According to some, the world was created by Allah, Yahweh, the One God - whatever you call it, but we owe our lives to him. Not the big bang, not natural cosmic processes, but a creature that, according to the opinion, looks like Alanis Morisette. But this was not always the case; once upon a time, each nation offered its own version of the creation of life with the participation of sweat, masturbating gods and other heresies.

Scandinavians

According to the Scandinavians, in the beginning there was a void with the complex name Ginungagap. Next to the void, as expected, was the frozen world of darkness Niflheim, and in the south lay the fiery hot country of Muspellheim. And here elementary physics begins. Some ancient Scandinavian, noticing that frost appears from the contact of ice and fire, ventured to suggest that from such proximity the world's emptiness was gradually filled with poisonous frost. What happens when the poisonous frost melts? He usually turns into evil giants. The same thing happened here, and an evil giant was formed from the frost, whose name has Muslim overtones. Simply put, Ymir. He was asexual, but since this, according to James Brown, “ A man's world", then we will refer to him as a man.

There was nothing to do in this emptiness, and, tired of hanging in the air, Ymir fell asleep. And here the most delicious part begins. Considering that there is nothing more intimate than sweat (referring to secondary urine, not the Cambodian dictator), they came up with the idea that the sweat dripping from under his arms turned into a man and a woman, from whom a line of giants later descended. And the sweat dripping from the feet gave birth to Trudgelmir - a giant with six heads. This is the story of the emergence of giantess. And with a smell too.

But the ice continued to melt, and, realizing that they needed to eat something, they invented a cow with beautiful name Audumla, which emerged from melt water. Ymir began to drink her milk, and she liked to lick the salty ice. Having licked the ice, she discovered a man under it, his name was Buri, the progenitor of all gods. How did he end up there? There wasn't enough imagination for this.

Buri had a son, Boryo, who married the frost giantess Bestla, and they had three sons: Odin, Vili and Ve. The sons of the Storm hated Ymir and killed him. The reason is purely noble: Ymir was evil. So much blood flowed from the body of the murdered Ymir that it drowned all the giants except Bergelmir, the grandson of Ymir, and his wife. They managed to escape the flood in a boat made from a tree trunk. Where did the tree in the void come from? Do you really care! Found it, and that's it.

Then the brothers decided to create something that the world had never seen before. Your own Universe with Drakar and Vikings. Odin and his brothers brought Ymir's body to the center of Ginungagapa and created a world from it. They threw flesh into blood - and the earth became. Blood, accordingly, is an ocean. The sky was made from the skull, and the brain was scattered across the sky to form clouds. So next time, when flying on a plane, catch yourself thinking that you are in a giant’s skull on a huge bird, cutting the giant’s brains.

The gods ignored only the part where the giants lived. It was called Etunheim. The best part They fenced off this world for centuries from Ymir and settled people there, calling it Midgard.
Finally, the gods created people. From two tree knots, a man and a woman, Ask and Emblya (which is typical), turned out. All other people descended from them.

The latter built the impregnable fortress of Asgard, which rose high above Midgard. These two parts were connected by the rainbow bridge Bifrost. Among the gods, patrons of people, there were 12 gods and 14 goddesses (they were called “Aces”), as well as a whole company of other smaller deities (Vanir). This entire host of gods crossed the rainbow bridge and settled in Asgard.
The ash tree Yggdrasil grew above this multi-layered world. Its roots sprouted into Asgard, Jotunheim and Niflheim. An eagle and a hawk sat on the branches of Yggdrasil, a squirrel rushed up and down the trunk, deer lived at the roots, and below all sat the snake Nidhogg, who wanted to eat everything.

This is the beginning of one of the world's most wonderful mythologies. Reading the “Elder” and “Younger” Eddas will not make you regret the time spent for a second.

Slavs

Let us turn to our ancestors, as well as to the ancestors of the Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs and other Slavic peoples. There was no one specific myth, there were several of them, and not one of them is approved by the Russian Orthodox Church.

There is a version that it all started with the god Rod. Before I was born White light, the world was shrouded in pitch darkness. In this darkness there was only Rod - the Progenitor of all things. When asked what came first - an egg or a chicken, the Slavs would answer that it was an egg, because Rod was imprisoned in it. Sitting in the egg was not very good, and somehow magically, some, to the extent of their licentiousness, understood how, Rod gave birth to love, which, ironically, he named Lada, and with the power of love he destroyed the prison. This is how the creation of the world began. The world was filled with Love.

At the beginning of the creation of the world, Rod gave birth to the kingdom of heaven, and under it created the heavenly kingdom. With a rainbow he cut the umbilical cord, and with a rock he separated the Ocean from the heavenly waters. Then there were economic little things like the separation of Light and Darkness. Then the god Rod gave birth to the Earth, and the Earth plunged into a dark abyss, into the Ocean. Then the Sun came out of His face, the Moon - from His chest, the stars of heaven - from His eyes. Clear dawns appeared from Rod's eyebrows, dark nights - from His thoughts, violent winds - from His breath, rain, snow and hail - from His tears. Thunder and lightning are nothing but his voice. Actually, Rod is all living things, the father of all gods and everything that exists.

Rod gave birth to the heavenly Svarog, and breathed into him his mighty spirit, and gave him the ability, which is very useful in our days, to look in all directions at the same time, so that nothing could be hidden from him. It is Svarog who is responsible for the change of day and night and for the creation of the Earth. He forces the gray duck to get the land hidden under the ocean. There were no more worthy ones.

At first the duck did not appear for a year, could not get the Earth, then again Svarog sent it for the Earth, it did not appear for two years and again did not bring it. The third time Rod could no longer stand it, he freaked out, struck the duck with lightning and gave it incredible strength, and the shocked duck was absent for three years until she brought a handful of earth in her beak. Svarog crushed the Earth - the winds blew the Earth from his palm, and it fell into the blue sea. The Sun warmed it, the Earth became crusty on top, and the Moon cooled it. He established three vaults in it - three underground kingdoms. And so that the Earth would not go back into the Ocean, Rod gave birth to the powerful snake Yusha under it.

The Carpathian Slavs believed that there was nothing but the blue sea and oak. How they got there is not specified. Two positive pigeons were sitting on an oak tree, who decided to take out fine sand from the bottom of the sea to create black soil, “icy water and green grass” and a golden stone from which the blue sky, the sun, the month and all the stars are made.

