Page 101 - Encyclopedia Of World History

creation myths 451

This diagram depicts an eleventh-century
African Muslim belief about the origin of
the Nile. It combines myth and reality.

extends east and west with separate members like a foetus
in the womb. It is a body, that is to say, a thing with mem-
bers branching out from a central mass. This body, lying
flat, face upwards, in a line from north to south, is femi-
nine. Its sexual organ is an anthill, and its clitoris a termite
hill. Amma, being lonely and desirous of intercourse with
this creature, approached it.That was the first occasion of
the first breach of the order of the universe.
Ogotemmeli ceased speaking....He had reached the
point of the origin of troubles and of the primordial blun-
der of God.“If they overheard me, I should be fined an ox!”
At God’s approach the termite hill rose up, barring the
passage and displaying its masculinity. It was as strong as
the organ of the stranger, and intercourse could not take
place. But God is all-powerful. He cut down the termite
hill, and had intercourse with the excised earth. But the
original incident was destined to affect the course of
things for ever; from this defective union there was born,
instead of the intended twins, a single being, the Thos
memorable way of explaining and transmitting com-
aureus or jackal, symbol of the difficulties of God....
plex, important truths. “Like myth, memory requires a
God had further intercourse with his earth-wife, and this
radical simplification of its subject matter. All recollec-
time without mishaps of any kind, the excision of the
tions are told from a standpoint in the present. In telling,
offending member having removed the cause of the former
they need to make sense of the past.That demands a se-
disorder.Water, which is the divine seed, was thus able to
lecting, ordering, and simplifying, a construction of co-
enter the womb of the earth and the normal reproductive
cycle resulted in the birth of twins. Two beings were thus herent narrative whose logic works to draw the life story
formed. God created them like water. They were green in towards the fable” (Samuel and Thompson 1990, 8).
color, half human beings and half serpents. From the head Second, origins are explained as the result of conscious
to the loins they were human: below that they were ser- actions by spirits or gods. That spiritual entities created
pents.Their red eyes were wide open like human eyes, and the basic structures of the world is a default hypothesis in
their tongues were forked like the tongues of reptiles. many traditional cosmologies. However, it is not univer-
Their arms were flexible and without joints. Their bodies sal. Many origin stories rely on metaphors of birth, posit-
were green and sleek all over, shining like the surface of
ing the existence of a primordial egg or a primordial
water, and covered with short green hairs, a presage of veg-
sexual act, whose meaning can be understood more or
etation and germination. These figures were the Nummo
less literally. Some origin stories explain creation as an
twins, water gods who later play a crucial role in the cre-
awakening from sleep, a reminder that our own personal
ation of the earth. (Sproul 1991, 50–51, citing Griaule
origin stories all have the quality of awakening from pre-
1975, 16–40)
consciousness. Some creation myths face the paradoxes
of origins squarely, positing a realm preceding that of the
Features of Creation Myths gods, which was balanced precariously between existence
These brief extracts, from the start of a long and complex and nonexistence.According to the Rig Veda, the ancient
story, illustrate several features of creation myths in gen- sacred hymns of northern India,“There was neither non-
eral. First, Ogotemmeli’s account is told as a story. This existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm
may be simply because narrative is the most powerful and of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred?