Gaea

(Greek and Roman Mythology)

(saia
Goddess of Earth

Gaea, or Mother Earth,was the great goddess of the early Greeks. She represented the
Earth and was worshipped as the universal mother. In Greek mythology, she created
the Universe and gave birth to both the first race of gods (the Titans) and the first
humans.

In the creation story of the ancient Greeks, Chaos came before everything else. Chaos
was made of Void, Mass, and Darkness in confusion. Then Earth, in the form of Gaea,
came into existence. From Mother Earth sprang the starry heavens, in the form of the
sky god Uranus. From Gaea also came the mountains, plains, seas and rivers that
make up the Earth as we know it today.

Gaea, or Mother Earth, was the oldestof the gods of the early Greeks. She was known
as the supreme goddess by humans and gods alike. She presided over marriages and
oaths and was honored as a prophetess.
 BRAMANISM
(HINDU MYTHOLOGY)

In the beginning, Brahma sprang from

the
and evil and light and dark from his own cosmic golden egg and he then created good
person. He also created the four types: gods,
demons, ancestors and men, the first of whom was Manu.
Brahma then made all the other living creatures upon the
creating, perhaps in a moment of distraction, the demonsearth.
were
During the process of
thigh and so he abandoned his own body, which then bom from Brahma's
became Night.
After Brahma created good gods he
abandoned his body
became Day. For this reason, demons rule at night and gods once the
again, which then
- ule the day. Brahma then created forces of goodness
ancestors
his body so that they became Dusk and Dawn
and men, each time again abandoning
god Shiva to rule over humanity. Brahma hadrespectively. Brahma then appointed the
several wives, the most important of
whom was a woman he created named Sarasvati. After
the Creation, Sarasvati bore
Brahma the four Vedas, or Holy books of Hinduism, all branches of knowledge, music,
ideas such as Memory and Victory, the various types
of yoga, religious acts, speech,
the Sanskrit language, and the various units of
many notable sons, including the Seven Sages measurement
and time. Brahma had
and the gods Kardama, Pancasikha,
Vodhu and Narada. The lastnamed became the
messenger between gods and men.
 SHINTOISM

(JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY)

In the beginning the world split into the heavens and

the
the heavenly realm came into being. Then the first reedsearth,
took
and three kami deities of
two more kami deities came to be. These first five root and sprouted, and
kami deities were fomless and had
no partners. Thereafter, however, pairs of
"partner"
succession. The seventh and final generation was the malekami deities were born in
lzanagi no Mikoto and the
female lzanami no Mikoto.
At this time, the land was yet unformed and floated
aimlessly like oil upon water. So, the
older deities charged the pair lzanagi and Izanami with the task of bringing order to the
world and granted them a sacred spear with which to do so. Standing on a bridge, the
two first looked down upon the primordial mire and decided to try mixing it. They
the spear in, turned it about, and when they drew it beck out, a drop fell from its tip.stuck
This
drop settled and became the first island, Onokoro Shima. It was here that the two
descended to live.

Birth of the Islands of Japan

After descending to the island, lzanagi and lzanami became aware of the differences in
their bodies and decided to join together to give birth to the country. And so, they
married by circling a sacred post three times and taking their vows. Izanami spoke her
vows first but their attempts to have children ended poorly so the two redid the marriage
ceremony, this time with Izanagi speaking his vows first. This time, they successfully
gave birth to the islands of Japan. This included deity of the seas, the wind, the
mountains, and all manner of natural phenomena.
 PAN GU AND THE EGG FTHE WORLD

(CHINESEMYTHOLOGY)

In the beginning was a huge egg containing chaos, a mixture of yin and yangfemale
male, aggressive-passive, cold-hot, dark-light, and wet-dry. Within this yin and yang
was Pan Gu, who broke forth from the egg as the giant who separated chaos into the
many opposites, including Earth and sky.
Pan Gu stood in the middle, his head touching the sky, his feet planted on Earth.
The heavens and the Earth began to grow at arate of 10 feet a day, and Pan Gu grew
along with them. After another 18,000 years the sky was higher and Earth was thicker.
Pan Gu stood between them like a pillar 30,000 miles in height, so they would never
again join.
When Pan Gu died, his skull became the top of the sky, his breath became the wind
and clouds, his voice the rolling thunder. One eye became the Sun and the other the
Moon. His body and limbs turned into five big mountains, and his blood formed the
roaring water. His veins became roads and his muscles turned to fertile land. The
innumerable stars in the sky came from his hair and beard, and flowers and trees from
his skin. His marrowturned to jade and pearis. His sweat flowed like the good
rain
the sweet dew that nurtures all things on Eanth. Some people say that the fleas and and
the
lice on his body became the ancestors of humanity.
Ancient Philippine Creation Myth: Malakas and Maganda

When the world first began there was no land; there was only the Sea and the Sky,
and between them flew a huge, beautiful Kite (a bird similar to a hawk). One day,
the bird, which had nowhere to land and rest, grew tired of flying about, and in
frustration stirred up the Sky in a quarrel against the Sea. The Sky threw rain,
thunder, and lightning that reached the Sea, who in turn rose up and hurled waves
and hurricanes that reached the Sky.

