|
Introduction
<< Previous │ Next >>
Commonalities
Models and Patterns of Myths of Origin
Myths of origin can be divided into two
classes: scientific and religious. This classification is
contrived for the purpose of the present project; it may not be
conclusive. While scientific myths is seen here to include the
theory of evolution, the Big Bang and Steady State theories,
religious myths include those which derive from a people, their
world-view and belief in a deity or a plurality of deities; they
can also derive from euhemerism, that is, the divinizing of the
heroic virtues of certain mortals. (Ibid) While the scientific
can be the subject of systematic study or analysis, religious
myths are usually a model of oral narrative, having poetic
essences, often as old as the society from which they derive,
and passed from one generation to another.
The mention of “scientific myths” should not be a faut pas. For
myths in its purest nature encodes both primitive science and
ancient religion. Beyond this fact, MarCormac (Madu, 1992:80)
makes a case for scientific myth. He believes that scientific
myth is born when finality is claimed for a tentative scientific
theory. Madu himself elaborates this view further:
Because men have traditionally assumed a dichotomy between
myth and science, it might be shocking to talk of scientific
myths... Scientific explanations are known for being
falsifiable and thus temporary, but to forget these
qualities of science and assume that they are absolute and
final, is to create a myth. The dissimilarity between
religious and scientific myths is largely on the level of
content. While the former are replete with descriptions of
legendary heroes and deities, the latter are filled with
mathematical symbols and references.
(Madu, 1992:96-97)
For
the purposes of this project, I take the artistic licence to
regard the evolution theory, for instance, as a classic myth of
science. So also do I the Big Bang theory which is not only
speculative, but yet to be proved definitively by its
apologists.
From among these two major categories, the following myths have
been selected for graphic re-representation: (a) the
Judeo-Christian Myth (b) the Buddhist Myth, (c) the Persian Myth
(d) the Chinese Myth (e) the Evolution Myth, (f) the Big Bang
Myth (g) the Navaho Myth (h) the Egyptian Myth (i) the Yoruba
Myth (j) the Igbo Myth, and (k) the myth of the American Indian.
(a) The Judeo-Christian Myth
This refers to biblical anthropology which purports that man was
created by the Judeo-Christian God. Having caused the world to
be, through speech - that is after contriving a cosmogony - God
invites his associates: Come let us make man in our own image.
And thus God fashioned man, Adam, from dust in his own image and
put him and, later, his wife, Eve, in the Garden of Eden from
which arose the human race.
(b) The Buddhist Myth
This myth, held tenaciously by Buddhists, claims that Buddha, at
the beginning of times, stood over an eight-rayed lotus flower
and gazed in ten directions, thereby giving rise to the material
world. Initially, he had gazed in eight directions; but then he
also gazed skyward and downward, perhaps, to complete the
magical cycle of his creative and causal potencies.
(c) The Persian Myth
In this myth Mithras, the Persian god, slays a bull as an act of
creation. This is, perhaps, some sort of auto-veneration by the
god himself to draw and tap his own sacred energies. The
sacrifice itself can be a cleansing metaphor which equally
encodes the beauty of the impending creation.
(d) The Chinese Myth
The Chinese myth seeks to affirm the superiority of the Asian
over others. According to the myth, when God first contrived the
idea of man, he made the first model from dust, threw it into
the oven but brought it out too late, burnt and black; that was
the black man, the African. God was not satisfied. He did a
second version, threw him in and brought him out too early; that
was the Caucasian. Still not satisfied, he modelled a third
copy, threw it in, and this time, brought it out at the right
time; that was the Asian, the quintessential man.
(e) The Evolution Myth
This is a theory put forth by Charles Darwin, claiming that man
evolved from the great apes. The theory later found support in
anthropological studies and archaeological finds including those
of Louis and Mary Leakey. Some of the stages which calibrate the
evolution of man include the Australopithecus, Homo Erectus
(Pithecanthropus erectus and Sinanthropus Perkinensis), Homo
Sapiens, Neanderthal Man, among others.
(f) The Big Bang Myth
This is a scientific theory which claims that the formation of
the universe was the consequence of an explosion (the Big Bang)
some 10-15 billion years ago. It has as its opposite the Steady
State Theory which states that “the universe had no beginning
but was formed and continues to grow through the spontaneous
creation of hydrogen, replenishing matter from all that is
destroyed” (Webster Deluxe Dictionary. 193:970).
(g) The Navaho Myth
This myth has as its subject, Trickster as Coyote, when he
hauled the stars into the sky as an act of creation. Like the
Big Bang and Steady State Theories, this account is strictly
concerned with cosmogony, the emergence of a cosmic model.
(h)The Yoruba Myth
This myth claims that the earth, in the beginning, was all
waters and God, wishing to further the ramification of his
creation, let Oduduwa down to Earth through a lone rope. Like
any other mythic hero, Oduduwa, on descending to Earth exerted a
number of strange efforts to establish himself and his progeny.
(i) The Igbo Myth
The origin myth of the Igbo of eastern Nigeria runs parallel to
that of the Yoruba. It narrates how in the beginning Eri, the
Igbo mythic hero, came down from the sky. Having descended at
Aguleri, a village in the present Anambra State of Nigeria, in
the company of his wife, Namaku, he sat on an ant-hill as the
land was waterlogged. Later Chukwu Okike sent a blacksmith to
dry up the land with fire and charcoal and bellows. The couple
subsequently begot four children, namely, Nri, Aguleri, Igbariam,
and Amanuke in that other. From these, it is believe, sprang the
Igbo race and, by implication, the world. (Afigbo, 1981:36-45)
(j) The Egyptian Myth
At first there was nothing but Nun, the primal ocean of chaos
which contained the seeds of everything to come. In this jumble
of waters the sun god reposed. Finally, by an exertion of will,
he emerged from chaos as Ra and gave birth to Shu and Tefmut by
himself. In turn Shu, the god of air, and Tefmut, the goddess of
moisture, gave birth to Geb and Nut, the earth god and sky
goddess. Thus the physical universe was created. (Carey [ed],
1991:20)
(k) The American-Indian Myth
This is the myth of “good and evil twins”, Kokomaht and Bakotahl.
It is somewhat related to the Egyptian myth to the extent that
the twins emerged from the depths of the waters where they had
been for ages. Aware of the evil capacity of Bakotahl, Kokomaht
caused him to become blind as he sought to catch up with him
from the depths to the surface of the earth. Yet, both were
responsible for the creation of the earth, Kokomaht bringing
forth al the good things, including humans as Bakotahl brought
forth evil and the bad things. (Erdoes and Ortiz [eds),
1984:77-82)
Introduction
<< Previous │ Next >>
Commonalities |
