Graham 1
Austin McLeod Graham
Professor Bobeck
HUM2310
19, November, 2017
Creation Myth’s
A myth is a story or tale about a specific culture or group of people that concerns the
history and background of that group, and usually pertains to some natural or social
phenomenon’s which contain super beings or events. The ancient Greeks called the creation the
cosmogony, the birth of the cosmos. As birth is a feminine process, a feminine element is usually
present at the beginning of the myth to start the process. Eggs, water, or a goddess are common
motifs for the beginning of creation myths (Taylor, 2015). There are different types of creation
myths: Emergence Myths, Creation from Chaos, Cosmic Egg, Creation from Nothing, and Earth
Diver Myths. Creation myths are keys to the cultures they come from. They can answer the
basic questions of “How did we get here? “Who put us here?” “Why are we here?” Specific
cultures have unique and individual creation myths and each tell a different meaning to life. The
Hebrew creation myth and the Chinese creation myth both differ from one another drastically,
but also have a handful of similarities. The Hebrew creation myth is a unique one in the case that
it is one of the myths that contain one god and one god only. God creates everything through his
words. On the other hand, the Chinese creation story is based on two forces, the ying and the
yang, that came together and brought everything into existence. These cultures set up two of the
bases of creation some of the biggest groups of people in the world.
Graham 2
The Hebrew creation story is based on one supreme god creating the universe and
everything in it through the power of words, not physically making the universe. The accounts
for this creation story is composed in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis. Chapters one
through three tell the whole story. Although there is only one God in this myth, there is a
feminine element, water, still present (Taylor, 2015). “In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of
the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis, Chapter 1)” Genesis
chapter one is known to be a hym song which was sung to thank the Hebrew God for delivering
the Hebrews out of captivity from the Babylonians. Chapters 2-3 is are specific in order of how
God created the universe, more specifically human beings. The Hebrew God created everything
according to his image, and created everything in his own specific order.
