VI. Essay: Read the creation myth below and analyze it based on the criterion we have worked on in class. Be sure to make a
comparison with at least one other creation myth that we have read as a class. An excellent essay will have at least five paragraphs
with and introduction and conclusion. Do NOT simply repeat the myth back to me. Be specific about how and what was created
using terms from the academic study of mythology. Utilize the word bank! Your answer should be in essay format with at least 5
paragraphs. (100 points)
This myth is from the Penobscot Native American tribe of North America about First Mother, Corn Mother
When the first people began multiplying on the earth and came to her because they were hungry, the First Mother became very sad.
Her husband became sad too and asked her what he could do to make her stop weeping. She told him, "You have to kill me." He was
thunderstruck and refused, instead sought the advice of the All Maker in the north.
The old All Maker told him that he must do as his wife, the First Mother, said. The husband, now weeping himself, returned home. So
the First Mother told him that when the sun was highest in the sky, he was to kill her, and then have two of her sons drag her body
over the empty parts of the earth, pulling her back and forth by her silky hair until her flesh had been scraped from her body. Then
they were to leave, waiting until seven moons had come and gone before they returned. At that time they would find her flesh,
lovingly given, and it would feed the people and make them strong for all time.
These sad instructions were carried out, and after seven moons had come and gone, her children and their children returned to find the
earth covered with green plants with silken tassels, and fruit-their mother's flesh-was sweet and tender. As instructed, they saved some
of their find to be place back into the earth at a later time. In this way the First Mother's flesh and her spirit are renewed every seven
moons and continually sustain the flesh and spirit of her children.
Whenever her children eat corn they remember their mother, and in this way she lives, her love constantly renewing itself from
generation to generation.
Scoring Rubric: Total (100).
Comparison (25)
Methods Identified (10)
Creator Described (25)
Materials Identified (10)
Culture (food sources, patriarchy, misogyny, values, etc.), geography,
etiologies (20)
Essay's Effectiveness (10)
Organization, use of examples, etc.
VI. Essay: Read the creation myth below and analyze it based on the criterion we have worked on in class. Be sure to make a
comparison with at least one other creation myth that we have read as a class. An excellent essay will have at least five paragraphs
with and introduction and conclusion. Do NOT simply repeat the myth back to me. Be specific about how and what was created
using terms from the academic study of mythology. Utilize the word bank! Your answer should be in essay format with at least 5
paragraphs. (100 points)
This myth is from the Penobscot Native American tribe of North America about First Mother, Corn Mother
When the first people began multiplying on the earth and came to her because they were hungry, the First Mother became very sad.
Her husband became sad too and asked her what he could do to make her stop weeping. She told him, "You have to kill me." He was
thunderstruck and refused, instead sought the advice of the All Maker in the north.
The old All Maker told him that he must do as his wife, the First Mother, said. The husband, now weeping himself, returned home. So
the First Mother told him that when the sun was highest in the sky, he was to kill her, and then have two of her sons drag her body
over the empty parts of the earth, pulling her back and forth by her silky hair until her flesh had been scraped from her body. Then
they were to leave, waiting until seven moons had come and gone before they returned. At that time they would find her flesh,
lovingly given, and it would feed the people and make them strong for all time.
These sad instructions were carried out, and after seven moons had come and gone, her children and their children returned to find the
earth covered with green plants with silken tassels, and fruit-their mother's flesh-was sweet and tender. As instructed, they saved some
of their find to be place back into the earth at a later time. In this way the First Mother's flesh and her spirit are renewed every seven
moons and continually sustain the flesh and spirit of her children.
Whenever her children eat corn they remember their mother, and in this way she lives, her love constantly renewing itself from
generation to generation.
Scoring Rubric: Total (100).
Comparison (25)
Methods Identified (10)
Creator Described (25)
Materials Identified (10)
Culture (food sources, patriarchy, misogyny, values, etc.), geography,
etiologies (20)
Essay's Effectiveness (10)
Organization, use of examples, etc.
ole.
-in-
kua
hy,
The second part of the P'an Ku myth
appears in Hsu Cheng's Wu yun li-nien
chi (A Chronicle of the Five Cycles of
Time). Here, Pan Ku's death preserves
and increases the order that he earlier
established. His corpse provides addi-
tional structure by differentiating the
surface of the earth into a variety of nat-
ural forms, such as mountains, oceans,
and forests, and by differentiating the
heavens as well. The resemblance of
this myth to many Indo-European cre-
ation myths leads scholars to conclude
that it is probably Indo-European in ori-
is
al,
ed
myths were
myths. However, in the myth of Nu
that appears in the Huai-nan Tzu,
his role in causing the flood forms the
setting for Nu Kua's drama.
