Cosmic Creation Myths Across Cultures 1

Cosmic Creation Myths Across Cultures

Billy Mondragon

HUM/105 - WORLD MYTHOLOGY

Instructor: HILARY DIETZ

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Two creation myths take place across miles and miles of physical geographical distance.

The aboriginal creation myth and the Navajo creation myth occur on separate continents at a time

in history when they couldn’t have communicated. Surprisingly, the myths do have commonalities.

A creator, light, darkness, animals, hunger, flooding and renewal are among them. How could they

be similar? The answer is obviously not in the vast distance. Perhaps the answer lies in the cortex

of the human brain, the brain’s interpretation of the world around it. The brain is a powerful muscle

that seeks to make connections. The creation myth is in fact a creation of the human mind the

connection of man to the universe is the very nature of the creation myth.

The worlds represented in the aboriginal creation myth are earth, sky, light and dark. Earth

is represented in the myth by a pole that reaches in to the sky and the ground that he rest his head

on. Sky is represented by the sun and the area above the pole. Initially when the man lays down

the world is shrouded in darkness but as he begins to create the sun and light make its presence

known. In the Navajo creation myth the first world is dark like the aboriginal one but in this the

creator attempts to make the world more appealing by creating mountains before attempting to

move on to other worlds through the sky. The second world is in habited by the cat people and

there is constant struggle between the two races so they move on again to the light world. This

world is the most beautiful and where the creator first begins to create other animals until they are

forced to move again which brings the first people to the fourth world the one presently inhabited

(Distant train, 2011).

The creator is a male dreamer whose dreams become reality to fulfill his needs. When the

creator has off spring they go unchecked and hunt all the animals the creator envisioned to

extinction, then going hungry they injure or “maim” another person who then becomes another

animal type. The creator continues doubling the amount of sons he has daily and sends them out
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ever further to find food. This last until he dreams of a flood and wakes with everything he

created being washed into the earth. In the Navajo myth the primary creator is male he does

however have female animal and spirit companions accompanying him. The coyote is a trickster

and leads to the destruction of the 3rd world through flooding.

In the aboriginal myth the sun provided fire for the creator to cook and eat with while the

flood washed everything away and let the cycle begin anew. In the Navajo creation myth they

were leaving the darkness to seek light and then they were forced out of a perfect world by a

flood into a world that was “almost as good or beautiful”.

In both creation myths the creators were male however in the aboriginal myth his progeny seemed

destructive much like the coyote in the Navajo creation myth who was responsible for destruction of the

3rd world. The aboriginal myth only takes place in one world however where the Navajo myth cross four.

Creation myths show what is meaningful and profound to the culture at the time the myth is

created often times giving piece of mind and answering question they may not have the means to

understand at the time. They can also help guide society and culture along moral frameworks to

establish right and wrong.

The creation myth is much more than just a story. It reveals volumes about a culture and

the norms and morays that a given culture values. Hunting is a significant part of both the

aboriginal and the Navajo culture. It is represented in the creation myths of both cultures. In

both myths a flood makes room for renewal. The male valued in both of these cultures which is

reflected in the male being the creator in both myths. While the creation myth does entertain and

help mankind to explain the world around him, creation myths serve the double purpose of being

the exemplification of expected societal behaviors. In the aboriginal myth, unchecked hunting

leads to devastation. In the Navajo myth the creator is accompanied by other spirits, perhaps a
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representation of the expectation of tribal unity. Much has been and still can be learned from the

analysis of these myths.

References
Distant train. (2011). The big myth [Multimedia]. Retrieved from Distant train, HUM105 World

Mythology website.