Compare and Contrast

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Comparing and Contrasting Creation Stories

In Egyptian mythology, the world started as nothing until a great god named Atum, the god of Helipolis, came down to Earth. Atum had two offspring. He had a son, named shu, who represented dry air and a daughter named Tefnut, who represented corrosive moist air. These twins represented life and justice. Shu and Tefnut separated the sky and waters. These two also had children named Nut, the sky, and Geb the dry land. When the primeval waters receded, Geb appeared providing the very first solid dry land for Re, the sun god, to rest. Geb and Nut had 4 children, Seth, the god of disorder, Osiris the god of order, and their sisters named Isis and Nephthys.

In Indian creation story, there was only a sea of nothing before time. A huge cobra the floated onto the waters. The cobra uncoiled and out came the god vishnu. Vishnu was soundly asleep until he was awoken by a loud hum. From vishnu's belly button grew a flower. In the middle of the flower was Brahma, Vishnu's servent. Vishnu created the world. Vishnu and the cobra the disappeared but Brahma stayed and split the flower into three pieces. One part of the flower became the heavens, another part became the Earth and the last part became the skies. The world was empty until Brahma made plants of all kinds and animals to live in the sky, water, and land. He gave these animals sense of touch, taste, smell, and sight, as well as the ability to move.

These two stories both start with nothing before the original gods started the events that created a livable Earth. The two main gods, Atum and Vishnu, came out of nothing. Both also used other gods that they created (Atum's children and Brahma from Vishnu's naval) to make the world as we know it. These first gods then went away while the other gods stayed. Atum floated into the heavens and Vishnu disappeared with his cobra into the sea.