As for the creation of man, there was, of course, no natural selection. The Magi said the following. God washed himself in the bathhouse and sweated, wiped himself with a rag and threw it from heaven to earth. And Satan argued with God over who should create a man from her. And the devil created man, and God put his soul in him, because when a man dies, his body goes to the earth, and his soul goes to God.

Found among the Slavs and ancient legend about the creation of people, in which there were eggs. God, cutting the eggs into halves, threw them on the ground. Here, from one half a man was obtained, and from the other, a woman. Men and women, formed from the halves of one egg, find each other and marry. Some halves fell into the swamp and died there. Therefore, some are forced to spend their entire lives alone.

China

The Chinese have their own ideas about how the world came into being. The most popular myth is the myth 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 nothing more than an egg, which was a symbol of life for almost every nation. And Pan-gu lived inside him, and he lived for a long time - many millions of years. But one fine day he got tired of such a life, and, swinging a heavy ax, Pan-gu got out of his egg, splitting it into two parts. These parts later became Heaven and Earth. He was of unimaginable height - about 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 decomposed in a really cool way: his voice turned into thunder, his skin and bones became the earth's surface, and his head became the Cosmos. Thus, his death gave life to our world.

Ancient Armenia

Armenian legends are very reminiscent of Slavic ones. True, Armenians do not have a clear answer to how the world came to be, but they do have an interesting explanation of how it works.

Heaven and Earth are a husband and wife separated by an 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 he swings his horns, the earth bursts at the seams with earthquakes. That, in fact, is all - this is how the Armenians imagined the Earth.

There is an alternative myth where the Earth is in the middle of the sea, and Leviathan floats around it, trying to grab onto its own tail, and constant earthquakes were also explained by its flopping. When Leviathan finally bites its tail, life on Earth will cease and the apocalypse will begin. Have a nice day.

Egypt

The Egyptians have several myths about the creation of the earth, and one is more amazing than the other. But this one is the most original. Thanks to the cosmogony of Heliopolis for such details.

In the beginning there was a great ocean, whose name was “Nu,” and this ocean was Chaos, and besides it there was nothing. It was not until Atum, by an effort of will and thought, created himself from this Chaos. And you complain about the lack of motivation... But then - more and more interesting. So, he created himself, now he had to create land in the ocean. Which is what he did. After wandering around the earth and realizing his total loneliness, Atum became unbearably bored, and he decided to make more gods. How? He climbed the hill and began to do his dirty work, desperately masturbating.

Thus, from the seed of Atum, Shu and Tefnut were born. But, apparently, he overdid it, and the newborn gods were lost in the ocean of Chaos. Atum grieved, but soon, to his relief, he found and rediscovered his children. He was so glad to be reunited that he cried for a long, long time, and his tears, touching the earth, fertilized it - and people grew out of the earth, many people! Then, while people impregnated each other, Shu and Tefnut also had coitus, and they gave birth to other gods - Geb and Nut, who became the personification of the Earth and sky.

There is another myth in which Atum is replaced by Ra, but this does not change the main essence - there, too, everyone fertilizes each other en masse.

Disputes between supporters of the theory of creationism and evolutionary theory continue to this day. However, unlike the theory of evolution, creationism includes not one, but hundreds various theories(if not more). In this article we will talk about ten of the most unusual myths of antiquity

The debate between supporters of the theory of creationism and evolutionary theory continues 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 talk about ten of the most unusual myths of antiquity.

The Myth of Pan-gu

The Chinese have their own ideas about how the world came into being. The most popular myth is the myth 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, swinging a heavy ax, Pan-gu got out of his egg, splitting it into two parts. These parts subsequently became Heaven and Earth. He was of unimaginable height - about 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 decomposed in a really cool way: his voice turned into thunder, his skin and bones became the firmament of the earth, and his head became the Cosmos. Thus, his death gave life to our world.

Chernobog and Belobog

This is one of the most significant myths of the Slavs. It tells the story of 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 with the goal of finding out from Chernobog how to stop this matter. Well, Chernobog sat on a goat and went to negotiate. The delegates, seeing Chernobog galloping towards them on a goat, were imbued with the comedy 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 spy on Chernobog, making a bee for this purpose. The insect coped with the task successfully and found out the secret, which was as follows: in order to stop the growth of land, you need to draw a cross on it and say the cherished word - “enough.” Which is what Belobog did.

To say that Chernobog was not happy is to say nothing. Wanting revenge, he cursed Belobog, and he cursed him in a very original way - for his meanness, Belobog was now supposed to eat bee feces for the rest of his life. However, Belobog was not at a loss, and made the bee excrement 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.

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 us works. But that doesn't make it any less interesting.

So here you go short summary: Heaven and Earth are a husband and wife separated by an 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 shakes its horns, the earth bursts at the seams from earthquakes. That, in fact, is all - this is how the Armenians imagined the Earth.

There is an alternative myth where the Earth is in the middle of the sea, and Leviathan floats around it, trying to grab onto its own tail, and constant earthquakes were also explained by its flopping. When Leviathan finally bites its tail, life on Earth will cease and the apocalypse will begin. Have a nice day.

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 origin of everything, only his name was Ymir, and he was icy and with a club. Before his appearance, the world was divided into Muspelheim and Niflheim - the kingdoms of fire and ice, respectively. And between them stretched Ginnungagap, symbolizing absolute chaos, and there, from the fusion of two opposing elements, Ymir was born.

And now closer to us, to the people. When Ymir sweated, along with the sweat from his right armpit a man and a woman got out. It’s strange, yes, we understand this - well, that’s how they are, harsh Vikings, nothing can be done. But let's get back to the point. The man's name was Buri, he had a son Ber, and Ber had three sons - Odin, Vili and Ve. Three brothers were gods and ruled Asgard. This seemed to them not enough, and they decided to kill Ymir’s great-grandfather, making a 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 man, the brothers created the vault of heaven, broke his bones, making mountains and cobblestones out of them, and made clouds from the torn brains of poor Ymir.

This new world Odin and the company immediately decided to settle: so they found two beautiful trees on the seashore - ash and alder, making a man from the ash, and a woman from the alder, thereby giving rise to the human race.

Greek myth about marbles

Like many other peoples, the ancient Greeks believed that before our world appeared, there was only complete chaos. There was neither the sun nor the moon - everything was dumped into one big pile, where things were inseparable from each other.

But then a certain god came, looked at the chaos 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 a clear day, and everything like that.