P'an Ku ("Coiled Antiquity"), a
semidivine giant, is the principal char-
existing Chinese creation myths. Both
acter in the two most detailed of the
originally compiled by
Hsu Cheng, who lived in southwestern
China in the period of the Three
Kingdoms (third century A.D.). These
male-dominated myths soon became
authoritative Chinese versions of
Historical Records of the Three from Central Asian sources. However, it
creation. In Hsu Cheng's San Wu li chi gin. Hsu Cheng may have collected it
Sovereign Divinities and the Five
chaos by separating the sky from the Apsu and Tiamat.
Gods), P'an Ku creates order out of
myth may have reached China by way
earth. Given Hsu Cheng's location, this
of Central Asia and then Tibet.
е
the
is also similar to the ancient Near
Eastern (Akkadian/Babylonian) myth of
THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE
AND HUMAN BEINGS
expanse
YIN AND YANG AND THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE
In a time long past, before Heaven and earth came to be, there was only chaos.
The universe was vast, obscure, and barren. For there was only a great, gaping
of desolate space—without light, without form, and without life. Images
alone appeared and disappeared within the mist.
Then it came to pass that chaos gave birth to two gods. They wove the fabric
that became the heavens. And they molded the substance that became the earth.
So great were these gods that they were beyond understanding. They could move
higher into the heavens and lower into the depths than anyone could imagine.
And no one knew where they took their rest.
After the two gods had fashioned Heaven and earth, it came to pass
that they
became separate in form and in function. They divided into Yin and Yang. And
Yang gathered into himself all that was bright and light. And, like a mist, Yang
drifted upward into Heaven and became one with it. And Heaven became round.
Then Yin gathered into herself all that was dark and heavy. And, like a thick,
plodding mass, Yin sank downward into the earth and became one with it. And
square.
earth became
The Creation of the Universe and Human Beings
. And,
became the sun. Yin's cold breath became intense and gave birth to water. And her
Yang's hot breath became intense and gave birth to fire. And his fiery breath
watery breath became the moon. Stars spun off from the sun and the moon.
being part of Yang, the sun, the moon, and the stars all settled in the sky, while,
being part of Yin, rivers and seas, rainwater, silt, and dust all settled on the surface
of the earth. The complex essence of Yang and Yin became the four seasons that
ten thousand things in nature that populate the earth. Substances became hard or
dwell on earth in an endless cycle. And the essence of the four seasons became the
vapor
and cloudy took the form of insects. And the vapor that was pure took the form
of human beings.
that was dense
soft. And a multitude of living things came into being. The
NU KUA, CREATOR AND PRESERVER OF HUMAN LIFE
self was formed like a human being, except that instead of legs she had the tail of
Nu Kua, the Great Goddess or Mother Goddess, created the first people. She her-
beautiful forms that had emerged from P'an Ku's corpse. She loved the trees, the
a dragon. Nu Kua glided over the earth. And as she traveled, she admired all of the
plants, and the flowers. But she was most interested in the fish and the animals.
For these living creatures were more active.
Nu Kua decided that she wanted to watch the fish and the animals, and s
she stopped gliding and studied them. And after studying them for a while, Nu
Kua decided that creation
was not yet complete
, for animals and fish
were not
intelligent enough. She decided that she would now create creatures who would
be superior to all other living things.
And so Nu Kua glided along the Yellow River, and she decided to use the
yellow earth of this riverbed to form human beings. And so she sat down along
the shore of the river
. She then took handfuls of wet clay from the riverbed
,
and she formed them into little people. She made them look almost like her
but instead of dragon-tails, she gave each of them two legs to match their two
arms.
As soon as her little people were prepared to walk, Nu Kua breathed life into
them. Some she infused with Yang, the masculine, aggressive principle in nature.
And these little people became men. Others she infused with Yin, the female, sub-
missive principle in nature. And these little people became women.
Nu Kua worked quickly, but it was very hard work. And so, after a while, she
became too tired to continue to fashion people one at a time. She decided that she
would try to find a way to create her little people faster and more easily.
And so Nu Kua glided along the shore of the river. And it came to pass that
she soon spied a twisted rope—the type of measure that builders would use in
time to come. Nu Kua studied the rope, and she decided that it would help her
make her little people faster and more easily.
And so Nu Kua picked up the twisted rope. She held onto one end, but she
placed the rest of the rope on the wet clay of the riverbed. Then she rolled the
rope around in the wet clay. And as she turned it, Nu Kua was delighted to see
that, as she had hoped, the wet clay was sticking to it.
326 The Far East and the Pacific Islands
delighted
cath
her
and,
nile,
ace
hat
the
Kua was
pleased that she had created her little people faster and more eas-
Nu Kua was
Kua then lifted the rope off the riverbed, and she shook it over the shore. And Nu
At last, the upper end of the rope was completely covered with wet clay. Nu
to see that, as she had hoped, each drop of clay that fell off
became a human being.
ily. But her two methods did not create exactly the same type of human beings.
The people whom Nu Kua had fashioned by hand from the rich yellow earth of
the riverbed were
fallen in drops from her rope were low-born, poor, common folk. Nevertheless, all
of Nu Kua's children built homes and settled into villages and farms in order to
provide for their daily needs.
high-born, wealthy, and intelligent. But the people who had
Or
nse
cm
of
де
le
5.
