Most countries in the world have archetypes in their creation myths, even countries as distant from each other as Japan and Greece. Japan’s religion, Shinto, has stories about sibling marriages and casting deformed children away. Greek myths have similar plots in their stories. There are reasons why these two completely different cultures have similar stories. The next three paragraphs explain why there are archetypes and differences in creation myths of Japan and Greece.
Both Shinto myths and Greek myths have siblings marrying each other. For example, in one Shinto myth, Izanagi-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto were “united as husband and wife,” and in a Greek myth, “Cronos married his sister” Rhea. Also, the couples in both myths produced many children: Izanagi and Izanami gave birth “to the Great eight-island country, with the mountains, rivers, herbs, and trees,” and many gods and goddesses. Cronos and Rhea gave birth to five gods and goddesses. From these two myths, it is evident that Japan and Greece did not consider marrying siblings as something wrong. When these myths were created thousands of years ago, people from these two countries did not know that there are possibilities that a child will have some problems when born from sibling parents. Also, it may have been thought in both countries that siblings will give birth to a virtuous child, for siblings love each other from the start and therefore have a high chance of becoming successful parents.
However, even though ancient Japan and Greece thought that sibling parents might be caring, both cultures have stories of casting away children. In the Shinto myth, the sibling parents gave birth to a “leech-child,” so they “abandoned it to the winds”. The Greek myth h...
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...en is that for the Japanese, pride and dignity of the family may have been too strong for the parents to keep their deformed child. For the Greeks, gods were thought to be in the shape of humans; therefore children who were not humanly shaped were not proper humans. A difference between the myths in these two cultures is that the earth was perceived in different ways. Japanese myths depicted earth as different from the gods, while the Greeks thought of earth as a god, showing that the cultures of these countries affects the way they think about their worlds. These archetypes and the differences in myths are evidence that humans, whether they are from different side of the globe or from different time periods, have archetypical ideas. Humans from around the world share some ideas, but these ideas will slightly differ, as the cultures the ideas came from are distinct.
Why do myths from different cultures around the world address such similar or universal themes? Do we see these same themes in today's myths? Think about how myths explain the unknown and the tribulations of mankind.
The second creation myth I will examine in this essay is of Greek origin and is known as The Five Ages of Man. This myth begins wit...
Long ago, stories of gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters in ancient Greece were essential to everyday life. Mythology is a culture’s collective rationalization of events, history, and super natural power. Myths are told to have originated in ancient Greece during but the concepts true source is unknown. Influences mythology has on Greeks and Romans include religion, history, art, and entertainment.
Throughout time are culture has changed to fit the society we current live in where it includes the story’s that survived from the Greek mythology that changed over time to help the evolution of the culture, of which mythology, both noticeable and in its unspoken speculation, is an indication of the changes.
From before the dawn of civilization as we know it, humanity has formed myths and legends to explain the natural world around them. Whether it is of Zeus and Hera or Izanami-no-Mikoto and Izanagi-no-mikoto, every civilization and culture upon this world has its own mythos. However, the age of myth is waning as it is overshadowed in this modern era by fundamental religion and empirical science. The word myth has come to connote blatant falsehood; however, it was not always so. Our myths have reflected both the society and values of the culture they are from. We have also reflected our inner psyche, conscious and unconscious, unto the fabric of our myths. This reflection allows us to understand ourselves and other cultures better. Throughout the eons of humanity’s existence, the myths explain natural phenomena and the cultural legends of the epic hero have reflected the foundations and the inner turmoil of the human psyche.
Each creation story highlights the most important aspects of the cultures that wrote them. Not only do they show the values of the people, but they can give us an insight into how these cultures might have been. Comparing the Atra-hasis, Rig Veda, Genesis, Yijing, and Popol Vuh has uncovered many distinct themes when focusing on the time and place the creation story occurred. Patterns found in creation stories from different parts of the world show how similar human beings are.