Then he set to work on the Earth, rolling it into a ball and dividing this ball into five parts: at the equator it was very hot, at the poles it was extremely cold, but between the poles and the equator it was just right, you couldn’t imagine anything more comfortable. Further, from the seed of an unknown god, most likely Zeus, known to the Romans as Jupiter, the first man was created - two-faced and also in the shape of a ball.

And then they tore him in two, making him a man and a woman - the future of you and me.

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 besides it there was nothing. It was not until Atum, by an effort of will and thought, created himself out of this Chaos. Yes, the man had balls. But further - more and more interesting. So, he created himself, now he had to create land in the ocean. Which is what he did. After wandering around the earth and realizing his total loneliness, Atum became unbearably bored, and he decided to plan on more gods. How? And just like that, with an ardent, passionate feeling for your own shadow.

Thus 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 found and rediscovered his children. He was so glad to be reunited that he cried for a long, long time, and his tears, touching the earth, fertilized it - and people grew out of the earth, many people! Then, while people impregnated each other, Shu and Tefnut also had coitus, and they gave birth 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 is replaced by Ra, but this does not change the main essence - there, too, everyone fertilizes each other en masse.

The myth of the Yoruba people - about the Sands of Life and the 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 one God, his name was Olorun, and one fine day the idea came to his mind that the Earth needed to be equipped somehow (at that time the Earth was one continuous wasteland).

Olorun didn’t really want to do this himself, so he sent his son, Obotala, to Earth. However, at that moment, Obotala had more important things to do (in fact, there was a gorgeous party planned in heaven, and Obotala simply could not miss it).

While Obotala was having fun, all the responsibility fell on Odudawa. Having nothing at hand except chicken and sand, Odudawa nevertheless set to work. His principle was the following: he took sand from a cup, poured it onto the Earth, and then let the chicken run around in the sand and trample it thoroughly.

After carrying out several such simple manipulations, Odudawa created the land of Lfe or Lle-lfe. This is where Odudawa's story ends, and Obotala appears on the stage again, this time completely drunk - the party was a great success.

And so, being in a state of divine alcohol intoxication, the son of Olorun set about creating us humans. It turned out very badly for him, and he created disabled people, dwarfs and freaks. Having sobered up, Obotala was horrified and quickly corrected everything by creating normal people.

According to another version, Obotala never recovered, and Odudawa also made people, simply lowering us from the sky and at the same time assigning himself the status of ruler of humanity.

Aztec "War of the Gods"

According to Aztec myth, there was no primordial Chaos. But there was a primary order - an absolute vacuum, impenetrably black and endless, in which in some strange way lived the Supreme God - Ometeotl. 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 remaining gods: Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and Xipe Totec, who, in turn, created giants, water, fish and other gods.

Tezcatlipoca ascended to the heavens, sacrificing himself and becoming the Sun. However, there he encountered Quetzalcoatl, entered into battle with him and lost to him. Quetzalcoatl threw Tezcatlipoca from the sky and became the Sun himself. Then, Quetzalcoatl gave birth to people and gave them nuts to eat.

Tezcatlipoca, still harboring a grudge against Quetzalcoatl, decided to take revenge on his creations by turning people into monkeys. Seeing what happened to his first people, Quetzalcoatl flew into a rage and caused a powerful hurricane that scattered the vile monkeys throughout the world.

While Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoc were at war with each other, Tialoc and Chalchiuhtlicue also turned into suns in order to continue the cycle of day and night. However, the fierce battle between Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca affected them too - then they, too, were thrown from heaven.

In the end, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoc stopped their feud, forgetting past grievances and creating new people - the Aztecs - from the dead bones and blood of Quetzalcoatl.

Japanese "World Cauldron"

Japan. Again Chaos, again in the form of an ocean, this time as dirty as a swamp. In this ocean-swamp, magical reeds (or reeds) grew, and from this reeds (or reeds), like our children from cabbage, gods were born, a great many of them. All of them together were called Kotoamatsukami - and that’s all that is known about them, for, as soon as they were born, they immediately hastened to hide in the reeds. Or in the reeds.

While they were hiding, new gods appeared, including Ijinami and Ijinagi. They began to stir the ocean until it thickened, and from it the land was formed - Japan. Ijinami and Ijinagi had a son, Ebisu, who became the god of all fishermen, a daughter, Amaterasu, who became the Sun, and another daughter, Tsukiyomi, who became the Moon. They also had one more son, the last - Susanoo, who, for his violent temper, received the status of the god of wind and storms.

Lotus flower and "Om-m"

Like many other religions, Hinduism also features the concept of the world emerging from the void. Well, as if out of nowhere, there was an endless ocean in which a giant cobra swam, and there was Vishnu, who slept on the cobra’s tail. And nothing more.

Time passed, days followed each other one after another, and it seemed that it would always be like this. But one day, everything around was filled with a sound that had never been heard before - the sound of “Om-m”, and the previously empty world was overwhelmed with energy. Vishnu awoke from sleep, and Brahma appeared from the lotus flower at his navel. Vishnu ordered Brahma to create the world, and in the meantime he disappeared, taking with him a snake.

Brahma, sitting in the lotus position on a lotus flower, set to work: he divided the flower into three parts, using one to create Heaven and Hell, another to create Earth, and the third to create heaven. Brahma then created animals, birds, people and trees, thus creating all living things.

Any mythology is based on myths about the creation of the world and people. It is difficult to identify any specific trend in all this. The creators of the world are sometimes gods, sometimes animals, and even plants. How a primordial creature arose from primeval Chaos and how it created the world - every myth has its own story about this. This article presents several myths about the creation of the world of the Slavs, Greeks, Sumerians, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, Scandinavians, Zoroastrians, Arikara, Huron, Mayan Indians.

Slavs.

The Slavs had several legends about where the world and its inhabitants came from. Many peoples (ancient Greeks, Iranians, Chinese) had myths that the world arose from an egg. Similar legends and tales can be found among the Slavs. In the Tale of the Three Kingdoms, the hero goes in search of three princesses in the underworld. First he finds himself in the copper kingdom, then in the silver and gold. Each princess gives the hero an egg, which he, in turn, rolls into and encloses each kingdom. Having emerged into the white light, he throws the eggs onto the ground and unfolds all three kingdoms.

One of the ancient legends says: “In the beginning, when there was nothing in the world but the boundless sea, a duck, flying over it, dropped an egg into the watery abyss. The egg split, and from its lower part the mother earth came out, and from the upper part arose the high vault of heaven.”

Another legend connects the appearance of the world with the hero’s duel with the serpent who guarded the golden egg. The hero killed the serpent, split the egg - three kingdoms emerged from it: heavenly, earthly and underground.

And here is how the Carpathian Slavs talked about the birth of the world:
When was the beginning of the world,
Then there was neither sky nor earth, only the blue sea,
And in the middle of the sea there is a tall oak tree,
Two marvelous doves sat down on an oak tree,
Have you started thinking about how to establish a light?
We will go down to the bottom of the sea,
Let's take out the fine sand,
Fine sand, golden stone.
We will sow fine sand,
We will blow the golden stone.
From the fine sand - black earth,
The water is cold, the grass is green.
From the golden stone - blue sky, blue sky, bright sun,
The month and all the stars are clear.

Here's another myth. At the beginning of time the world was in darkness. But the Almighty revealed the Golden Egg, which contained the Rod - the Parent of all things.
The clan gave birth to Love - Mother Lada and, by the power of Love, destroying its prison, gave birth to the Universe - countless star worlds, as well as our earthly world.
The sun then came out from His face.
The bright moon is from His chest.
The frequent stars are from His eyes.
The clear dawns are from His eyebrows.
Dark nights - yes from His thoughts.
Violent winds - from the breath)..
"Book of Kolyada", 1 a
So Rod gave birth to everything that we see around - everything that comes with Rod - everything that we call Nature. The genus separated the visible, revealed world, that is, Reality, from the invisible, spiritual world - from Novi. Rod separated Truth from Falsehood.
In the chariot of fire, Rod affirmed thunder. The Sun God Ra, who emerged from the person of the Family, was established in a golden boat, and the Month - in a silver one. Rod released from his lips the Spirit of God - the bird Mother Sva. By the Spirit of God, the Rod gave birth to Svarog - the Heavenly Father.
Svarog finished making peace. He became the master of the earthly World, the ruler of the Kingdom of God. Svarog established twelve pillars supporting the firmament.
From the Word of the Most High, Rod created the god Barma, who began to mutter prayers, glorifications, and recite the Vedas. He also gave birth to the Spirit of Barma, his wife Tarusa.
The clan became the Heavenly Spring and gave birth to the waters of the Great Ocean. From the foam of the Ocean waters the World Duck appeared, giving birth to many gods - Yasuns and Dasun demons. The clan gave birth to the Cow Zemun and the Goat Sedun, milk spilled from their breasts and became the Milky Way. Then he created the Alatyr stone, with which he began to churn this Milk. From the butter obtained after churning, Mother Earth of Cheese was created.

Sumerians.

The Sumerians explained the origin of the universe as follows.
In Sumerian mythology, heaven and earth were originally thought of as a mountain, the base of which was the earth, personified in the goddess Ki, and the top was the sky, the god An. From their union was born the god of air and wind Enlil, himself called “ Great mountain", and his temple in the city of Nippur was called the "House of the Mountain": he separated heaven from earth and created space - Universe. Thanks to Enlil, the luminaries also appear. Enlil falls in love with the goddess Ninlil and takes possession of her by force as she sails down the river in her barge. For this, the elder gods banish him to the underworld, but Ninlil, who has already conceived son of god the moon Nannu follows him, and Nanna is born in the underworld. In the underworld, Enlil takes the form of guards three times the afterlife, gives birth to three underground gods from Ninlil. They return to the heavenly world. From now on, Nanna travels in a barge, accompanied by stars and planets, across the sky at night, and through the underworld during the day. He gives birth to a son, the solar god Utu, who wanders through the sky during the day, and at night he travels through the underworld, bringing light, drink and food to the dead. Then Enlil develops the earth: he raised “the seed of the fields” from the earth, brought into being “everything useful,” and invented the hoe.
There is another version of the creation myth.
The beginning of this story is quite beautiful. A long time ago, when there was neither heaven nor earth, there lived Tiamat, the goddess of sweet waters, Apsu, the god of salty waters, and their son, the fog rising above the water.
Then Tiamat and Apsu gave birth to two pairs of twins: Lahma and Lahama (demons), and then Anshar and Kishar, who were smarter and stronger than the elders. Anshar and Kishar had a child named Annu. Annu became the god of the sky. Ea was born to Annu. This is the god of underground waters and magic.
The younger gods - Lahma, Lahama, Anshar, Kishar, Annu and Ea - gathered every evening for a noisy feast. They prevented Apsu and Tiamat from getting enough sleep. Only Mummu, the eldest son of Apsu and Tiamat, did not take part in these amusements. Apsu and Mummu appealed to the younger gods with a request to stop the celebrations, but they were not listened to. The elders decided to kill everyone who interfered with sleep.
Ea decided to kill Apsu, who had started a conspiracy against the younger ones.
Tiamat decided to take revenge for the death of her husband. Her new husband, the god of Kingu, strongly supported this idea.
So Tiamat and Kingu hatched a plan for revenge. Having learned about Tiamat's plan, Ea turned to his grandfather Anshar for advice. Anshar suggested striking Tiamat with magic, since her husband was dealt with in this way. But Ea's magical powers do not affect Tiamat.
Anu, Ea's father, tried to reason with the angry goddess, but nothing worked. Since magic and negotiations came to nothing, all that remained was to turn to physical force.
Who should we send to battle? Everyone decided that only Marduk could do this. Anshar, Anu and Ea initiated the secrets of divine magic into young Marduk. Marduk is ready to fight Tiamat, demanding the undivided power of the supreme god as a reward for victory.
Young Marduk gathered all the Anunnaki (as the gods called themselves) so that they would approve the war with the supreme goddess and recognize him as their king. Anshar sent his secretary Kaku to call Lakhma, Lahama, Kishara and Damkina. Having learned about the impending war, the gods were horrified, but a good lunch with big amount wine calmed them down.
In addition, Marduk demonstrated his magical power, and the gods recognized him as king.
The merciless battle lasted for a long time. Tiamat fought desperately. But Marduk defeated the goddess.
Marduk took the “tables of destinies” from Kingu (they determined the movement of the world and the course of all events) and put them around his neck. He cut the body of the slain Tiamat into two parts: from one he made the sky, from the other - the earth. People were created from the blood of the murdered Kingu.

Egyptians.

