Copyright 1995 by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. creation accounts Creation refers to the act or acts by which the world came into existence. Since earliest times, almost all societies have conceived one or more accounts of creation; these narratives, either oral or written, constitute a major theme in MYTHOLOGY. Insofar as the creation myth describes the beginning of the world order (the cosmos), it serves as the archetype for all other myths within a given culture. In a philosophical sense, the creation myth expresses the ontological foundations of culture (see METAPHYSICS). For an outline of the development of scientific ideas concerning the origin of the cosmos, see COSMOLOGY. MYTHS OF CREATION Creation myths, also sometimes called cosmogonic myths, have been classified in various ways. They are sometimes classified geographically (for example, creation myths of Australia, Africa, or South America) or in terms of their cultural-historical context; by this method, myths of hunter-gatherer societies, of simple and advanced agriculturalists, or of cultures with urban traditions would be classified together. Creation myths have also been classified on the basis of a common linguistic and ideological orientation, as in the pioneering classification by the French philologist George Dumezil (1898- ), based on Indo-European languages and cultures. In recent studies, creation myths are often classified on the basis of a dominant motif or underlying structure such as myths that emphasize creation from nothing, myths of a cosmic egg, myths of emergence from the earth, or myths of world parents. Creator Deity. Virtually all creation myths emphasize the power of a creator deity. This power is usually spoken of in an ultimate sense, for it is the power that has brought the cosmos itself into existence. As such, it is the power within and behind all the discrete forms of the world. It is furthermore the power that is able to bring forth new beings, and thus creator deities are sources of fertility and fecundity. The creation myths of hunter-gatherer peoples are filled with symbols of the sky, landscape, and animals. In one example, creation is attributed to the activities of the sun and moon which, because they are too close together, divide the heavens between them and thus create day and night. Such symbolism of "up thereness" reflects a mode of transcendent religious orientation basic to many of these nomadic societies, expressing both the origin and status of their being. Among the Mbuti PYGMIES of the Ituri forest in Zaire, there is a creator god (the Father or Grandfather) who is superior to the deities of the hunt or other deities manifested in sky symbolism. In one of their myths it is stated that after the Father created the world and human beings, he lived among the humans on earth. During this period there was no trouble or strife in the world, animals were friendly, and human existence was paradisiacal. After an act of disobedience by the humans, the world turned against them, animals and plants became enemies, and the deity Father departed from them back into the sky. Humans then began to search for the deity who had departed. They thought that they had rediscovered the deity in the moon but found the moon to be only a mask of their god. The Pygmies identify the forest in which they now live as an archetype of their former paradise. In the creation myth of the SAN (Bushmen) of the Kalahari Desert, another hunter-gatherer culture of Africa, the supreme being, called Cagn, is symbolized by an insect (the mantis), who created all the animals and assigned colors and names to them. Cagn is said to dwell wherever antelope herds graze, and the eland is said to be Cagn's first-born. Because of this close relationship, Cagn is also a lord and protector of animals. Emergence From the Earth. In many creation myths the manifestation of the power to create is expressed in the form of the earth mother. The earth is seen as a source of latent powers that bring forth new creation. In a creation myth of the NAVAJO Indians of North America, embryonic beings within the earth undergo a gradual metamorphosis as they pass upward through stages--each is identified with a direction and a color--until they emerge as humans on the face of the earth. The Australian ABORIGINES refer to a creative period before the actual creation of the world as the Alcheringa, the time of the Dreaming. Among the aboriginal ARANDA people, the earth was believed to be desolate during the period of the Dreaming, while beneath the earth, the moon and the sun and a multitude of uncreated supernatural beings slumbered. At a certain moment marking the beginning of creation, these supernatural beings awoke from their sleep and broke through the surface of the earth. The sun also came forth from underneath the earth giving light and warmth to these new emergents. Some of these beings rose up in animal forms, others as men and women, and others as plants. World Parents. In other creation myths, the primary forms are symbolized by world parents who form a primordial unity. In some cases offspring initially have no separate identity, as in the Babylonian creation epic, ENUMA ELISH, or in the Polynesian myth of Rangi and Papa. At some moment in the narrative, tensions or even open warfare break out between the offspring and the parents. In the Enuma Elish, the parents are defeated in the war between the generations, and the earth forms from the mutilated body of the primeval mother. The Cosmic Egg. The cosmic egg is another widespread primordial symbol of creation. In almost every form of the egg symbol, two elements are involved: the egg as a symbol of fertility, and the egg as a symbol of perfection. In the myths of the Near East and China, the cosmic egg is brought forth not by an egg-laying life-giver in animal shape but by the spontaneous action of the creator or primordial being. This implies that the egg symbolism is not simply a projection of natural forms on the cosmos, but is in fact a kind of philosophical reflection. Other round or ovoid shapes related to the egg, such as coconuts and calabashes, often serve the same function as eggs in cosmological accounts. A story in PLATO's Symposium relates that the first beings were round entities. Their perfection and strength caused the gods to fear their power. Thus, ZEUS cut the creatures in half; each half then sought its other half in order to restore the lost unity. A similar theme