In order to restrain its fury, the Sky showered a multitude of massive boulders down
upon the Sea, which became the islands that formed the Philippines. These islands
prevented the waters from rising any more - instead causing them to flow back and
forth, and thereby creating the tides. Afterwards, the Sky then ordered the Kite to
light on one of the newly-formed islands to build her nest, and to leave the Sea and
the Sky in peace.

Now at this same time the Land Breeze and the Sea Breeze were married, and they
had a child which they named Bamboo. One day, when Bamboo was floating
against the sea, it struck the feet of the Kite. Shocked, hurt, and angered that
anything should strike it, the bird furiously pecked at the bamboo until it split in
half. Out of one section came a golden-bronze colored man,
named Malakas (Strong One) and from the other half came a similarly hued
woman, named Maganda (Beautiful One).

The earthquake then called on all the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea to see
what should be done with these two, and the animals decided that they should
marry each other. Together, Malakas and Maganda had many children, and from
them eventually came all the different races of people.
After a while the parents grew very tired of having so many idle and useless children
around. They wished to be rid of them, but they knew of no other place to send
them off to. Time went on and the children became even more numerous that the
parents could no longer enjoy any peace. One day, in an act of pure irritation and
desperation, Malakas seized a stick and began beating them on all sides.

This so frightened the children that they all fled in different directions; seeking
some place to hide both within and outside the house. Some of the children ran
into hidden rooms in the house, several concealed themselves within the actual
walls, while others hid in the fireplace. Some ran outside and the rest fled out to
the sea.

Now it happened that those who went into the hidden rooms of the house later
became the chiefs of the islands (Maharlikas); and those who concealed
themselves in the walls became slaves (Alipins). Those who hid in the fireplace
became the Negritos and the Aetas; and those who ran outside turned into free
men (Timawas). As for those who fled to the Sea; they were gone many years, and
when their children eventually came back, they had become the white foreigners.
 Norse Creation Myth

At the beginning of time, nothing existed. The earth, the gentle oceans lapping up
against its shores, man and animal had not yet been created. Only a great yawning
abyss was present in the void of nothingness. Out of the abyss, a land of eternal
mist, darkness and terrible cold was formed to the North; to all beings, this land
was known as Niflheim. In the midst of the Dark Land surged a fountain known as
Hvergelmir, from which spread the freezing glacial waters of twelve rivers
throughout the void. To the South lay the land of Fire, Muspellsheim; an infernal
region of unbearable, unsatiable heat and flames. From there poured rivers of fire
whose waters contained a bitter poison which, little by little, gathered and became
a solid mass. From the ice flowing from the North, this mass of venom was covered
in a thick layer of frost. With the heat blowing from the lands of Fire, the frost began
to melt, and the giant Ymir was born from poison and ice.

Ymir became the father of all giants. On the night of his creation, he fell asleep near
the lands of the South and became completely bathed in sweat: from under his left
arm were born man and woman, both giants like him. At the same time, the block
of ice from which he was born gave forth the great cow Audumla, the wet-nurse of
the giants. Ymir refreshed himself from her udders at the beginning of every day,
which flowed with life-giving milk. Audumla began to lick the salt from the ice to
nourish herself, and the heat of her tongue and breath yielded first the hair, then
the head, and finally the entire body of a being whose name was Buri. Buri had a
son whose name was Bor, who went on to marry Ymir's daughter, Bestla. With her,
he fathered the three gods Odin, Vili and Ve.

The three sons of the Giants' race at once began to rebel against their creators,
which ended in the annihilation of the Giants. They first killed the aged Ymir. So
much blood flowed from his shattered body that the abyss was filled with it. All of
the other Giants drowned in the blood, save Beregelmir and his wife, who managed
to launch a small boat and escape; it is from them that a new race of giants issued.