In the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, “the pride of the Sun,” as the Greeks called it, Atum was considered the creator and primal being. He arose from Nun, the primary ocean, which Atum called his father, when there was nothing yet - neither sky, nor earth, nor soil.
Atum rose like a hill among the waters of the world's oceans.
The prototypes of such hills were real hills that stood out on the water surface of the flooded Nile. Suitably fortified, they became a platform for the first temples, the construction of which seemed to perpetuate the act of creating the world. The shape of the pyramid is apparently associated with the idea of ​​a primary hill.
- I exist! I will create the world! I have no father and no mother; I am the first god in the Universe, and I will create other gods! With incredible effort, Atum broke away from the water, soared over the abyss and, raising his hands, cast a magic spell. At the same moment, a deafening roar was heard, and Ben-Ben Hill rose from the abyss amid the foamy spray. Atum sank down onto the hill and began to ponder what he should do next.
But the lonely creator had nothing to create from, and he copulated with his own hand and absorbed his own seed, and then spewed out of the mouth of the god of air Shu and the goddess of moisture Tefnut, the first divine couple. Ocean Nun blessed the creation, commanding it to grow. As soon as they were born, the children disappeared somewhere. Atum could not find them and sent his daughter, the Divine Eye of Atum, to search. The goddess returned the fugitives, and the overjoyed father shed tears. His tears turned into the first people.
From the first couple born of Atum came the god Geb and Nut, the goddess and embodiment of Heaven. The air god Shu and his wife separated the earth and the sky: Nut rose in the form of a firmament above Geb, leaning on it with her hands and feet, Shu began to support the firmament in this position with his own hands.
It was necessary to separate heaven and earth, because as long as they remain united, in embrace, there is no place on earth for other creatures.
But Geb and Nut managed to give birth to twins Osiris and Isis, as well as Set and Nephthys. Osiris was destined to be the first to be killed and resurrected to an eternal afterlife.
The earth and sky are surrounded on all sides by waters. Every night Nut swallows the sun, and in the morning again
gives birth to him.

Memphis had its own version of the creation myth. The creator god Ptah creates all things with the power of thought and word: “Ptah pacified himself, creating all things and divine words. He gave birth to the gods, created cities, placed the gods in their sanctuaries. All kinds of works, arts, movements of arms and legs arose, according to the order, conceived by the heart and expressed by the tongue, which created the essence of all things."
Main gods ancient egypt, created by Ptah, were his own incarnations. In Egyptian mythology, there is another version of the creation of the world, which arose in the city of Shmunu - the “City of Eight”. According to her, the progenitors of all things were eight gods and goddesses - Nun and Nuanet, Huh and Huakhet, Kuk and Kuaket, Amon and Amaunet. Male deities had the heads of frogs, female deities - snakes. They lived in the waters of primeval chaos and created the primordial egg there. From this egg came the solar deity in the form of a bird, and the world was filled with light. "I am a soul emerging from chaos, my nest is invisible, my egg is not broken."
During the New Kingdom (XVI-XI centuries BC), the city of Thebes became the political capital of Egypt. The main Theban deity is the sun god Amon. The Great Hymn to Amun says:
Father of fathers and all gods,
Who raised the sky and established the earth,
People came from his eyes, gods became from his mouth
The king, long live he, long live,
May he be prosperous, the head of all gods
The myth of Amun combined previously existing versions of the creation myth. It tells that in the beginning the god Amon existed in the form of a serpent. He created eight great gods, who gave birth to Ra and Atum in Iunu, and Ptah in Memphis. They then returned to Thebes and died there.
There is almost no mention of the creation of man by the gods in Egyptian mythology. According to one version, people arose from the tears of the god Ra (this is explained by the similar sound of the Egyptian words “tears” and “people”); according to another, people were molded from clay by the god Khnum.
However, the Egyptians believed that people were “the flock of God” and that God created the world for people. "He created for them the sky and the earth. He destroyed the pitchless darkness of water and created air so that they could breathe. He created for them plants, livestock, birds and fish in order to nourish them." It should be noted that in almost all traditions, legends and myths this is common...

Chinese.

Scandinavians.

According to the Scandinavians, in the beginning there was emptiness Ginungagap. To the north of it was the frozen world of darkness Niflheim, and to the south lay the fiery hot country of Muspellheim. From such proximity, the world emptiness of Ginungagap was gradually filled with poisonous frost, which began to melt and turned into the evil frost giant Ymir. Ymir was the ancestor of all frost giants.
Then Ymir fell asleep. While he slept, the sweat dripping from his armpits became a man and a woman, and the sweat dripping from his feet became another man. When a lot of ice melted, the cow Audumla emerged from the resulting water. Ymir began to drink her milk, and she liked to lick the salty ice. Having licked the ice, she found a man under it, his name was Buri.
Buri had a son Boryo Bor married the frost giantess Bestla and they had three sons: Odin, Vili and Ve. The sons of the Storm hated Ymir and killed him. So much blood flowed from the body of the murdered Ymir that it drowned all the giants except Bergelmir, the grandson of Ymir, and his wife. They managed to escape the flood in a boat made from a tree trunk.
Odin and his brothers brought Ymir's body to the center of Ginungagapa and created a world from it. From Ymir's flesh they made the earth, from his blood - the ocean. From the skull they made the sky. And the brain was scattered into the sky, resulting in clouds.
The gods ignored only the part where the giants lived. It was called Etunheim. They fenced off the best part of this world with Ymir's eyelashes and settled people there, calling it Midgard.
Finally, the gods created people. From two tree knots a man and a woman, Ask and Emblya, emerged. All other people descended from them.
The last to be built was the impregnable fortress of Asgard, which rose high above Midgard. These two parts were connected by the rainbow bridge Bifrost. Among the gods, patrons of people, there were 12 gods and 14 goddesses (they were called Ases), as well as a whole company of other smaller deities (Vanir). This entire host of gods crossed the rainbow bridge and settled in Asgard.
The ash tree Yggdrasil grew above this multi-layered world. Its roots sprouted into Asgard, Jotunheim and Niflheim. An eagle and a hawk sat on the branches of Yggdrasil, a squirrel rushed up and down the trunk, deer lived at the roots, and below all sat the snake Nidhogg, who wanted to eat everything. Yggdrasil is what has always been, is and will be.

Greeks.

