Common Elements of Creation Myths

Since the beginning of humans, people have wondered about how the universe was created. As a result, early humans made up myths about how the world was made. Surprisingly, many of these myths had common elements. They are gods who leave, humans from mud and clay and explanation of natural phenomena. All countries had their own creation myths with common elements. Even though humans lived far apart and did not communicate with each other, their creation myths had many common elements. One of the common elements is that humans were created from mud and clay. For example, in Chinese myths, Nuwa, the half-dragon goddess created man from clay near the Yellow River. The Mayans believed that their gods had created the first humans out of mud. However, the gods were disappointed by how weak those humans were, so they created a new race made from corn. Even though these two peoples lived far apart, it is interesting that they had similar elements in their creation myths. Another common element is that the gods leave after creating the world. Phan-Ku, from the Chinese myths, and Hwan-Ung, from the Korean myths, both left the world after they had created it and made it a comfortable place. Phan-Ku and Hwan-Ung both died after they ruled the world for a long time. This is more evidence that people in different places shared the same ideas. One more similar element is that many myths explain natural phenomena. For example, Chinese myths explain how thunder, oceans, lakes and other natural phenomena came to be. Maori myths also illustrate how floods and rain came to exist. Most myths explain nature. It is really surprising that people with different languages who could not communicate with each other had similar elements in their myths. These examples show how people who lived very far apart and spoke different languages had similar elements in their creation myths.