Africa (Boshongo-Bantu): Bumba’s Creation
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Cosmic Myths
Part 1: Creation Stories
Part 2: Flood Stories
Part 3: Apocalypse Stories
Part 4: The Afterlife
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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
Part 2: Cosmic Myths: Flood Stories
Flood stories are the cleansing rituals, sacrifices: often are the result of humankinds’ fall from grace
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Flood as cleanser and renewal is appropriate since most creation myths use water as the source of creation
Floods represent a rebirth or a renewal
Archetypal motif: the productive sacrifice
The Flood Myth Analysis
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
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Utnapishtim, in the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic, survivor of a mythological flood whom Gilgamesh consults about the secret of immortality. Utnapishtim was the only man to escape death, since, having preserved human and animal life in the great boat he built, he and his wife were deified by the god Enlil. Utnapishtim directed Gilgamesh to a plant that would renew his youth, but the hero failed to return with it to his home city. See Noah; Ziusudra.
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Flood Myths Function of Myth: Sociological
Some myths use floods as a way to sweep away the evil and keep the good. Flood myths can serve as cautionary tales to make humans obey the laws of the gods
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Flood Myths: Functions of Myth Cosmological and Mystical
“The deluge cleanses and gives birth to new forms even as it destroys the old. It is the breaking of the eternal waters of the great mother, the destructive mother who, whether her name is Kali or Demeter, sweeps away the old life but preserves the germ of a new beginning”(Leeming 43).
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Flood Myths
Noah (Old Testament), Utnapishtim (Babylon), and Manu (India)
are the heroes of flood myths who are spared and are reborn in the womb of the Great Mother
Fun Fact: all three heroes built arcs
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Flood Myths
“The flood myth, like the myths of the destroyer-mother herself, reminds us that life depends on death, that without death there can be no cycle, no birth” (43).
A few cultures with Flood Myths include:
Iran (Zoroastrian): Yima
Egypt: Hathor, Blood, and Beer
China: Yu
Greece/Rome: Deucalion and Pyrrha
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The Flood Myths Function of Myth: Psychological
In psychological terms, the flood myth, like the story of the hero’s descent into the underworld, can be seen as a metaphor for the individual's necessary time in the dark world of the unconscious before the rebirth that is the achievement of individuation.
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Flood Myths (Psychological Function of Myth continued)
Rituals of purification by water are microcosmic versions of the Deluge:
Baptisms cleanses the sinner and the individual is reborn: As in the hero stories, the hero descends into the underworld to confront death and is reborn
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Flood Myths Functions of Myth
All 4 functions can be applied to the flood myths:
Mystical: gods intervene and create changes
Cosmological: after the gods destroy, new beginnings are created
Sociological: The gods are angry because the people are breaking all the laws; they must be punished
Psychological: The idea of a flood can create a rebirth or renewal for the human consciousness
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Part 3: Cosmic Myths: Apocalpyse Stories:
Apocalypse stories represent the immortality of human consciousness against the background of universal physical decay.
Asian + Ragnorok West The big 3
Apocalypse stories often reflect the fight between heaven and hell, reward and punishment
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Part 3: Cosmic Myths: The Apocalypse Stories
Apocalypse myths are common in human culture. People are fascinated with the idea of a catastrophic end to the world.
An apocalypse ends an old world order and allows the emergence of a new world order
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The Apocalypse
Apocalyptic stories are filled with symbolism and fantasy; they are visionary and prophetic, and often times they contain strange beasts and a resurrection of the dead
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The Apocalypse
Most apocalyptic stories center around a higher being(s) ending the failure of humanity
In some cases, the righteous will be allowed to survive, but usually in a non-worldly state
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The Apocalypse, continued
The apocalypse motif is closely related to the flood archetype: they are both ritual cleansing of cosmic proportions; a large-scale expression of the human fascination with the death and resurrection process.
Psychologically, it speaks to a need to confront reality, to make ultimate decisions.
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The Apocalypse, continued
Armageddon: much of the Christian view of the apocalypse is related to the Persian Zoroastrian Day of Judgment and Old Testament prophets.
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The Apocalypse, continued
In the Asian view, the end of the world is just part of the cycle of life: birth to death to birth to death. It places less emphasis on human failings justly punished, and more on the rhythm of the universe itself.
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The Apocalypse
Existence for the Hindu is a cosmic breathing, with creation and apocalypse endlessly repeating themselves. Your next life depends on your karma in this life.
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The Apocalypse
Apocalyptic imagery is very much a part of the way we see reality today. The recent experience of genocidal holocaust, and the ever-present threat of a nuclear one bring the myth all too close to home………
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The Apocalypse
……………………and science itself teaches an eventual descent into “heat death” before Earth returns, as all systems eventually must, to a natural state of entropic equilibrium or no-thing-ness.
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Bibliography
Long,Charles. Alpha: The Myths of Creation.
Leeming, David. The World of Myth.
Google images, bing images
https://list25.com/25-creation-stories-from-around-the-world/
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