Although the myths share many similar ideas, the myths are created differently with contrasting ideas and parts. For example, one difference between the two myths is in Genesis, God created the Earth, while in The World on Turtle’s Back, a woman created the Earth. Regarding creators, there is only one God and creator in Genesis, while there are multiple in The World on Turtle’s
...milarities. Their single god creates a firmament, luminaries, dry land, and the people that inhabit that land. Chinese and Egyptian mythology also share an uncanny amount of coincidences, such as the presence of a dog-headed god, or the creation of Earth and the heavens from a cosmic egg. Norse, Japanese, and Greek mythologies, too, agree on a lot of ideals. They each contain a clash of gods and the death of certain gods in order to form life. The list of creation myths, and myths in general, that relate to each other could stretch out for miles. With these parallels, humanity can better understand earlier cultures and document the method to how mythologies change over time.
Contrary to most cultures the Japanese used the Izanagi and Izanami creation story as a way to explain how Japan was formed, however putting minimum emphasis on how the world was created. This myth was scripted in a document called the Kojiki between 500-700 A.D. Securing this document allowed the emperors to analyze and pass down their ancient culture for many years to come. This particular myth is associated with a religion called Shinto.
One way of examining the values and traditions of a people is to look at their explanations for how the world came to be. These stories make such wonderful tools for analysis because all cultures have some sort of ‘creation’ story. Thus to compare groups of people we may start by looking at their creation mythology. It is important to note that the downfall of comparing mythologies is that in a way it is like comparing apples to oranges. This is because not every myth portrays and explains the same elements.
Every ancient society and civilization has creation myths that were passed down and keep alive throughout the passing of time by word of mouth. These myths are the world’s oldest stories and are vital to these cultures because they explain their beginnings and give purpose to their existence. By analyzing and interpreting different creation myths it becomes easier to understand different cultures and their connections and relationships with heir beliefs and god(s).
...g the myths of both cultures they share similarities that exceed beyond a reasonable doubt each culture had similar views of how the world works. Whether it is woman causing evil, god creating man, or the floods reflecting the wrath of god on man, these views stood firm throughout time and connect two different worlds.
The characters in both Chinese and Japanese myths have similar personalities and reactions. For example, heroes in both mythologies use tricks, cunning schemes, and intelligence in general achieve their goals, instead of just force and wit. One example in a Japanese myth, a hero named Ito Soda warded away an evil creature by watching guard all night, despite a sleeping spell. “The false O Toyo, having been frustrated on two occasions, now kept away altogether” . An example in a Chinese myth is where a man named Li fought a river god. “The buffalo facing south with a white stripe on the middle part of his body is me… Finally, his chief secretary killed the buffalo facing north (his opponent the river god). That was the end of the river deity and all the trouble he had caused.”
In spite of Shinto’s maternal principle which operated within Japanese society, the formation of society was and still remains a patriarchal hierarchy. It could be argued that the want for patriarchalization of Japanese society came from the political power of the imperial family who promoted this ideal. The source of power of the imperial family is the divine authority derived from the ancestral deity, Amaterasu, as the Kojiki and Nihongi describe (Kasulis 75). Since Amaterasu is the ancestral goddess of the Imperial family, the Sun Goddess who governs the universe and who occupies the highest position in Shintoism, she serves to show historic attitudes regarding women and modern attitudes regarding women. This can be highlighted through the ancient Shinto texts, the Kojiki and Nihongi.
Throughout studying many myths, I came up with many new observations. Many questions came into my mind about these myths. Greek mythology takes us back to a time when people had a connection with nature and when nature played a major role in people’s lives. The religious beliefs of the people who wrote the myths are found in the background of these myths; however, they are not to be read like religious texts. The myths try to offer explanations of “how”, which makes us think deeply about the purpose of these myths and the questions they draw to our minds. According to the myths we studied in class, the world created the gods, not the other way around. The gods were always created in the image of man, which shows how much men were important in their society. Furthermore, many of these Greek myths show us the difference between the views of the Greek then and our view towards many aspects of the society, including nature. Monsters appear in Greek myths and have different representations and roles. Greek mythology reflects a view of the Greeks towards the world and how certain aspects of their lives are similar and different to modern society.