Creation myths are related to the process of the world’s creation, and they also help people navigate the world and different cultures that often have their own creation myths. Myths of this type also serve as the explanation of non-mythological parts of the culture and as the sources for other types of myths (Castleberry, 2021). Different scholars usually single out different types of creation myths, but the most common of them are the following five.
The first type of creation myth is related to the Great Nothing, or the world’s creation out of nowhere, when first, there was a void then the Earth appeared. For instance, in the Enuma Elish, which is the ancient Babylonian depiction of the world’s creation process, it is stated that before the world appeared, there was nothing, and then something appeared (Castleberry, 2021). Creation myths of the second type often relate to the creation by a supreme deity. In that case, the world appeared with the help of wise, powerful, and is able to change the world or influence things that happen in it. This conception is applied in many countries’ myths, in particular, in those of Africa, Japan, or South America.
The third theory of the world’s creation concerns the appearance of the world is connected with world parents for whom the world is the child. Mother and Father, in that case, symbolize the Earth and the sky. In the majority of creation myths of this type world’s parents often appear when the world is almost created, for instance, in Enuma Elish, chaos existed before the world’s parents (Castleberry, 2021). World’s parents often look motionless, though, in many cultures, they are portrayed hugging each other.
The fourth theory concerns the creation of the world from a cosmic egg. For instance, in Japanese mythology egg symbolizes the chaos that contains the creation of germs (Castleberry, 2021). The creation of the world, in this case, is symbolized by an egg’s breaking. The fifth type concerns the creation through emergence, and in that case, the world does not appear without prerequisites and is created slowly, step by step. Thus, the development and further appearance of the world is compared to the metamorphosis from the embryonic state to maturity (Castleberry, 2021). For instance, in the Navajo myths, the world appears after people who live under the Earth created some sort of catastrophe that caused the changes.
References
BibleStudy Tools Staff (2022). Jonah and the Whale – Bible story.BibleStudy Tools. Web.
Castleberry, S. (2021). One creation: Examining creation myths across time and culture. Ouachita Baptist University. Web.
Penn, A. (2019). The belly of the whale: Hero’s journey, stage 5 (explained). Shortform. Web.