Parallel Myths
Page 8
Another story is that Con, the Creator, was in the form of a man without bones. He filled the earth with good things to supply the needs of the first humans. The people, however, forgot Con’s goodness to them and rebelled. So he punished them by stopping the rainfall. The miserable people were forced to work hard, drawing what little water they could find from stinking, drying riverbeds. Then a new god, Pachachamac, came and drove Con out, changing his people into monkeys. Pachachamac then took earth and made the ancestors of human beings.
THE BABYLONIAN CREATION MYTH
NOTE: In the account of Creation in Genesis, God makes the world for humankind; in the Babylonian story, the gods make humankind to work for them.
In the beginning there was Apsu, the sky god, and Tiamat, the chaos goddess. From their union came all gods. These younger gods grew restless and chose Marduk as their champion. It is he who finished the work of creation by slaying Tiamat, his mother, and Kingu, her lover.
Then joined issue Tiamat and Marduk, wisest of gods
They strove in single combat, locked in battle.
The lord spread out his net to enfold her
The Evil Wind, which followed behind, he let loose in her face.
When Tiamat opened her mouth to consume him,
He drove in the Evil Wind that she close not her lips.
As the fierce winds charged her belly,
Her body was distended and her mouth was wide open.
He released the arrow, it tore her belly.
It cut through her insides, splitting her heart.
Having thus subdued her, he extinguished her life.
He cast down her carcass to stand upon it.
After he had slain Tiamat the leader,
Her band was shattered, her troupe broken up;
And the gods, her helpers who marched at her side,
Trembling with terror turned their backs about,
In order to save their lives.
Tightly encircled, they could not escape;
He made them captives and he smashed their weapons.
Thrown into the net, they found themselves ensnared;
Placed in cells, they were filled with wailing;
Bearing his wrath, they were held imprisoned….
The lord trod on the legs of Tiamat,
With his unsparing mace he crushed her skull.
When the arteries of her blood he had severed,
The north wind bore it to places undisclosed.
They brought him gifts of homage, they to him.
Then the lord paused to view her dead body
That he might divide the monster and do artful works.
He split her like a shellfish into two parts:
Half of her he set up and ceiled as sky,
Pulled down the bar and posted guards,
He bade them to allow not her waters to escape.
… He constructed stations for the great gods,
Fixing their astral likenesses as constellations.
He determined the year by designating the zones:
He set up three constellations for each of the twelve months.
… When Marduk hears the words of the gods,
His heart prompts him to do artful works.
Opening his mouth, he addresses Ea, god of waters,
“Blood I will mass and cause bones to be.
I will establish a savage, ‘man’ shall be his name;
Truly savage man I will create.
He shall be charged with the service of the gods
That they might be at ease!”
… It was Kingu who contrived the uprising,
And made Tiamat rebel, and joined battle.
They bound him [Kingu], holding him before Ea.
They imposed on him his guilt and severed his blood vessels.
Out of his blood they fashioned mankind.
He [Ea] imposed the service and let free the gods.
After Ea, the wise had created mankind,
Had imposed upon it the service of the gods.
THE BIBLICAL CREATION STORIES
NOTE: The first Creation story is referred to as the “Elohist” version of the Creation, as God is referred to as Elohim (a plural form) in the original Hebrew. The second story is referred to as the “Yahwist” version, as God is referred to by the sacred name YHVH, transliterated as “Yahweh.” It is believed by some Bible scholars that the two versions were integrated into the Torah at the time of its compilation. The authorship of Genesis, and the whole Torah, is traditionally attributed to Moses.
The First Account of Creation (Genesis 1:1-2:4)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God’s spirit hovered over the water.
God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God divided light from darkness. God called light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” Evening came and morning came: the first day.
God said, “Let there be a vault in the waters to divide the waters in two.” And so it was. God made the vault, and it divided the waters above the vault from the waters under the vault. God called the vault “heaven.” Evening came and morning came: the second day.
God said, “Let the waters under heaven come together into a single mass, and let dry land appear.” And so it was. God called the dry land “earth” and the mass of waters “seas,” and God saw that it was good.
God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation; seed-bearing plants, and fruit-bearing trees bearing fruits with their seeds inside, on the earth.” And so it was. The earth produced vegetation: plants bearing seeds in their several kinds, and trees bearing fruit with their seeds inside in their several kinds. God saw that it was good. Evening came and then morning came: the third day.
God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of heaven to divide day from night, and let them indicate festivals, days and years. Let them be lights in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth.” And so it was. God made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, the smaller light to govern the night and to divide light from darkness. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came: the fourth day.
God said, “Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth within the vault of heaven.” And so it was. God created great sea-serpents and every kind of living creature with which the waters teem, and every kind of winged creature. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply upon the earth.” Evening came and morning came: the fifth day.
God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living creature: cattle, reptiles, and every kind of wild beast.” And so it was. God made every kind of beast, every kind of cattle, and every kind of land reptile. God saw that it was good.
God said, “Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves [Ehhim is a plural word in Hebrew], and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth.”
God created man in the image of Himself; in the image of God He created them; male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth.” God said, “See, I give you all the seed-bearing plants that are upon the whole earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this shall be your food. To all wild beasts, all birds of heaven and all living reptiles on the earth I give all the foliage of plants for food.” And so it was. God saw all that he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day.
