Creation Myths

Each culture’s mythology describes how the Earth and its inhabitants, particularly humans, came into existence. While the various stories have some drastically different elements, many of the cultures have similar views or stories regarding the Earth’s beginnings. For example, a Great Flood is featured in many cultures’ stories of the beginning of time.

For this activity, we will examine three creation myths from various cultures from around the world. Choose any three countries from the links below and visit the website containing their creation myths by clicking on the country’s name.

Greek- http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/greek_creation_myths.html

Hawaiian- http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/hawaiian_creation_myths.html

Oceania/Polynesia- http://www.pantheon.org/articles/o/oceania_polynesia_creation_myths.html

Babylonian- http://faculty.gvsu.edu/westerm/Enuma_Elish.html

Japanese- http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/kojiki.html

Hebrew/Christian- http://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_15.html

Germanic- http://www.dickinson.edu/~eddyb?mythology/Creation-1.html

Once you have visited the three sites of your choice, complete the diagram below or create your own comparison chart. Be sure that there are at least three items in each section of the chart.