Beyond Reality: 5 Common Themes in World Mythologies
Across the world we have different myths and legends from the elephant god Ganesha to the Maya Jaguar gods to different types of angels, goblins, and fairy like figures that have different names, but common elements.
Every culture has something unique to offer and there are so many parallels if not similarities that make us wonder how cultures with so little contact had such similarities.
Out of The Darkness Everything Came
It is a natural question for early humans to ponder - How was the world created? How did we come into being? Why are we alive? How did everything begin and come to be?
Creation myths involving the world being created out of pitch darkness are found universally in Egypt, Hinduism, and China etc. In the Hebrew Bible, it began as nothing and God said “Let there be light” and this built the universe, earth etc.
In ancient China they believed that Pangu, a primordial horned hairy deity created the universe, earth and heavens etc. over a span of 18,000 years.
Early creation has human-like figures, or animals, who often are capable of speech and transformation and bend laws of physics and reality, such as the biblical talking snake and the apple in the Garden of Eden.
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, they call it ‘Dreamtime’ and the Rainbow Serpent is the creator figure here.
Australian Aboriginal rock painting of "The Rainbow Serpent". (Digitaltribes at English Wikipedia/CC BY 2.5)
In Ojibwe mythology from North America, a porcupine places sharp twigs on his back so a bear can’t eat him and in future, his descendants all have quills.
The creation myths represent an era where the laws of physics were more ‘fluid’ and time and space could be transcended more easily. They are very surreal.
War Among Deities, Where One Group Bests the Other
Often cultures have a myth in which a group of often younger, more innovative deities beats an older class of deities, who later come to represent primeval elements such as time space and chaos.
Ancient Greeks believe that the Gods overthrew the Titans. Cronus was the father of the next generation of gods, including Zeus that took over in a coup.
Statue of the god Mithras killing a bull in the thermal’s mithraeum in archaeological excavations of Ostia Antica – Rome. (Equatore /Adobe Stock)
Vedic Hindu mythology has the Asuras vs the Devas. The Asuras win.
Norse mythology similarly has the Aesir vs the Vanir. Odin and his brothers then beat the Vanir to take the helm.
Among the Celtic gods, the Tuatha De Danann overcome the Fomorians.
It is a recurring theme across the world - ancient people had a belief that the ongoing replaces something old and you must progress lest you be replaced by something more innovative.
The Bible also has a war in heaven, and, in a different light, God wins and wasn’t overthrown by Satan and the ‘fallen angels’ but rather expels them.
- 10 of the Wildest Creation Myths in History
- 10 Supernatural Powers from the Deities of World Mythology
First Man
A common theme is when deities create the first man and woman. Often they have a legacy and all humans descend from them. We can wonder why deities do not create many at once. Why is it always a single breeding pair?
There is Adam and Eve in the Hebrew Bible as well as Fu Xi and Nu Wa in Chinese myth, Manu and Shatarupa in Hindu mythology.
Fuxi y Nuwa, creators of humanity, generally depicted intertwined. (Public Domain)
Often these first couples had a more direct link to the deity and could communicate with them more readily in the same creation era when the laws of science weren’t as they are in our lifetime: like a talking snake in the Garden of Eden and, an apple giving Adam immense knowledge.
Flood Myth
The flood myth is a common legend theme, whereby a great flood is sent by a god or gods and destroys the world, often in an act of punishment or world cleansing.
It acts almost like a great ‘reset’ or ‘reboot’ to recreate the world after a series of human failures.
In the Genesis mythology of the Hebrew Bible, God decides to flood the Earth because of the of the sinful nature of mankind. And so we have the legendary Noah’s Ark. Noah took a pair of every animal and the descendants are part of this great reset. The next generation to walk on Earth were his descendants.
One well known world mythology is the Flood. A painting of “The Great Flood), by Lesser-Ury (1861-1931), depicts the “horror” of what the deluge of the Bible might have looked like. (Center for Jewish History, NYC / Wikimedia Commons)
The Hindu myth of Manu, is similar to that of Noah’s story, as is the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Mesopotamian flood stories, and Deucalion’s story in Greek mythology, among others.
In ancient Egyptian Mythology, the sun God Ra sent a flood of blood, and it was celebrated in wine festivals.
While Noah and Deucalion were not the first men, they became the progenitors of the humans who survived the purge and came afterwards, in other words, the most recent common ancestor of humans.
Australian Aborigines have many myths, and 300 generations could faithfully tell stories that hardly changed and are now backed by scientific study. This ability for tribes so far apart and with no contact to be able to tell stories that matched up is beyond remarkable. Some tribes have legends of mountain tops they fled to in these times and can even locate the exact mountains after so many generations, showing a culture of oral traditions with high accuracy.
The fact that we constantly find fish fossils inland, as far as Wyoming and near Mount Everest goes some way to reinforce such mythologies.
Sacred Mountain
There is something about the tallest mountain being the most holy place. It is home to gods or something else divine.
This probably comes from human beings’ intrigue of something so high up, and in a presumption it is set closer to heaven than where we live.
Mount Olympus in Greece was home of their Pantheon. Mount Kailash in Hindu stories is home of Shiva. Mount Fuji in Japan plays a similar role as does Uluru in Australia. Croagh Patrick in Ireland is where Catholics do a pilgrimage for St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland - today he is more commonly known because his name is associated with a drinking festival in the West.
The holy mountain Croagh Patrick, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland. Thousands of pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick in honor of Saint Patrick. (Public Domain)
And as far away as Kenya, Mount Meru, Kilimanjaro, Kwitutu or Mfangano Island in Kenya, every tribe in this country has its sacred mountain.
In Sri Lanka, Adam’s Peak (known as Sri Pada to locals) is sacred to 4 different faiths probably making it the most sacred mountain in history. The petrosomatoglyph resembles a footprint imprinted in the rock is reported to be either Shiva, Buddha St Thomas or Adam’s for the 4 religions of this nation: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.
It is not surprising that many peaks now serve as the site for pilgrimages. If you browse through history, you will many peaks formed a primary part of world religions.
Dragons of World Mythologies
Many global mythologies feature dragons: They represent the traits of all the apex predators combined: big cats, snakes and birds of prey. Plus, dragons are much larger and breathe fire - another element which humans fear and revere simultaneously.
Xiuhcoatl, Fire Creature. (British Museum/CC BY-SA 4.0)
Many cultures have a belief in this creature and it’s variants from Europe to China to Xiuhcoatl in Aztec mythology in the Americas. Even across the ocean, New Zealand Maori have a mythic dragon or taniwha but it’s probably more portrayed as a hybrid of sharks, tuataras, snakes and birds of prey - since there are no big cats native to this country and New Zealand has water snakes, so it is aquatic in some myths.
So next time you are wondering about myths in your own heritage or watching a movie set in ancient times where elements of cultures play in, you have a lot to think about how different legends have had so many parallels for eons throughout human history.
Top image: Ancient World mythologies. Source: filmmaster/Adobe Stock
By Avi Kumar
Comments
Uluru wasn't particularly sacred. It has been granted sacred status by a disingenuous media and activist lobbying, such that the historical truth as it used to be is no longer recognised.
The same applies to religious truth. There is a concerted effort to tear down Christianity, from without and within, and to raise up the false to equal status.