The controversy between the supporters of the theory of creationism and the theory of evolution does not subside to this day. However, unlike the theory of evolution, creationism includes not one, but hundreds of different theories (if not more). In this article, we will tell you about ten of the most unusual myths of antiquity.
10. The myth of Pan-gu
The Chinese have their own ideas about how the world came to be. The most popular myth is that of Pan-gu, the giant man. The plot is as follows: at the dawn of time, Heaven and Earth were so close to each other that they merged into a single black mass.
According to legend, this mass was an egg, and Pan-gu lived inside it, and lived for a long time - many millions of years. But one fine day he got tired of such a life, and, waving a heavy ax, Pan-gu got out of his egg, splitting it into two parts. These parts, subsequently, became Heaven and Earth. His height was unimaginable - some kind of fifty kilometers in length, which, by the standards of the ancient Chinese, was the distance between Heaven and Earth.
Unfortunately for Pan-gu and fortunately for us, the colossus was mortal and, like all mortals, died. And then Pan-gu decomposed. But not the way we do it - Pan-gu was decomposing really steeply: his voice turned into thunder, his skin and bones became the solid earth, and his head became the Cosmos. So, his death gave life to our world.
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9. Chernobog and Belobog
This is one of the most significant myths of the Slavs. It tells about the confrontation between Good and Evil - the White and Black gods. It all started like this: when there was only one continuous sea around, Belobog decided to create dry land, sending his shadow - Chernobog - to do all the dirty work. Chernobog did everything as expected, however, having a selfish and proud nature, he did not want to share power over the firmament with Belobog, deciding to drown the latter.
Belobog got out of this situation, did not allow himself to be killed, and even blessed the land erected by Chernobog. However, with the advent of land, one small problem arose: its area grew exponentially, threatening to swallow everything around.
Then Belobog sent his delegation to Earth in order to find out from Chernobog how to stop this business. Well, Chernobog got on a goat and went to negotiations. The delegates, seeing Chernobog galloping towards them on a goat, were imbued with the comicality of this spectacle and burst into wild laughter. Chernobog did not understand the humor, was very offended and flatly refused to talk to them.
Meanwhile, Belobog, still wanting to save the Earth from dehydration, decided to arrange a spy for Chernobog, having made a bee for this purpose. The insect coped with the task successfully and found out the secret, which consisted in the following: to stop the growth of land, it is necessary to draw a cross on it and say the cherished word - "enough". What Belobog did.
To say that Chernobog was not happy is to say nothing. Wanting to take revenge, he cursed Belobog, and cursed him in a very original way - for his meanness, Belobog was now supposed to eat bee feces all his life. However, Belobog was not taken aback, and made the bee feces as sweet as sugar - this is how honey appeared. For some reason, the Slavs did not think about how people appeared … The main thing is that there is honey.
8. Armenian duality
Armenian myths resemble Slavic ones, and also tell us about the existence of two opposite principles - this time male and female. Unfortunately, the myth does not answer the question of how our world was created, it only explains how everything around is arranged. But this does not make it less interesting.
So, here's a short summary: Heaven and Earth are husband and wife, who were separated by the ocean; The sky is a city, and the Earth is a piece of rock, which is held on its huge horns by an equally huge bull - when it rocks its horns, the earth is bursting at the seams from earthquakes. That, in fact, is all - this is how the Armenians imagined the Earth.
There is also an alternative myth, where the Earth is in the middle of the sea, and Leviathan swims around it, trying to grab onto its own tail, and constant earthquakes were also explained by its floundering. When Leviathan finally grabs himself by the tail, life on Earth will stop and the apocalypse will come. Have a nice day.
7. The Scandinavian myth of the ice giant
It would seem that there is nothing in common between the Chinese and the Scandinavians - but no, the Vikings also had their own giant - the beginning of everything, only his name was Ymir, and he was ice-cold and with a club. Before his appearance, the world was divided into Muspelheim and Niflheim - the realms of fire and ice, respectively. And between them stretched the Ginnungagap, symbolizing absolute chaos, and there, from the merger of two opposite elements, Ymir was born.
And now closer to us, to people. When Ymir began to sweat, a man and a woman crawled out of his right armpit along with the sweat. Strange, yes, we understand that - well, they are, severe Vikings, nothing can be done. But back to the point. The man's name was Buri, he had a son, Ber, and Ber had three sons - Odin, Vili and Ve. The three brothers were gods and ruled over Asgard. This seemed to them not enough, and they decided to kill Ymir's great-grandfather, making the world out of him.
Ymir was not happy, but no one asked him. In the process, he shed a lot of blood - enough to fill the seas and oceans; from the skull of the unfortunate brothers they created the vault of heaven, they broke his bones, making mountains and boulders out of them, and from the torn brains of poor Ymir they made clouds.
Odin and the company immediately decided to settle this new world: so they found two beautiful trees on the seashore - ash and alder, making a man out of an ash, and a woman out of an alder, thereby giving rise to the human race.
6. Greek myth of balls
Like many other peoples, the ancient Greeks believed that before our world appeared, there was only continuous chaos around. There was no sun or moon - everything was piled up in one big heap, where things were inseparable from each other.
But then a certain god came, looked at the disorder reigning around, thought and decided that all this was not good, and got down to business: he separated the cold from the heat, the foggy morning from the clear day, and so on.
Then he set to work on the Earth, rolling it into a ball and dividing this ball into five parts: it was very hot at the equator, extremely cold at the poles, but between the poles and the equator - just right, you can't imagine more comfortable. Further, from the seed of an unknown god, most likely Zeus, the Romans known as Jupiter, the first man was created - two-faced and also in the shape of a ball.