At the beginning of everything there was formless, dimensionless Chaos, then Gaia (Earth) appeared with Tartarus (the abyss) lying deep in its depths and the eternal force of attraction that existed long before them - Eros. The Greeks called the god of love, who accompanied the goddess of love Aphrodite, by the same name, but Eros, who stood at the beginning of the universe, excludes any feeling. Eros can be compared to the force of universal gravity - it is like a law. This force set Chaos and the Earth in motion. Chaos produces feminine- Night and masculinity - Erebus (Darkness). The night gave birth to Tanat (Death), Sleep (Hypnos), a huge number of dreams, goddesses of fate - Moira, the goddess of retribution Nemesis, Deception, Old Age. The creation of the Night was also Eris, who embodied rivalry and strife, from which came Exhausting work, Hunger, Sorrows, Battles, Murders, Lying words, Litigation and Lawlessness, but also the inflexibly fair Orc, punishing anyone who takes a false oath. And from the connection of Night with Erebus, transparent Ether and shining Day were born - Light from Darkness!
According to the myth about the origin of the world, after this Gaia awakened: first Uranus (Sky) was born from her, then Mountains rose from her depths, their wooded slopes were filled with the nymphs she gave birth to, and Pontus (Sea) spilled over the plains. The covering of the Earth by Heaven led to the appearance of the first generation of gods - there were twelve of them: six brothers and six sisters, powerful and beautiful. They were not the only children from the union of Gaia and Uranus. Gaia also gave birth to three huge, ugly Cyclops with a large round eye in the middle of the forehead, and after them three more arrogant Hundred-Handed Giants. The Titans, having taken their sisters as wives, filled the expanses of Mother Earth and Father Sky with their offspring: they gave rise to a tribe of gods of the most ancient generation. The eldest of them, Oceanus, had three thousand daughters, beautiful-haired oceanids, and the same number of river streams that covered the entire land. Another pair of Titans produced Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon), Eos (Dawn) and numerous Stars. The third pair gave rise to the winds Boreas, Not and Zephyr. The Titan Iapetus could not boast of as abundant offspring as his older brothers, but he became famous for his few, but great sons: Atlas, who took on his shoulders the heavy burden of the firmament, and Prometheus, the noblest of the Titans.
The youngest son of Gaia and Uranus was Cronus, impudent and impatient. He did not want to endure either the arrogant patronage of his older brothers or the power of his own father. Perhaps he would not have dared to raise his hand against him, encroaching on the supreme power, if not for Gay’s mother. She shared with her matured son her long-standing resentment against her husband: he hated Uranus for the ugliness of his sons - the Hundred-Handed Giants - and imprisoned them in her dark depths. Cronus, under the protection of Nikta and with the help of his mother Gaia, seized his father's power. Taking his sister Rhea as his wife, Cron laid the foundation for a new tribe, to which people gave the name of the gods. However, the insidious Kron was afraid of his offspring, because he himself raised his hand against his father, and, so that no one would deprive him of power, he began to swallow his own children immediately after their birth. Rhea complained bitterly about her sad fate to Gaia and received advice from her on how to save another baby. When the child was born, Gaia herself hid him in one of the inaccessible caves, and Rhea gave the swaddled stone to her husband.
Meanwhile, Zeus (as the mother named the rescued baby) grew up in a hidden cave on the slopes of wooded Ida, the highest mountain on the island of Crete. He was guarded there by the young men of the Curetes and Corybantes, drowning out the children's cries with the blows of copper shields and the rattling of weapons, and Amalthea, the noblest of goats, fed him with her milk. In gratitude for this, Zeus, who subsequently took a place on Olympus, constantly took care of her, and after death he ascended her to heaven so that she would forever shine in the constellation Auriga. It is interesting that Zeus kept the skin of his nurse for himself, making a shield from it - a sign of supreme power. This shield was called “aegis”, which in Greek meant “goat”. According to him, Zeus received one of his most common epithets - aegis-sovereign. The horn, which Amalthea accidentally broke during her earthly life, was turned into a cornucopia by the ruler of the gods and given to his daughter Eirene, the patroness of the world.
Having matured, Zeus became stronger than his father and not through cunning, like Cronus, but in a fair fight he overcame him and forced him to vomit his swallowed brothers and sisters from the womb: Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. Thus, according to the myth about the origin of the world, the end of the era of the Titans came, who by this time filled the heavenly and earthly spaces with several of their generations - the era of the gods of Olympus began.

Zoroastrians.

In the distant past, before the creation of the world, there was nothing: no heat, no light, no living creatures on earth or in heaven. In the vast space there was only one Zervan - endless eternity. It was empty and lonely, and then He had a plan to create the world. He wanted a son to be born to him. The desire was extremely great that Zervan began to perform sacrifices for a thousand years. And two sons were born in his womb - Ormuzd and Ahriman. Zervan decided that He would give his firstborn son Ormuzd power over the whole world. Ormuzd read the Father's thoughts and told Ahriman about them. However, evil was already the essence of Ahriman, and he, in order to be born first, hastily tore apart the shell of his Father and came into the world. The evil Ahriman declared to his father: “I am your son, Ormuzd.” Zervan looked at the ugly Ahriman filled with Darkness and began to sob: this was not what He was waiting for. Immediately behind Ahriman, Ormuzd appeared from the womb, emitting Light. Ahriman, thirsting for power over the world, was the younger brother, but by cunning he was the first to be born. Therefore, he boldly reminded Zervan that it was he who should rule the world, as promised. Zervan answered Ahriman: “Get lost, Evil One! I will make you king, but only for nine thousand years, but Ormuzd will have power over you, and after the end of the allotted time, the kingdom will be given to Ormuzd and He will correct everything according to His will.”
So, after the creation of the world, it was divided into two parts. The place of residence of Ormuzd, constant and limitless in time, full of omniscience and virtues, is pierced by endless light. The area subject to Ahriman, who is in darkness, ignorance and the passion of destruction, who was, is, but will not always exist, is called the Abyss. Between the Light and the Dark Abyss there was a void in which endless light and endless darkness were mixed. Ormuzd began the creation of a perfect world by shedding a particle of his pure light into the abyss that separated him from Ahriman. But Ahriman rose from the Darkness, as predicted. The insidious younger brother, who did not possess omniscience, did not know about the existence of Ormuzd, and was so enraged by what he saw of the creation of the world that he declared war on the entire Creation. Ormuzd tried to convince Ahriman that there was no benefit from such a war, and He did not hold any grudge against his brother. However, Ahriman did not listen, because he decided: “If the Omniscient Ormuzd is trying to resolve the matter peacefully, then He is powerless.” Ahriman did not know that he was not able to harm his brother, but could only harm existence - only the Omniscient Ormuzd knew about this.
The brothers are allotted nine thousand years from the beginning of the creation of the world: the first three thousand years events will take place according to the will of Ormuzd, the next three thousand years - the wills of Ormuzd and Ahriman will mix, and in the last three thousand years the evil Ahriman will be weakened and their confrontation over Creation will cease . Ormuzd showed Ahriman his victory at the end of history: powerlessness Evil spirit and the destruction of the divas, resurrection of the dead, the final incarnation and future tranquility of creation forever. And Ahriman fled in fear back into the Darkness. And although he fled, he continued the mad struggle against Creation - he created divas and demons who rose to intimidate. The first thing Ahriman created was a lie that undermines the world. Ormuzd created for himself eternal immortal companions: Good Thought, Truth, Obedience, Devotion, Integrity and Immortality. Then He created beautiful angels who became messengers of Ormuzd and protectors of good. Ormuzd continued the creation of the world: He created Heaven and Earth, and between them he created light, stars, the moon and the sun. The Omniscient determined places for everyone so that they would always be ready to fight evil and be saved.