Thus heaven and earth were completed in all their array. On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rest
ed after all his work of creating.
Such were the origins of heaven and earth when they were created.
Second Account of Creation (Genesis 2:5—25)
At the time when Yahweh God made earth and heaven there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant yet sprung up, for Yahweh God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there any man to till the soil. However, a flood was rising from the earth and watering all the surface of the soil. Yahweh fashioned a man out of the dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and thus man became a living being.
Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden, which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. Yahweh God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. A river flowed from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided to make four streams. The first is named the Pishon, and this encircles the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. The gold of this land is pure; bdellum [an aromatic resin] and onyx stone are found there. The second river is the Gihon, and this encircles the whole land of Cush. The third river is named the Tigris, and this flows to the east of Ashur [Assyria]. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Yahweh God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and take care of it. Then Yahweh God gave the man this admonition, “You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die.”
Yahweh God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.” So from the soil Yahweh God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he could call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable for man was found for him. So Yahweh God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of the ribs and enclosed it in flesh. Yahweh God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed:
This at last is bone from my bones
and flesh from my flesh;
This is to be called woman
for this was taken from man.*
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife and they become one body.
THE TALMUDIC CREATION STORY
NOTE: During the postbiblical period, Jewish rabbis debated and analyzed the fine points of the Old Testament, trying to clear up difficulties. The result of this process was the Talmud, the vast repository of commentary, wisdom, theology, and folklore that remains a priceless heritage of Judaism.
When God decided to create the world, the twenty-two letters of the [Hebrew] alphabet came into His divine presence; each one of them wanted to be the first letter of the first word spoken by God in the creation of the world. But it was the letter Beth that was chosen, as the first word out of the mouth of God was baruch, meaning “blessed.” It was with a blessing that God began his work.
On the first day, God made the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, day and night. He took a stone and threw it into the great void, where it became the core of the earth. On the second day, God created the angels; on the third day he made the plants, including the giant cedars of Lebanon. That day he also created iron in the earth for axes to cut the cedars down, lest they grow too tall and arrogant. The Lord created Gan Eden, the Paradise where Adam and Eve would dwell, and which the righteous enjoy when they die. The fourth day, the sun, moon, and stars were created. On the fifth day, the sea creatures were made including Leviathan, as well as the birds, including the legendary Zinn.
It was on the sixth day that God created the beasts, including the giant Behemoth. It was also on the sixth day that God made human beings. God had discussed the creation of humans with the angels, who weren’t too sure that it was a good idea. Some of the angels resented the idea that God would create another sentient being and they complained. God, tired of their impudence, pointed his finger at these angels and they were consumed by fire. God then ordered the angel Gabriel to go and bring soil from the four corners of the world, with which to make man.
When Gabriel began his task, he learned that the earth was reluctant to give up any soil for the creation of humans. The earth knew that mankind would someday ruin the earth and spoil its beauty. Upon hearing this, God himself scooped up the earth and fashioned Adam, the first man.
When God created the body of man, He prepared to join it with the soul, which had been created on the first day. The angels were again concerned that another creature with a soul would exist. Among the most contentious of these angels was Samael [meaning “venom of God”], who was also called Satan. He told God: “You created us, the angels, from your Shekhinah [“Divine Presence”] and now you would place us over a lowly thing made of dirt? You would waste a soul on a piece of mud? You would create a thinking being out of dust?”
God was tired of Samael’s incessant complaining and his arrogance in questioning Him. He then cast Samael and his followers out of heaven into hell.
Out of the dust of the ground gathered from the four corners of the earth, God fashioned Adam [Hebrew: adamah], and into his nostrils breathed the breath of life. Some say that this Adam was like a twenty-year-old man.
Other Rabbis say that Adam looked out over the many animals on earth and noticed that they were all male or female, yet he had no female. So God first created a woman named Lillith out of dust. But Lillith set herself over Adam and balked at the way that he wished to make love, with the man on top. “Why?” She scowled. “Who are you to lord over me? We are both made of dust!” In her arrogance she recited the sacred, unspeakable name of God and disappeared from sight.
After this miserable creature went to live among the demons, God felt sorry for Adam and decided to make him a good woman, Eve. Adam ruled over all the plants and male animals in the east and north of the Garden of Eden, while Eve ruled the female animals in the south and west. Adam and Eve went about naked, except for a band over their shoulders that was inscribed with the sacred name of God.
And Adam and Eve lived in perfect innocence at this time. But Samael and Lillith were busy plotting how to confound these good people.
THE CREATION
And God stepped out on space
And he looked around and said:
I’m lonely—
I’ll make me a world.
As far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
Then God smiled, And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other
And God said: That’s good!
Then God himself stepped down—
And the sun was in his right hand,
And the moon was in his left;
And the stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet.
And God walked, and where he trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.
Then he stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over the edge of the world
And he spat out the seven seas—
He batted his eyes, and the lightning flashed;
He clapped his hands and the thunder rolled—
And the waters came down,
The cooling waters came down.
Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down i
n the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.
Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
Over the sea and over the land
And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop his hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings,
And God said: That’s good!
Then God walked around
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at the sun,
And he looked at the moon,
And he looked at the little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said: I’m lonely still.
Then God sat down—
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I’ll make me a man!
Up from the bed of a river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,