Sep. 17th: Multiple trips to the bottom of the ocean, dismemberment, things from nothing, &c.

"These creation myths are true in a much larger and deeper sense (than history)."

FRONT MATTER:

Upcoming entries in blogs should contain:
- A close analysis of any page in Calasso.
- Post containing your creation myth. 


IMPORTANT TERMS/INTERESTING TIDBITS:
(Note: A 'THIS WILL BE ON THE TEST' SPECIAL)

The most frequent elements in world cosmogony...

1) Creation ex nihilo.
(A high being creates the world from nothing, whether by thought, word, or heating himself in a steampot, etc.)
2) The earth-diver motif. 
(A being sends birds, amphibians, himself, etc., to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve a particle from which all the land is grown from)
3) Creation by diving in two a primordial unity. 
(Often either the separation of heaven and earth or the birth of those parts through the separation of an original, amorphous mass)
4) Creation by the voluntary or involuntary dismemberment of a primordial being.
('Nuff said)


Other Recurring themes within myths of creation...
- Animals playing a primary part
- Great white gods
- Commands of peace from greater beings to lesser ones
- Multiple trips to the bottom of the ocean/the expanding of the land
- Purification/destruction/recreation of the world
- Sweat
- Body parts becoming the parts of world
- The tree of life
- Layers (of earth, of heaven, of realms, etc...)
- Light vs. Dark
- People becoming things (the sun/moon, etc.)
- Forbidden fire/fruit/etc.
- Presence of dreams
- Man and woman
- Caves
- Shaping men and beast from clay or earthly materials
- Odd births (armpits, etc.)
- Cows
- Eggs
- Watchful spirits
- Something from nothing ('Ex nihilo')
- The loneliness of the gods leading to the creation of humans
- 'Those damn kids'
- Lots of spiders
- The sky and water and nothing else
- A swirling, chaotic darkness


ET CETERA:

"These are not tangents. These are elaborations."