Arikara Indians.

The Great Heavenly Spirit, Nesaru, sometimes called the Great Mystery, was the ruler of all creation. Under the sky stretched a boundless sea, on which two ducks always swam. Nesaru created two brothers, the Wolf Man and the Happy Man, who commanded the ducks to dive to the bottom of the great sea and bring back some earth. From this land the Wolf Man created the Great Plains, and Happy man- hills and mountains.
Two brothers went underground and found two spiders. They explained to spiders how to reproduce. The two spiders gave birth to many species of animals and plants, as well as humans. They also gave birth to a race of evil giants.
These giants were so evil that Nesar was eventually forced to destroy them by sending a great flood. Nesaru loved people and saved them from death.

Huron Indians.

At first there was nothing but water. Just a wide, wide sea. Its only inhabitants were animals. They lived on the water, under the water, or flew through the air.
Then a woman fell from the sky.
Two Arctic loons flew past and managed to catch her on their wings. However, the burden was too heavy. The loons were afraid that they would drop the woman and she would drown. They called out loudly for help. All the creatures flew and swam to their call.
Great Sea turtle said:
- Put the celestial woman on my back. It won't get anywhere off my broad back.
The loons did just that.
Then the council of animals began to think about what to do next. The wise Sea Turtle said that a woman needs land to live.
All the animals took turns diving to the bottom of the sea, but no one ever reached the bottom. Finally, the Toad dived. It took a long time before she appeared again and brought a handful of earth. She gave this land to the woman. The woman smoothed it out on the Turtle's back. This is how land came into being.
Over time, trees grew on it and rivers flowed.
The children of the very first woman began to live.
To this day, the earth rests on the back of the Great Sea Turtle.

Mayan Indians.

A long time ago there were no people, no animals, no stones, no trees on earth. There was nothing. It was an endless and sad plain covered with waters. The deities Tepev, Kukumats and Huracan lived in the twilight silence. They got to talking and came to an agreement about what needed to be done.
They kindled a light that illuminated the earth for the first time. The sea receded, revealing land that could be farmed and on which flowers and trees bloomed. A wonderful fragrance rose to the sky from the newly created forests.
The gods rejoiced at their creations. However, they thought that the trees should not be left without servants and guardians. Then they placed animals of all kinds on the branches and near the trunks. The animals remained motionless until the gods ordered each of them: - You will go drink water from the rivers. You will go to sleep in a cave. You will walk on four legs, and one day your back will experience the weight of the loads you carry. And you, bird, will live in the branches and fly through the air, without fear of falling.
The animals obeyed orders. The gods thought that all living beings should be placed in their natural environment, but should not live in silence, since silence is synonymous with devastation and death. Then they gave them votes. But the animals could only scream, unable to say a single sensible word.
The distressed gods consulted and turned to the animals: - Since you failed to understand who we are, you will forever live in fear of others. Some of you will devour others without any disgust.
Hearing these words, the animals tried to speak. However, only screams came out of their throats and mouths. The animals submitted and accepted the sentence: soon they began to be persecuted and sacrificed, their meat was boiled and they were eaten by much more intelligent creatures that were to be born.

source vision7.ru

The world egg and the birth of the world.

The ancient Slavs had several legends about where the world and its inhabitants came from. Many peoples (ancient Greeks, Iranians, Chinese) had myths that the world arose from an egg. Similar legends and tales can be found among the Slavs. In the Tale of the Three Kingdoms, the hero goes in search of three princesses in the underworld. First he finds himself in the copper kingdom, then in the silver and gold. Each princess gives the hero an egg, which he, in turn, rolls into and encloses each kingdom. Having emerged into the white light, he throws the eggs onto the ground and unfolds all three kingdoms.

One of the ancient legends says: “In the beginning, when there was nothing in the world but the boundless sea, a duck, flying over it, dropped an egg into the watery abyss. The egg split, and from its lower part the mother earth came out, and from the upper part arose the high vault of heaven.”

Another legend connects the appearance of the world with the hero’s duel with the serpent who guarded the golden egg. The hero killed the serpent, split the egg - three kingdoms emerged from it: heavenly, earthly and underground.

And here is how the Carpathian Slavs talked about the birth of the world:

When the world began, Then there was neither sky nor earth, only the blue sea, And in the middle of the sea there was a tall oak tree, Two wondrous doves sat on the oak tree, They began to think about how to establish the world? We will go down to the bottom of the sea, We will take out the fine sand, The fine sand, the golden stone. We will sow fine sand, we will blow the golden stone. From the fine sand there is black earth, the water is cold, the grass is green. From the golden stone there is a blue sky, Blue sky, bright sun, The month and all the stars are clear.

God creates the sky and the sea (tales of Russian peasants).

Pagan ideas about the beginning of the world after the adoption of Christianity were strongly influenced by the new religion. Christianity gave a more harmonious picture of creation. Popular interpretation Christian myth is found in many legends. Here's one of them.

Before the creation of the world, the bright God sat in the air, and the light from his face was seventy times brighter than daylight, and his clothes were whiter than snow, more luminous than the sun. There was then no sky, no earth, no sea, no clouds, no stars, no days, no nights. And God said: let there be a crystal sky, and dawn, and stars. And the wind blew from its bosom, and sat in the east in the beauty of its glory, and the thunder settled in an iron chariot. Then God looked down at the earth from above and saw that everything below was formless and empty. He thought about how best to organize the earth, and from those thoughts of God the dark nights arose, and from those thoughts of God clouds and fogs arose. Rain clouds formed from the clouds and it began to rain. It poured until the blue sea spilled below.