And then he was torn in two, making him a man and a woman - the future of you and me.
5. The Egyptian god who loved his shadow very much
In the beginning there was a great ocean, whose name was "Nu", and this ocean was Chaos, and apart from it there was nothing. Not until Atum, by an effort of will and thought, created himself out of this Chaos. Yes, the man had eggs. But further - more and more interesting. So, he created himself, now it was necessary to create land in the ocean. Which he did. After wandering the earth and realizing his total loneliness, Atum became unbearably bored, and he decided to scold more gods. How? And like that, an ardent, passionate feeling for his own shadow.
Thus, having fertilized, Atum gave birth to Shu and Tefnut, spitting them out of his mouth. But, apparently, he overdid it, and the newborn gods were lost in the ocean of Chaos. Atum grieved, but soon, to his relief, he nevertheless found and found his children anew. He was so glad to be reunited that he cried for a long, long time, and his tears, touching the ground, fertilized it - and from the ground people grew up, many people! Then, while people fertilized each other, Shu and Tefnut also had coitus, and they gave life to other gods - more gods to the god of gods! - Gebu and Nutu, who became the personification of the Earth and the sky.
There is another myth in which Atum replaces Ra, but this does not change the main essence - there, too, everyone fertilizes each other en masse.
4. The myth of the Yoruba people - about the Sands of Life and chicken
There is such an African people - the Yoruba. So, they also have their own myth about the origin of all things.
In general, it was like this: there was only one God, his name was Olorun, and one fine day the thought occurred to him - that the Earth should be arranged somehow (then the Earth was one continuous wasteland).
Olorun did not really want to do this himself, so he sent his son - Obotala to Earth. However, at that time, Obotala had more important things to do (in fact, a gorgeous party was planned in heaven then, and Obotala simply could not miss it).
While Obotala was having fun, the responsibility was shifted to Odudawa. With nothing on hand but chicken and sand, Oudawa got down to business. His principle was as follows: he took sand from a cup, sprinkled it on the Earth, and then let the chicken run on the sand and trample it down well.
After performing several such simple manipulations, Odudawa created the land of Lfe or Lle-lfe. This is where Oudawa's story ends, and Obootala reappears on the stage, this time drunk on the blackboard - the party was a success.
And so, being in a state of divine alcoholic intoxication, Olorun's son began to create us humans. It turned out very badly for him, and he caused invalids, dwarfs and freaks. Having sober up, Obotala was horrified and quickly corrected everything, making people normal.
According to another version, Obotala never got better, and people were also made by Odudawa, simply by bringing us down from the sky and at the same time assuming the status of the ruler of humanity.
3. Aztec "War of the Gods"
According to the Aztec myth, no original Chaos existed. But there was a primary order - an absolute vacuum, impenetrably black and endless, in which the Supreme God, Ometeotl, lived in some strange way. He had a dual nature, possessing both feminine and masculine principles, was good and at the same time evil, was both warm and cold, truth and lies, white and black.
He gave birth to the rest of the gods: Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and Sipe Totec, who, in turn, created giants, water, fish and other gods.
Tezcatlipoca ascended to heaven, sacrificing himself and becoming the Sun. However, there he encountered Quetzalcoatl, entered the battle with him and lost to him. Quetzalcoatl threw Tezcatlipoca from the firmament and became the Sun himself. Then, Quetzalcoatl gave birth to humans and gave them nuts to eat.
Tezcatlipoca, still melting a grudge against Quetzalcoatl, decided to take revenge on his creations by turning people into apes. Seeing what became of his first people, Quetzalcoatl fell into a rage and caused a powerful hurricane that scattered the vile monkeys all over the world.
While Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoc were at odds with each other, Tialoc and Chalchiuhtlicue also turned into suns to continue the cycle of day and night. However, the fierce battle between Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca also affected them - then they too were thrown from heaven.
In the end, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoc ended their enmity, forgetting past grievances and creating new people from the dead bones and blood of Quetzalcoatl - the Aztecs.
2. Japanese "World Cauldron"
Japan. Chaos again, again in the form of an ocean, this time as dirty as a swamp. In this ocean swamp grew a magic reed (or reed), and from this reed (or reed), like our children from cabbage, gods were born, a great many of them. All together they were called Kotoamatsuki - and this is all that is known about them, for as soon as they were born, they immediately rushed to hide in the reeds. Or in the reeds.
While they were hiding, new gods appeared, including Idzinami and Idzinagi. They began stirring the ocean until it thickened and formed the land - Japan. Idzinami and Idzinagi had a son, Ebisu, who became the god of all fishermen, a daughter, Amaterasu, who became the Sun, and another daughter, Tsukiyomi, who turned into the Moon. They also had one more son, the last one - Susanoo, for his violent disposition received the status of the god of wind and storms.
1. Lotus flower and "Om-m"
Like many other religions, Hinduism also features the concept of the emergence of the world from emptiness. Well, as from the void - there was an endless ocean in which a giant cobra swam, and there was Vishnu, who slept on the tail of the cobra. And nothing more.
Time passed, days followed one another, and it seemed that it would always be so. But once everything around was announced by a sound that had never been heard before - the sound of "Om-m", and the previously empty world was overwhelmed with energy. Vishnu awakened from sleep, and Brahma appeared from the lotus flower on his navel. Vishnu ordered Brahma to create the world, and in the meantime he disappeared, taking a snake with him.
Brahma, sitting in a lotus position on a lotus flower, set to work: he divided the flower into three parts, using one to create Heaven and Hell, the other to create the Earth, and the third to create the sky. Then Brahma created animals, birds, people and trees, thus creating all living things.