Creation of the World

(Greek Mythology)

In the beginning there was only chaos. Then out of the void appeared Erebus, the
unknowable place where death dwells, and Night. All else was empty, silent, endless,
darkness. Then somehow Love was born bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and
Day. Once there was Light and Day, Gaea, the earth appeared. Then Erebus slept with Night,
who gave birth to Ether, the heavenly light, and to Day the earthly light. Then Night alone
produced Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Nemesis, and others that come to man out of
darkness.

Meanwhile Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus, the heavens. Uranus became Gaea's mate
covering her on all sides. Together they produced the three Cyclopes, the
three Hecatoncheires, and twelve Titans.

However, Uranus was a bad father and husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires. He
imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's womb. This
angered Gaea and she ploted against Uranus. She made a flint sickle and tried to get her
children to attack Uranus. All were too afraid except, the youngest Titan, Cronus.

Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush of Uranus as he lay with Gaea at night. Cronus grabed
his father and castrated him, with the stone sickle, throwing the severed genitales into the
ocean. The fate of Uranus is not clear. He either died, withdrew from the earth, or exiled
himself to Italy. As he departed he promised that Cronus and the Titans would be punished.
From his spilt blood came the Giants, the Ash Tree Nymphs, and the Erinnyes. From the sea
foam where his genitales fell came Aphrodite.

Cronus became the next ruler. He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires
in Tartarus. He married his sister Rhea, under his rule the Titans had many offspring. He
ruled for many ages. However, Gaea and Uranus both had prophesied that he would be
overthrown by a son. To avoid this Cronus swallowed each of his children as they were born.
Rhea was angry at the treatment of the children and ploted against Cronus. When it came
time to give birth to her sixth child, Rhea hid herself, then she left the child to be raised by
nymphs. To concel her act she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as the
baby to Cronus, who swallowed it.
This child was Zeus. He grew into a handsome youth on Crete. He consulted Metis on how to
defeat Cronus. She prepaired a drink for Cronus design to make him vomit up the other
children. Rhea convinced Cronus to accept his son and Zeus was allowed to return to Mount
Olympus as Cronus's cupbearer. This gave Zeus the opertunity to slip Cronus the specially
prepaired drink. This worked as planned and the other five children were vomitted up. Being
gods they were unharmed. They were thankful to Zeus and made him their leader.

Cronus was yet to be defeated. He and the Titans, except Prometheus, Epimetheus,
and Oceanus, fought to retain their power. Atlas became their leader in battle and it looked
for some time as though they would win and put the young gods down. However, Zeus was
cunning. He went down to Tartarus and freed the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires.
Prometheus joined Zeus as well. He returned to battle with his new allies. The Cyclopes
provided Zeus with lighting bolts for weapons. The Hecatoncheires he set in ambush armed
with boulders. With the time right, Zeus retreated drawing the Titans into the
Hecatoncheires's ambush. The Hecatoncheires rained down hundreds of boulders with such
a fury the Titans thought the mountains were falling on them. They broke and ran giving
Zeus victory. Zeus exiled the Titans who had fought against him into Tartarus. Except for
Atlas, who was singled out for the special punishment of holding the world on his shoulders.

However, even after this victory Zeus was not safe. Gaea angry that her children had been
imprisoned gave birth to a last offspring, Typhoeus. Typhoeus was so fearsome that most of
the gods fled. However, Zeus faced the monster and flinging his lighting bolts was able to kill
it. Typhoeus was burried under Mount Etna in Sicily.
Much later a final challenge to Zeus rule was made by the Giants. They went so far as to
attempt to invade Mount Olympus, piling mountain upon mountain in an effort to reach the
top. But, the gods had grown strong and with the help of Heracles the Giants were subdued
or killed.

How the World Was Made

This is the ancient Filipino account of the creation.

Thousands of years ago there was no land nor sun nor moon nor stars, and the world was
only a great sea of water, above which stretched the sky. The water was the kingdom of the
god Maguayan, and the sky was ruled by the great god Captan.
Maguayan had a daughter called Lidagat, the sea, and Captan had a son known as Lihangin,
the wind. The gods agreed to the marriage of their children, so the sea became the bride of
the wind.
Three sons and a daughter were born to them. The sons were called Licalibutan, Liadlao,
and Libulan; and the daughter received the name of Lisuga.