God and Satan create the earth. But popular ideas were influenced not only by biblical stories, but also by heretical books banned by the church, in which the world was created not only by God, but also by Satan. The idea that there is a constant struggle between good and evil (God and Satan) in the world was close and understandable to the people's worldview. This is how they told about the creation of the earth in the Russian North.

God descended to the sea through the air and swam in it as a white eggnog until he met Satan, who swam as a black eggnog. They decided to raise the earth from the bottom of the sea. God ordered Satan:

- Dive to the bottom of the sea and pull out a few grains of earth with the words “In the name of the Lord, follow me, O earth,” and bring it up to me.

But the Evil One cheated and wanted to make dry land only for himself, and did not mention the name of God. He dived into the abyss, and when he emerged, it turned out that he did not have a grain of sand in his hands. I dived another time - and again failure.

Then he prayed to God for help, and God helped him. Satan took out a handful of earth from the bottom. From that handful, God created level places and fields, and the devil made impassable abysses, gorges and high mountains. Here's how it happened:

When Satan, at the command of God, took out the earth from the bottom of the sea, he did not give it all to God, he hid a little behind his cheek. When God commanded the earth, which he threw on the surface of the sea, to grow, the earth began to grow behind Satan’s cheek. He began to spit it out, and Satan’s spittle created mountains, swamps and other barren places.

What does the earth rest on? Having created the earth, God strengthened it on a fish that swims in the sea. Every seven years the fish rises and falls, causing some years to be rainy and others to be dry. When a fish turns over on its other side, earthquakes occur.

They also say that the earth rests on “high water,” the water on a stone, the stone on four golden whales floating in a river of fire. And everything together rests on an iron oak, which stands on the power of God.

Here's how the Serbian legend says it:

What holds the earth? — The water is high. What holds water? — The stone is flat. What does the stone hold? — Four golden whales. What keeps the whales alive? - River of fire. What keeps the fire going? - Iron oak, It was the first planted, Its root stands on the power of God.

World tree.The Slavs imagined the whole world in the form of a huge oak tree - the World Tree, on which all living things were located. The branches of the tree went into the sky, the roots went underground. At the top stood the sun, moon and stars. Birds lived in the branches. Snakes and other inhabitants of the underground kingdom lived under the roots of the tree. A tree shedding its leaves and coming to life again personified the eternal cycle of life and death.

The creation of man.

Almost all Slavic legends about the origin of man go back to the biblical story of how God created man from clay, from earth, from dust. True, here too the biblical story is supplemented by a plot about Satan’s participation in this matter. Most often it was said that the Evil One created the human body, and God put the soul into it.

The Old Russian chronicle tells how the pagan Magi told about the creation of people:

God washed himself in the bathhouse and sweated, wiped himself with a rag (rag) and threw it from heaven to earth. And Satan argued with God over who should create a man from her. And the devil created man, and God put his soul into him. Therefore, when a person dies, his body goes to the earth, and his soul goes to God.

The Slavs also have an ancient legend about the creation of people from eggs. God, cutting the eggs into halves, threw them on the ground. Here, from one half a man was obtained, and from the other, a woman. Men and women, formed from the halves of one egg, find each other and marry. Some halves fell into the swamp and died there. Therefore, their other halves cannot find a mate and spend their lives alone.

Creation of animals.

According to Russian folk legends, God and Satan took part in the creation of most animals, as well as humans. This is how, for example, they talk about the creation of a dog.

God created the dog from the remains of the clay that remained from the creation of man. At first the dog was without hair, so when God left it to guard the newly formed first people, it froze, curled up and fell asleep. Satan crept up to the people and spat on them. When God, seeing the people spat upon, began to reproach the dog, she said: “Well, I’m frozen. Give me wool, then I will be a faithful watchman.” And God gave the dog wool. According to another legend, it was Satan who gave the dog fur in exchange for the opportunity to approach the first people.

The Slavs considered mice, hares, crows, kites, as well as night birds - owls, owls, and eagle owls - to be unclean animals created by the devil. The “birds of God” were the dove, swallow, nightingale, lark, and stork.

And here is the bear Eastern Slavs was considered a pure animal, originating from God, a kind of double of man. It is possible that such an idea has been preserved from the times when the bear was one of the incarnations of the pagan Veles.

The Evens (one of the northern peoples) created such a myth. There lived two brothers, and around them there was only water. One day the younger brother dived very deep, took out some earth from the bottom and put it on the surface of the water. Then he lay down on the ground and fell asleep.

Then the older brother began to pull the earth out from under the younger brother and stretched it so much that it covered most of the water. There is a similar myth about the creation of the earth in the American Indians.

They believed that the loon bird (a very beautiful shiny black bird with white longitudinal spots) caught the land from the World Ocean. The Indians of another tribe developed the following myth about the appearance of dry land: a beaver, a muskrat, an otter and a turtle lived on the surface of the World Ocean. One day the muskrat dived, took out a handful of earth and put it on the turtle's shell. Gradually this handful grew and formed the earth.

Chinese and Scandinavian myths say that the earth arose from the egg of the World Ocean. The egg split and one half became the earth and the other half became the sky.

Hindus have long revered Brahma, the creator of the Universe.

Bible (from the gr. “Books”) - collection works VIII V. BC e. - II centuries. n. e., containing myths about the creation of the world, historical narratives, and a record of ethical standards.

The peoples of the Caucasus believed that the earth and all life on it appeared after a huge white bird flew in.

The Bible says that on the first day God separated light from darkness, on the second day he created the heavens, and on the third day he created the earth.

“And God said: Let the waters that are under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it became so... And God called the dry land earth, and the collection of waters he called seas... And God said: let the earth grow greenery, grass... trees... And it became so.”

In Armenian mythology you can find a legend about where the Ararat and Taurus mountains came from. They lived on earth to take gigantic sizes. Every morning, as soon as they woke up, the brothers tightened their belts and greeted each other. They did this all their lives, but in old age their strength waned and it became difficult for them to get up early and tighten their belts. Then they decided to just say hello to each other. God became angry when he saw this and turned the brothers into mountains, their belts into green valleys, and their tears into crystal clear springs.