined this typology to highlight nine themes,
adding elements such as deus faber, a creation crafted by a deity, creation from
the work of two creators working together or against each other, creation from
sacrifice and creation from division/conjugation, accretion/conjunction, or
secretion.[26]

An alternative system based on six recurring narrative themes was designed by

Raymond Van Over:[26]

Primeval abyss, an infinite expanse of waters or space.

Originator deity which is awakened or an eternal entity within the abyss.
Originator deity poised above the abyss.
Cosmic egg or embryo.
Originator deity creating life through sound or word.
Life generating from the corpse or dismembered parts of an originator deity.
Ex nihilo
Main article: Creatio ex nihilo

Creation on the exterior shutters of Hieronymus Bosch's triptych The Garden of

Earthly Delights (c. 1490–1510)
The myth that God created the world out of nothing – ex nihilo – is central today
to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides
felt it was the only concept that the three religions shared.[27] Nonetheless, the
concept is not found in the entire Hebrew Bible.[28] The authors of Genesis 1 were
concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into the
habitable cosmos), but with assigning roles so that the Cosmos should function.[29]
In the early 2nd century CE, early Christian scholars were beginning to see a
tension between the idea of world-formation and the omnipotence of God, and by the
beginning of the 3rd century creation ex nihilo had become a fundamental tenet of
Christian theology.[30]

Ex nihilo creation is found in creation stories from
and many animistic cultures in Africa, Asia, Oceania
of these stories, the world is brought into being by
pure thought of a creator but creation ex nihilo may
creator's bodily secretions.
ancient Egypt, the Rig Veda,
and North America.[31] In most
the speech, dream, breath, or
also take place through a

The literal translation of the phrase ex nihilo is "from nothing" but in many
creation myths the line is blurred whether the creative act would be better
classified as a creation ex nihilo or creation from chaos. In ex nihilo creation
myths, the potential and the substance of creation springs from within the creator.
Such a creator may or may not be existing in physical surroundings such as darkness
or water, but does not create the world from them, whereas in creation from chaos
the substance used for creation is pre-existing within the unformed void.[32]

Creation from chaos

Main article: Chaos (cosmogony)
In creation from chaos myths, initially there is nothing but a formless, shapeless
expanse. In these stories the word "chaos" means "disorder", and this formless
expanse, which is also sometimes called a void or an abyss, contains the material
with which the created world will be made. Chaos may be described as having the
consistency of vapor or water, dimensionless, and sometimes salty or muddy. These
myths associate chaos with evil and oblivion, in contrast to "order" (cosmos) which
is the good. The act of creation is the bringing of order from disorder, and in
many of these cultures it is believed that at some point the forces preserving
order and form will weaken and the world will once again be engulfed into the
abyss.[33] One example is the Genesis creation narrative from the first chapter of
the Book of Genesis.

World parent

In one Maori creation myth, the primal couple are Rangi and Papa, depicted holding
each other in a tight embrace.
There are two types of world parent myths, both describing a separation or
splitting of a primeval entity, the world parent or parents. One form describes the
primeval state as an eternal union of two parents, and the creation takes place
when the two are pulled apart. The two parents are commonly identified as Sky
(usually male) and Earth (usually female), who in the primeval state were so
tightly bound to each other that no offspring could emerge. These myths often
depict creation as the result of a sexual union and serve as genealogical record of
the deities born from it.[34]

In the second form of world parent myths, creation itself springs from dismembered
parts of the body of the primeval being. Often, in these stories, the limbs, hair,
blood, bones, or organs of the primeval being are somehow severed or sacrificed to
transform into sky, earth, animal or plant life, and other worldly features. These
myths tend to emphasize creative forces as animistic in nature rather than sexual,
and depict the sacred as the elemental and integral component of the natural world.
[35] One example of this is the Norse creation myth described in Völuspá, the first
poem of Gylfaginning.[36]

Emergence
In emergence myths, humanity emerges from another world into the one they currently
inhabit. The previous world is often considered the womb of the earth mother, and
the process of emergence is likened to the act of giving birth. The role of midwife
is usually played by a female deity, like the spider woman of several mythologies
of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Male characters rarely figure into these
stories, and scholars often consider them in counterpoint to male-oriented creation
myths, like those of the ex nihilo variety.[19]

In the kiva of both ancient and present-day Pueblo peoples, the sipapu is a small
round hole in the floor that represents the portal through which the ancestors
first emerged. (The larger hole is a fire pit, here in a ruin from the Mesa Verde
National Park.)
Emergence myths commonly describe the creation of people and/or supernatural beings
as a staged ascent or metamorphosis from nascent forms through a series of
subterranean worlds to arrive at their current place and form. Often the passage
from one world or stage to the next is impelled by inner forces, a process of
germination or gestation from earlier, embryonic forms.[37][38] The genre is most
commonly found in Native American cultures where the myths frequently link the
final emergence of people from a hole opening to the underworld to stories about
their subsequent migrations and eventual settlement in their current homelands.[39]

Earth-diver
The earth-diver is a common character in various traditional creation myths. In
these stories a supreme being usually sends an animal into the primal waters to
find bits of sand or mud with which to build habitable land.[40] Some scholars
interpret these myths psychologically while others interpret them cosmogonically.
In both cases emphasis is placed on beginnings emanating from the depths.[41]