Licalibutan had a body of rock and was strong and brave; Liadlao was formed of gold and
was always happy; Libulan was made of copper and was weak and timid; and the beautiful
Lisuga had a body of pure silver and was sweet and gentle. Their parents were very fond of
them, and nothing was wanting to make them happy.

After a time Lihangin died and left the control of the winds to his eldest son Licalibutan. The
faithful wife Lidagat soon followed her husband, and the children, now grown up, were left
without father or mother. However, their grandfathers, Captan and Maguayan, took care of
them and guarded them from all evil.

After a time, Licalibutan, proud of his power over the winds, resolved to gain more power,
and asked his brothers to join him in an attack on Captan in the sky above. At first they
refused; but when Licalibutan became angry with them, the amiable Liadlao, not wishing to
offend his brother, agreed to help. Then together they induced the timid Libulan to join in the
plan. When all was ready the three brothers rushed at the sky, but they could not beat down
the gates of steel that guarded the entrance. Then Licalibutan let loose the strongest winds
and blew the bars in every direction. The brothers rushed into the opening, but were met by
the angry god Captan. So terrible did he look that they turned and ran in terror; but Captan,
furious at the destruction of his gates, sent three bolts of lightning after them.

The first struck the copper Libulan and melted him into a ball. The second struck the golden
Liadlao, and he too was melted. The third bolt struck Licalibutan, and his rocky body broke
into many pieces and fell into the sea. So huge was he that parts of his body stuck out
above the water and became what is known as land.

In the meantime the gentle Lisuga had missed her brothers and started to look for them.
She went toward the sky, but as she approached the broken gates, Captan, blind with anger,
struck her too with lightning, and her silver body broke into thousands of pieces.

Captan then came down from the sky and tore the sea apart, calling on Maguayan to come
to him and accusing him of ordering the attack on the sky. Soon Maguayan appeared and
answered that he knew nothing of the plot as he had been asleep far down in the sea.
After a time he succeeded in calming the angry Captan. Together they wept at the loss of
their grandchildren, especially the gentle and beautiful Lisuga; but with all their power they
could not restore the dead to life. However, they gave to each body a beautiful light that will
shine forever. And so it was that golden Liadlao became the sun, and copper Libulan the
moon, while the thousands of pieces of silver Lisuga shine as the stars of heaven. To wicked
Licalibutan the gods gave no light, but resolved to make his body support a new race of
people. So Captan gave Maguayan a seed, and he planted it on the land, which, as you will
remember, was part of Licalibutan's huge body.

Soon a bamboo tree grew up, and from the hollow of one of its branches a man and a
woman came out. The man's name was Sicalac, and the woman was called Sicabay. They
were the parents of the human race. Their first child was a son whom they called Libo;
afterwards they had a daughter who was known as Saman. Pandaguan was a younger son
and he had a son called Arion.
Pandaguan was very clever and invented a trap to catch fish. The very first thing he caught
was a huge shark. When he brought it to land, it looked so great and fierce that he thought it
was surely a god, and he at once ordered his people to worship it. Soon all gathered around
and began to sing and pray to the shark. Suddenly the sky and sea opened, and the gods
came out and ordered Pandaguan to throw the shark back into the sea and to worship none
but them.
All were afraid except Pandaguan. He grew very bold and answered that the shark was as
big as the gods, and that since he had been able to overpower it he would also be able to
conquer the gods. Then Captan, hearing this, struck Pandaguan with a small thunderbolt, for
he did not wish to kill him but merely to teach him a lesson. Then he and Maguayan decided
to punish these people by scattering them over the earth, so they carried some to one land
and some to another. Many children were afterwards born, and thus the earth became
inhabited in all parts.

Pandaguan did not die. After lying on the ground for thirty days he regained his strength, but
his body was blackened from the lightning, and all his descendants ever since that day have
been black.

His first son, Arion, was taken north, but as he had been born before his father's punishment
he did not lose his color, and all his people therefore are white.

Libo and Saman were carried south, where the hot sun scorched their bodies and caused all
their descendants to be of a brown color.
A son of Saman and a daughter of Sicalac were carried east, where the land at first was so
lacking in food that they were compelled to eat clay. On this account their children and their
children's children have always been yellow in color.

And so the world came to be made and peopled. The sun and moon shine in the sky, and
the beautiful stars light up the night. All over the land, on the body of the envious
Licalibutan, the children of' Sicalac and Sicabay have grown great in numbers. May they live
forever in peace and brotherly love!

Hindu Creation Story

Hinduism, the ancient religion of India, has many myths and legends. Most of the gods of
Hinduism are seen as forms of three central Gods, Vishnu, Shiva & Brahma. This story tells
of the creation of the world by the God Brahma at the command of Vishnu.

Before the world, before the sky, before space, there was nothing but ocean: a flat, rolling
lake that lapped the edges of emptiness and the void beyond. Floating on the water was a
giant snake: Ananta, the Serpent King. In his coils, eyes closed, undisturbed, lay the Lord
Vishnu. God, asleep. Water, snake, god: nothing moved. Stillness…perfection.

Then in the deepest recesses of the world, a sound began. A slow gathering, a humming, a
throbbing. It grew and pulsed and filled the emptiness: a power, an urge, a throbbing itch of
energy. It billowed and gathered into a single echoing syllable, folding in on itself endlessly,
endlessly, like a beating heart: OM…..OM……OM……OM….

Lord Vishnu opened his eyes. It was time. The world was ready to be born. He looked out
over the calm waters. In that moment, a lotus flower took shape before him. In it sat Brahma
the Creator, the Lord Vishnu’s servant. He bowed his head, and waited to hear Lord Vishnu’s
will.
‘It is time Brahma. Time for the world. Time to begin your work. In that single lotus flower is
all that you need. Create a world that will live forever, till I declare the end of time itself.
Begin.’

As he spoke, a huge wind gathered. The ocean cowered. The serpent-king and the Lord
Vishnu with him, disappeared from sight. Alone, Brahma’s lotus-boat was swept about in the
churning sea.

Brahma raised his arms, and the wind died. The sea fell back and was calm again. He stood
up, and with a sweep of his arms divided the lotus into three parts. The first was heaven,
the next earth and the next sky. In a single moment the world had begun.

Brahma clothed the new earth with plants: grass, trees, flowers, vegetables and fruit. To
them he gave the sense of touch. Then he created animals and insects - large and small, in
land, sea and air, some with fur, some with feathers, some with shells, some with scales;
large and small, fierce and timid, fast and slow. To them, as well as the sense of touch, he
gave sight, smell, hearing - and above all, the power of movement. At once the world was
filled with flurry and bustle. With crashing of branches, clatter of hooves, swishing and
swooping, flailing and flapping, the new creatures set off to find homes.

Trumpeting, braying, whistling, chattering, squealing, they ran and wriggled and hopped and
flew into every corner of creation.

In the stillness that was left, Brahma had only one thing more to do. The world needed a
master, someone to enjoy it and take care of it, so that it would last forever, as Lord Vishnu
had commanded. Brahma sat quiet, and thought.

After a long time his thoughts took shape. First, a wisp of shadow in the white air….a
glowing, shimmering cloud that grew thicker and denser, changing into a living, breathing
shape. A new being, made from the thought of Brahma, in the form of god. Brahma looked
at him in delight: surely this creature made in god’s image, would take charge of the world
and keep it forever as the Lord Vishnu wished.

But the creature did not move. Its eyes were shut, unheeding the new world around it.
Because it was made of the thoughts of Brahma, all it wanted to do was to sit thinking
deeply about god.

Brahma saw that this creature was too simple, too flawless to look after the world. If he was
to create a being to carry out Lord Vishnu’s will, he would need another power. Thought was
not enough: he would need to use action too. Not only his mind, but his whole body, his
whole self, would be required if the new creature was to open his eyes to the world, be
happy and fulfilled by creation as well as the creator.

There was only one certain way. Filled with happiness that he was carrying out Lord Vishnu’s
orders, Brahma divided his body in two.

One moment there was one, the next there were two: equal, umblemished, whole, the image
of one another. Out of one, Brahma shaped man; out of the other, woman. The man was
called Manu, wise; and the woman Shatarupa
mysterious. Manu and Shatarupa, created out of Brahma himself, looked into each other’s
hearts. They smiled. Gently, they touched hands. Then they walked out together into the
world Brahma had given them; their charge, their responsibility, the joy and duty laid on
them by Lord Vishnu at the start of time.

Manu, Shatarupa…. The first people…. The ancestors of the whole human race.