appears in the myth of creation from a cosmic egg narrated by the West African DOGON people. The cosmic egg originally contained twins who were to become perfect androgynous beings. Because one of the twins broke out of the egg prematurely and this plan was thwarted, humans were forced to live with the imperfection of two sexes; males and females come together in sexual union in imitation of the archetype of perfection of the original creation. Creatio Ex Nihilo. The notion that creation came from nothing (creatio ex nihilo) appears in several accounts of creation. The biblical story of creation contained in the Book of GENESIS begins with a formless, watery chaos that God shapes into the ordered world. The hymn of creation from India's epic Rig Veda (see VEDAS) describes the primordial situation as one of neither existence nor nonexistence and further states that no one, not even the gods, knows who produced the universe. In marked contrast is an Egyptian myth attributing creation to the deity Khepri. In this myth Khepri states that when he came into being, being itself came into being; all other beings were then produced from his actions and his body; but before him there was only nonbeing. Among the Polynesians, creation myths emphasize the dimensions of void space and the qualities of darkness as the primordial structures of creation. In these myths, the initial state of darkness and void in which the deity dwells is later transformed and the forms of the universe then emerge. Creation is thus predicated on a void or a nothingness--a reality totally different from any form or substance of the created order. In addition, the deities who create from nothing or emerge from this void are given a new and special kind of power; for though creators of the world, they remain distinct from it in their originative form. The Earth-diver. In a number of creation myths, an earth-diver--usually an animal, crab, fish, or tortoise--dives into the depths of water, bringing up a small amount of earth, out of which the entire universe is made. In these myths, water appears as the primordial matter of creation, although beneath the waters there is earth. Water is the symbol of the uncreated universe, a kind of pregnant chaos. In creation myths of this kind, prominent in North American Indian mythology, especially among the HURON, a marked dualism is notable in the inertia of water expressing a passive resistance to the establishment of solidity. This dualism is often further expressed within the myth by the antagonism between an older and younger brother, or a greater or lesser spirit. The creation is usually accomplished by the younger brother or the lesser spirit with the cooperation of the earth-diver. SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES The pre-Socratic philosopher THALES OF MILETUS is sometimes said to mark the transition in Western thought from mythical forms to scientific speculation about the origin of the world. Thales taught that the beginning of all things is water. This notion appears elsewhere, as in the Enuma Elish, in which Tiamat and Apsu are world parents but also water, and in the earth-diver myths, in which water is the primordium of creation. For Thales, however, water is not simply mythical--an entity or substance at the beginning; it is also logos--the principle or law of all things. The question posed by Thales, namely, how are all things water? represents a philosophical shift from pure cosmology to ontology, a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature of being and causation. From ARISTOTLE through Johannes KEPLER and Isaac NEWTON to the present, questions concerning the beginning of the universe have attracted the attention of scientists, primarily the astronomers. The emphasis on theories of causation has sometimes resulted in conflict between the scientist and the religious approaches to creation in the history of Western thought. At the present time, the BIG BANG THEORY of the origin of the universe is the cosmological model most widely accepted by astronomers. It holds that the universe began with the explosive expansion of a single, extremely condensed state of matter. A further development of this model, known as INFLATIONARY THEORY, describes the original condensed matter as arising from virtually empty space. Whether the universe will expand forever, slow to a halt, or contract again and continue to oscillate indefinitely from one big bang to the next is the subject of ongoing speculation. Another model for the origin of the universe, called the STEADY-STATE THEORY, was once considered a leading alternative to the big bang theory. According to this model, the universe has no beginning or end, and the apparent expansion of the universe is instead the continuous drifting away of matter that is continuously being created out of nothing in the realms of infinite space. The usefulness of the steady-state theory as a working model, however, has not been supported by later advances in astronomy and physics. When explained in nonmathematical language, these theories recall the language of older mythological speculations concerning creation. They are obviously different for they are based on the internal necessity of lawful activity throughout the universe and do not require epiphenomenal beings or activities. The scientific and technological communities of modern cultures are dependent on these cosmological theories; in terms of their meaning for the ethical and moral life of culture, however, they fail to present fundamental models or archetypes for human beings within the totality of cultural and historical existence. Charles H. Long Bibliography: Blacker, Carmen, and Loewe, Michael, eds., Ancient Cosmologies (1975); Craig, W. L., The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz (1980); Davies, Paul, Superforce (1984); Eliade, Mircea, Gods, Goddesses and Myths of Creation (1974); Frankfort, Henri, et al., The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946; repr. 1977); Griaule, Marcel, Conversations with Ogotemmeli (1965; repr. 1975); Guthrie, W. K. C., Orpheus and Greek Religion (1935); Handy, E. S. C., Polynesian Religion (1927); Long, C. H., Alpha: The Myths of Creation (1963; repr. 1982); Kramer, Samuel, ed., Mythologies of the Ancient World (1961); Munitz, M. K., ed., Theories of the Universe (1957); Parker, B. R., Concepts of the Cosmos (1984); Reichard, G. A., Navaho Religion, 2 vols. (1950); Trefil, J. S., The Moment of Creation (1983).