Motif distribution
Earth-diver myths are common in Native American folklore but can be found among the
Chukchi and Yukaghir, the Tatars and many Finnic traditions, as well as the Buryat
and the Samoyed.[42] In addition, the earth-diver motif also exists in narratives
from Eastern Europe, namely Romanian,[43] Bulgarian, Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian
and Lithuanian mythological traditions.[44] The pattern of distribution of these
stories suggest they have a common origin in the eastern Asiatic coastal region,
spreading as peoples migrated west into Siberia and east to the North American
continent.[45][46]

However, there are examples of this mytheme found well outside of this boreal
distribution pattern, for example the West African Yoruba creation myth of Obatala
and Oduduwa.[47][48]

Native American narrative

Characteristic of many Native American myths, earth-diver creation stories begin as
beings and potential forms linger asleep or suspended in the primordial realm. The
earth-diver is among the first of them to awaken and lay the necessary groundwork
by building suitable lands where the coming creation will be able to live. In many
cases, these stories will describe a series of failed attempts to make land before
the solution is found.[49][50]

Among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the earth diver cosmogony is attested
in Iroquois mythology: a female sky deity falls from the heavens, and certain
animals, the beaver, the otter, the duck and the muskrat dive in the waters to
fetch mud to construct an island.[51][52]

In a similar story from the Seneca, people lived in a sky realm. One day, the
chief's daughter was afflicted with a mysterious illness, and the only cure
recommended for her (revealed in a dream) was to lay beside a tree and to have it
be gid up. The people acts thus, but a man complains that the tree was their
livelihood, and kicks the girl through the hole. She ends up falling from the sky
to a world of only water, but is rescued by waterfowl. A turtle offers to bear her
on its shell, but asked where would be a definitive dwelling place for her. They
decide to create land, and the toad dives into the depths of the primal sea to get
pieces of soil. The toad puts it on the turtle's back, which grows larger with
every deposit of soil.[53]

In another version from the Wyandot, the Wyandot lived in heaven. The daughter of
the Big Chief (or Mighty Ruler) was sick, so the medicine man recommends that they
dig up the wild apple tree that stands next to the Lodge of the Mighty Ruler,
because the remedy is to be found on its roots. However, as the tree has been dug
out, the ground begins to sink away, and the treetops catch and carry down the sick
daughter with it. As the girl falls from the skies, two swans rescue her on their
backs. The birds decide to summon all the Swimmers and the Water Tribes. Many
volunteer to dive into the Great Water to fetch bits of earth from the bottom of
the sea, but only the toad (female, in the story) is the one successful.[54]
See also
Anthropology of religion
Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology
Big Bang
Creationism
Creator deity
Evolutionary origin of religions
Mother goddess
Origin myth
Origin-of-death myth
Poles in mythology
Religious cosmology
Theism
Xirang
Young earth creationism
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Description from Walters Art Museum
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Further reading
On the Earth-diver motif:

Berezkin, Yuri (2007). "“Earth-diver” and “emergence from under the earth”:
Cosmogonic tales as evidence in favor of the heterogenic origins of the American
Indians". In: Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 32: 110-123.
10.1134/S156301100704010X.
Delpech, François. "Le plongeon des origines: variations méditerranéennes". In:
Revue de l'histoire des religions, tome 217, n°2, 2000. pp. 203–255. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3406/rhr.2000.1055; www.persee.fr/doc/rhr_0035-
1423_2000_num_217_2_1055
Dundes, Alan. "Earth-Diver: Creation of the Mythopoeic Male". In: American
Anthropologist, New Series, 64, no. 5 (1962): 1032-051. Accessed August 20, 2021.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/666952.
Kirtley, Bacil F. "A Bohol Version of the Earth-Diver Myth". In: The Journal of
American Folklore 70, no. 278 (1957): 362-63. Accessed August 20, 2021.
doi:10.2307/537812.
Köngäs, Elli Kaija. "The Earth-Diver (Th. A 812)". In: Ethnohistory 7, no. 2
(1960): 151-80. Accessed August 21, 2021. doi:10.2307/480754.
Lianshan, Chen. "Gun And Yu: Revisiting The Chinese “Earth-Diver” Hypothesis". In:
China’s Creation and Origin Myths. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2011. pp. 153–
162. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004194854.i-354.56
Mátéffy, Attila. (2014). "The Earth-Diver: Hungarian Variants of the Myth of the
Dualistic Creation of the World—Pearls in the Primeval Sea of World Creation". In:
Sociology Study 4. pp. 423-437. ISSN 2159-5526.
Nagy, Ilona. "The Earth-Diver Myth (Mot. 812) and the Apocryphal Legend of the
Tiberian Sea". In: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 51, 3-4 (2006): 281-326. Accessed
Aug 20, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1556/AEthn.51.2006.3-4.4
Napolskikh, Vladimir. "The Earth-Diver Myth (А812) in Northern Eurasia and North
America: Twenty Years Later". Frog; Siikala, Anna-Leena; Stepanova, Eila (2012).
Mythic Discourses: Studies in Uralic Traditions. Finnish Literature Society. pp.
120-140. ISBN 978-952-222-376-0.