2
t
another god that he attacked him. But Kung Kung did not look where he was
going, and so he rammed his head into one of the mountains that supports the
in the sky, and it caused the earth to crack open in many places.
Flames blazed forth from some of the crevasses, burning homes and crops.
And these fires raged far and wide, for no one could smother them. Rivers over-
Howed their banks, and torrents of underground water gushed forth from other
figures. These surging waters flooded the land and created a vast sea where once
there had been villages and farms, for no one could provide a drain.
Now everything was at the bottom of the sea. And the few animals and peo-
ple who remained alive could find nothing to eat. And so it came to pass that
Starving animals became ferocious and feasted on whatever people they could
find
. Meanwhile, starving birds of prey swooped down from the heavens. They
grabbed all who were old and weak in their talons, and then they carried them off
to their nests. No one could stop them.
Nu Kua watched in horror as hundreds of her little people starved to death or
drowned. She decided that she had to act quickly if she hoped to save any of the
children she had created. And so, first, she set fire to the reeds that grew beside the
river. She then stuffed their ashes into the burning cracks in the earth to smother
the raging flames. Next Nu Kua piled up more of the reed ashes to form dikes.
These dams forced the swift flood-waters to seep into the earth and to flow in
controlled river channels. And so it came to pass that Nu Kua's children returned
to their farms and villages, for they could resume their daily occupations.
Then Nu Kua glided over to the Yellow River and chose a number of stones
in five different colors. She melted them in a forge and covered the hole in the
heavens with them. Next she removed the four legs from a giant tortoise and used
one at each corner of the earth as an additional pillar to support the sky. In this
way
, Nu Kua repaired the devastation that Kung Kung had so thoughtlessly cre-
ated. But she knew of no way to raise the northeast corner of the earth on which
the fifth pillar had fallen. And so, from that day to this, that land is lower than the
rest of China, and rivers flow eastward across that land and into the sea.
Nu Kua continues to watch over her children. Her swift, winged dragons
pull her thunder-chariot through the heavens and bring forth the rains that nour-
ish all that grows upon the earth. And so the hearts of Nu
Kua's children are filled
The Creation of the Universe and Human Beings.
with gratitude for all that the Mother Goddess has done for them and for all that
she continues to do.
P'AN KU, CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE
identical. And all
universe
mass, P'an Ku, the first living being, was formed.
the world
And Yin, the heavier part, sank and became the earth.
upon
ens were not high in the sky. And so he sat down and thought about how to be one
In the beginning an egg-like that of a chicken-contained the entire
was always dark, for neither the sun nor the moon existed. From within this dark
Within the egg was one chaotic mass. Heaven and earth were
Then, finding himself alive in darkness, encased within an egg, and sur-
rounded by chaos, P'an Ku decided to bring order into the universe. First he
egg. Yang, the lighter part, rose and became the heavens.
broke
open
his head. He realized that no life would ever be able to exist on earth if the heav-
P'an Ku tried to stand upon the earth. But the heavens pressed heavily
this problem.
That day, P'an Ku went through nine transformations. And it came to pass
that Pan Ku became more godlike than Heaven and more wise than earth. He
decided that the only way living objects and creatures would form and survive
upon the earth would be if he held up the sky.
For the next eighteen thousand years, P'an Ku worked constantly to keep the
heavens from crushing the surface of the earth. He ate only the mists that blew
elbows bent. And yet, summoning all of his great strength, he pushed his feet
into his mouth, and he never slept. At first he could only
rest on his knees with his
against the earth, and he pushed his hands
upward against the sky
. Each day he
pushed the heavens ten feet higher
, and he forced the earth to sink ten feet lower
And each day he became ten feet taller.
The time came when P'an Ku could rise to his feet
. But his knees were still
bent as he pushed his feet down against the earth, and his elbows were still bent as
he pushed his hands upward against the sky. At last the time came when Pan Ku
could stand at his full height. And then he pushed his feet down against the earth
with straight legs, and he pushed his hands upward against the sky with his arms
stretched out to their full length.
Day after day and night after night, month after month and year after year,
P'an Ku stood upright, as firm as a rock column. He never stopped pushing the
earth lower with his feet, and he never stopped pushing the heavens higher with
his hands.
P'an Ku's pushing caused the earth and the sky to move ten feet each day.
And so it came to pass that, little by little, the earth sank lower and lower beneath
the sky. And it came to pass that, little by little, the sky rose higher and higher
above the earth. And the lower the earth sank, and the higher the heavens rose,
the taller Pan Ku became.
At last the earth rested far below the heavens. And the heavens rested high
above the earth. And only then did Pan Ku realize that he was very, very tired
. He
looked up at the heavens above his hands, and then he looked far, far down to the
28 ~ The Far East and the Pacific Islands
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