A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony,[2] a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it.[3][4][5] 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.[6][7] In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths – metaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally.[8][9] 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.[10]
Creation myths often share several features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions.[11] They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily.[12] They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore ('at that time').[11][13] 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.[14]
Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions;[4] found throughout human culture, they are the most common form of myth.[8]
- ^ An interpretation of the creation narrative from the first book of the Torah (commonly known as the Book of Genesis), painting from the collections Archived 2013-04-16 at archive.today of the Jewish Museum (New York)
- ^ Leitao, David D. (2012), The Pregnant Male as Myth and Metaphor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 106, ISBN 9781107017283.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica 2009
- ^ a b Womack 2005, p. 81, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions."
- ^ "Creation Stories". Signs & Symbols – An Illustrated Guide to Their Origins and Meanings. DK Publishing. 2008. p. 157. ISBN 978-1405325394.
For many they are not a literal account of events, but may be perceived as symbolic of a deeper truth.
- ^ "In common usage the word 'myth' refers to narratives or beliefs that are untrue or merely fanciful; the stories that make up national or ethnic mythologies describe characters and events that common sense and experience tell us are impossible. Nevertheless, all cultures celebrate such myths and attribute to them various degrees of literal or symbolic truth." (Leeming 2010, p. xvii)
- ^ Long 1963, p. 18
- ^ a b Kimball 2008[page needed]
- ^ Leeming 2010, pp. xvii–xviii, 465
- ^ See:
- ^ a b Johnston 2009
- ^ See:
- ^ Eliade 1963, p. 429
- ^ See: