One Alone in the Water
by
Dr. Wayne Glowka
Professor of English
Ages before the microscope revealed that human life begins as a fertilized ovum floating in uterine fluid, creation myths--almost like unconscious memories of the beginnings of human life--posited that the universe began when a single being appeared in the dark primeval waters.
An embryo
This being rose in light, ordered the universe around itself, and filled creation with other living beings. The universe thus has a divine purpose, a purpose that people share.
The myths offer little explanation of where the original being or the primeval waters came from. But after this original being became aware of itself, it began creating the rest of the universe, sometimes out of itself, sometimes out of the original matter in the primeval waters. Sometimes the original being has a spiritual nature; sometimes it has a physical nature. The nature of the being reflects basic values of the culture.
The Egyptian Creation Myth
The
Egyptian Book of the Dead
In ancient Egyptian fragments dating from 3000 to 1500 B.C.E., the original being describes itself as a spirit that arose in the waters:
I am the Eternal Spirit,
I am the sun that rose from the Primeval Waters. ("Egyptian" 17)
This original being is the sun god of Heliopolis, called Atun or Re. The god is at once spiritual but also perhaps physical in its identification with the sun. It is the source of light and thus life. Although ancient Egyptian religion was polytheistic (i.e., it had many gods), it also had a tendency to be monotheistic, in that from time to time pharaohs and priests stressed one god above all others, who in this view were all forms of the one god.
Christians familiar with the opening words of the Gospel of John might find the Egyptian god’s self-description familiar:
My soul is God, I am the creator of the Word.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I am the Word, which will never be annihilated
in this my name of "Soul"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Word came into being.
All things were mine when I was alone. ("Egyptian" 17)
In essence, the Egyptian god created himself: he created the Word, and he is the Word.
As a self-created being, the Egyptian god is the source of everything else. He is the source of order and goodness:
Evil is my abomination, I see it not.
I am the Creator of the Order wherein I live.
Creation is thus the imposition of the self on lifeless matter of the universe. The Egyptian god is also the source of the other gods, who are in essence parts of himself:
I was Re is [all] his first manifestations:
I was the great one who came into being of himself,
who created all his names as the Companies of the [lesser] gods,
he who is irresistible among the gods.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I considered in my heart, I planned in my head how I should make every shape
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
other beings—the myriad forms of Khopri—and that there
should come into being their children and theirs.
So it was I who spat forth Shu and expectorated Tefnut
so that where there had been one god there were now three as well as myself
and there was now a male and female in the world. ("Egyptian 17-18)
Shu and Tefnut combine to produce other gods, who in turn produce others. Mankind, however, comes from the tears of Re. As in other myths, mankind has a divine origin, this time from the sadness of a god.
continue on to the next page in the "creation myths" discussion
copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1998-2001, Georgia College & State University and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. All rights reserved. Rights to chapters authored by contributing faculty members reserved to Georgia College & State University, to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at GC&SU, and to the individual faculty authors.