After the death of Ymir, the sons of Bor raised his body from the depths of the sea
of blood and created earth with it, which became known as Midgard or the 'Middle
Abode', for it was situated halfway between Niflheim and Muspellsheim. The flesh
of Ymir became the land on which we live, and his blood became the boundless
ocean. From his bones, the gods created the mountains; from his hair, they created
the trees. They took the skull of Ymir and raised it up on four pillars of bone and
made it into the Vault of the Heavens, in which they kept the sparks of fire that
escaped from Muspellsheim. These sparks became the sun, moon and the
countless stars in the night sky, their course throughout the sky was regulated and
kept constant, creating night and day; summer and winter. With the sun in the sky,
it threw its golden rays across the barren earth, and the first blades of green grass
appeared.
Soon other gods came to join Odin, Vili and Ve. They seemed to appear out of the
abyss, having no father or mother. Together the gods created their dwelling place,
which became known as Asgard 'The Dwelling of the Aesir' , in which each of them
have a grand mansion. This land was created above Midgard, so that the gods could
keep watch over the world that they were creating. To get back and forth between
Midgard and Asgard they created the great Rainbow Bridge known as Bifröst, which
was guarded by Heimdall, the god of Bifröst.

As the gods gathered, they deliberated on the manner in which the earth might
best be peopled. In the rotting corpse of Ymir, grubs were beginning to form. The
gods changed all of the grubs into the dwarves, giving them human form and
imbuing them with reason. Because the dwarves were born from the flesh of Ymir,
the gods decided that they shall continue to live as they had since their birth, hidden
from the light of the sun in the flesh of their creator. Soon the light of the sun
became deadly to them, turning them into stone at the slightest exposure. There
were no women among the dwarves; hence they were not able to have children.
Therefore, the gods gave the dwarves two princes, who had the ability to mould
new dwarves out of the stones of the earth. Thus the race of dwarves endlessly
continued.

Men were created from the vegetable world by the gods Odin, Hoenir and Lodur.
One day the three gods were travelling across the barren earth and came across
two trees with life-less twisted trunks. Odin shaped each of the trees into a man
and a woman, and gave each of them breath. Hoenir gave them a soul and the
ability to reason. Lodur gave them warmth and the fresh colours of life. The man
was called Ask and his wife was Embla, and they proceeded to create the race of
man.

The land of Niflheim (or Niflhel) became the land where the dead would go after
their time on earth had elapsed. It was known as a land of eternal sleet and frost.
The goddess Hel became the ruler of this domain, and her faithful hound, Garm,
guarded the entrance to prevent the dead from ever leaving and the living from
entering.

Out of the chaos of the abyss rose the three Norns, goddesses of Fate. Their names
were Urd (Past), Verdandi (Present), and Skuld (Future). Urd appeared in the form
of a shrivelled old hag, while Verdandi was a women in her prime. Skuld was a
beautiful young maiden. Together the three Norns cared for the Life-Tree, Yggdrasil
until the day of Ragnarok when it is destined to die.

After the creation of the different level, or planes of existence, the great ash tree
Yggdrasil began to grow and connect all of the levels. Its first root form in the land
of Niflheim, from this root bubbled the spring of Hvergelmir, the source of the
primitive rivers. The second root of the great tree extended into the land of the
giants, covered with frost and ice. This is where the fountain Mimir flowed. This
spring was a source of great wisdom from which Odin desired to drink, however the
price demanded for a few draughts was the loss of one of his eyes. The third root
extended all the way up into the heavens, and issued the spring Urd. This is where
the Norns resided, drawing water from this well at the beginning of each day and
sprinkling it on the roots of Yggdrasil so that it would not wither away.

In the highest branches of the tree sat a golden cock, which kept a constant vigilance
of the horizon to warn the gods whenever their ancient enemies, the Giants, were
preparing to attack them. Under Yggdrasil, the horn of the god Heimdall was
hidden, whose sound would announce the final battle of the Aesir against all whom
wished to cause their downfall. Near the trunk of the tree was a place of eternal
peace, where the god would meet daily to render justice. In its branches the goat
Heidrun browsed; she gave Odin's warriors the milk with which they were
nourished.

There existed demons that would constantly strive to destroy Yggdrasil, the Tree of
Life. A cunning monster, the serpent Nidhögg, sat at the base of the third root and
gnawed at it ceaselessly. Four stags wandered at the base of the tree and would
nibble off all of the young green shoots, preventing further growth of the tree.
Thankfully, due to the careful attention given by the Norns, the tree was able to
flourish.

At the time of the creation of the world, it was foretold that it would not be eternal.
In the Day of the End, Ragnarok, the earth would be torn asunder in a mighty battle
between the gods of the Aesir and the Giants. Great battles of might and magic
would be fought, reducing all life to ashes. Yggdrasil would fall, sending the layers
of the world crashing down. The hound Garm, guarding the entrance to Niflheim
would flee in terror, and the dead will escape, rising again to the earth as plagues
and disease to fight along side the gods. In the end of the battle, everything would
be destroyed; the gods, giants, men and animals would cease to exist.