Creation Stories of Different Civilization

1. How do creation stories establish concepts of appropriate relationships within society, between humans and nature and between humans and the god?

The Evolution of Human civilization has brought about drastic changes to the ability to perceive reality. One of such alteration is due to Religion and the creation stories almost each of the religions and cultures of the world till now has had.  Many if not all of these stories consist of the creation of first human being, the existence of a great spirit, which has always been there, beyond humans that created earth and the relation between these entities and human life. The great spirit or God in all these stories is a matter of faith. The main contents of these creation stories include how the world was formed, how first human life was created, and the story of the divinity. Creation story provides an objective, gives meaning and establishes set of decrees to live one’s life.

An ancient Hindu collection of Hymns, the Rig Veda, one of four Vedas, explains creation through hymns. The Rig Veda explains creation of out of nothing or Ex nihilo in Latin. According to The Rig Veda in the beginning there was only the empty cosmos. “At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness. All this was only unillumined water. That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing, arose at last, born of the power of heat.” (verse 10:129). It explains that the desire of a divinity planted the seeds of creation. It states that throughout one’s life one must stay pure and clean and must choose right path and live a long life. It provides detail about the origins of Aryans through god Indra and Agni. It also states that grieving over dead ones who is mixed with nature is inept. The Gods are always superior beings to humans and the eye of the creator is omnipresent and sees everything.

The epic of Gilgamesh (written c. 2150 -1400 BCE) is an ancient Sumerian/Babylonian poetic work is the oldest piece of western literature.  Gilgamesh is one of the best known of all the Mesopotamian heroes. These stories of Gilgamesh have been described as an odyssey of a king who did not want to die. The numerous tales of Gilgamesh are found in Akkadian language.  Gilgamesh was a demi-god who is said to have lived an exceptionally long life and had super human strength.  These stories are set in Uruk, which was one of the most important cities in ancient Mesopotamia. In these epic of Gilgamesh, the gods were shown to be very direct and intervening. The Gods took action if they perceived anything as imbalanced. Gilgamesh going on a quest to find the meaning of life and a way to cheat death shows a common human desire for living. From these stories, humans should live to please gods and seldom commit sins to avoid the wrath of god. The action Enkidu, a wild man created to humble Gilgamesh, took to slay the bull to protect Gilgamesh displeased god so he was given a penalty of death. The God in these stories are also shown as architects of the human society because when Enkidu deviated from his purpose and instead supported Gilgamesh, it disrupted their original plan that was the marriage proposal of Ishtar to Gilgamesh.