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There are different types of cosmogonic myths, or creation stories that portray how the cosmos, or the universe is created.
Deity[edit]
Several Cosmogonic Myths begin via a deity, or group of deities. Sir James George Frazer and Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, 19th-century scholars whose research augmented human theology and culture revealed that the process in which the world is created by a deity is the zenith of cultural evolution.
Inception[edit]
In this type of creation story, the earth is incepted by drawing on the power of the centralized earth. Similar to the Judeo-Christian God's creation of the earth in 7 days, the process of creation occurs in stages. This is also known as Metamorphosis, in which the world begins much like the life of a caterpillar in its journey to a butterfly. Navajo myths are prevalent in depicting this kind of creation. For example, in the Zuni myth,
"Anon is the nethermost world, the seed of men and creatures took form and increased; even as in eggs in warm places speedily appear . . . Everywhere were unfinished creatures, crawling like reptiles one over another, one spitting on another or doing other indecencies . . . until many among them escaped, growing wiser and more manlike."
Conception[edit]
This type of creation begins with the binary female and male copulating to form the world.
Cosmogonic Egg[edit]
Animal Agency[edit]
Animals are given the agency to create the world in this type of cosmogonic myth.
COSMOGONY is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. There are two forms of models that emulate the origins of the beginning of cosmos/universe: Scientific theories and Creation Mythological Stories.
Scientific Theory in Cosmogony In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used in reference to the origin of the Universe, the Solar System, or the Earth–Moon system.[1][2]
Creation Mythology in Cosmogony
Sir James George Frazer and Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, 19th-century scholars whose research augmented human theology and culture revealed that the process in which the world is created by a deity is the zenith of cultural evolution.
Cosmogony as scientists and scholars understand today is considered to be empirical. However, Cosmogony does not only involve empirical science, but is very much involved in mythology. Cosmogonic myths are creation stories that narrate the beginning of the world and the origins of the people who inhabit it. Creation myths vary, not all cultures have the same creation myth, but they may share a similar symbol or deity. Cosmogonic myths define the needs of a community. For example, the Christian community base their historical understanding of the world on the biblical book of Genesis. Cosmogonic Myths not only narrate the creation of the world, but also centralize the human, and explain the human's relationship to others, Nature, and the world. [1]
Cosmogonic myths studies the creation of the world; whereas, Cosmologic Myths studies the origins of the creation of the world as well as why artifacts of cultures exists. The aftermath of the Trojan War is a prime example as it provides cosmological insights of some aspects of the creation of the world in terms of Greek Mythology. For example, in Odysseus's escape from the cyclops, Polyphemus; Polyphemus calls out his father, Poseidon god of sea for help. Poseidon unleashes his wrath against Odysseus upon the Aegean Sea which is the explanation for why sailors are wary of sailing over these waters. [2]
Closely related to the above type of myth is the myth that states that the world is created as the progeny of a primordial mother and father. The mother and father are symbols of earth and sky, respectively. In myths of this kind, the world parents generally appear at a late stage of the creation process; chaos in some way exists before the coming into being of the world parents. In the Babylonian myth Enuma elish, it is stated,
When on high the heaven had not been named
Firm ground below had not been called by name,
Naught but primordial Apsu, their begetter,
(And) Mummu-Tiamat, she who bore them all,
Their waters comingling as a single body;
Even though the world parents are depicted and described as in sexual embrace, no activity is taking place. They appear as quiescent and inert. The chthonic (underworld) structure of the earth as latent potentiality tends to dominate the union. The parents are often unaware that they have offspring, and thus a kind of indifference regarding the union is expressed. The union of male and female in sexual embrace is another symbol of completeness and totality. As in the African myth from the Dogon referred to above, sexual union is a sign of androgyny (being both male and female) and androgyny, in turn, a sign of perfection. The indifference of the world parents is thus not simply a sign of ignorance but equally of the silence of perfection. The world parents in the Babylonian myths do not wish to be disturbed by their offspring. As over against the parents, the offspring are signs of actuality, fragmentation, specificity; they define concrete realities.
- ^ Long, Charles. "Creation Myth". Encyclopedia Brittanica.
- ^ Thury, Eva (2017). Introduction to Mythology Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths. Oxford University Press.