Drawing 2019 + Creation myths

Mindmap - the frog, the snake, the dragon, pencil on paper, 2019, Moa Alskog

The Pelasgian, The Homeric and The Orphic, The Olympian, The Babylon, The Christian and The Norse creation myth. The three first I copy-pasted from the first chapter of Robert Graves book Greek Myths - The Complete and Definitive Edition, Enuma Elish (the Babylon) and the Sumerian Myth from Wikipedia, The Christian from The Book of Genesis and finally the Norse creational myths from the Edda (soon).

In all of them the snake takes a prominent place as well as the woman, whether she plays the role as creator or scapegoat.

This is part of my research into the snakes, the dragons and the frogs symbolic meaning that I began with last year. It is related to my interest in how the western societies relation to nature have been formed historically.

The snake and the frog are symbolic and a biological ‘neighbours’. Both, cold-blooded vertebrates, or animals with backbones that have that has survived the dinosaurs (the origin of the dragon?) and spread all over the world. They have always been there and are frequently represented in myths, often with connections to fertility/sexuality, the female and the creation of the world.

1.   The Pelasgian Creation Myth   “In the begining, Eurynome, the Godess of All Things, rose naked from Chaos, but found nothing substantial for her feet to rest upon, and therefore divided the sea from the sky, dancing lonely upon its waves. She danced towards the south, and the wind set in motion behind her seemed something new and apart with which to begin a work of creation. Wheeling about, she caught hold of this north wind, rubbed it between her hands, and behold! the great serpent Ophion. Eurynome danced to warm herself, wildly and more wildly, until Ophion, grown lustful, coiled about those divine limbs and was moved to couple with her. Now the north wind also called Boreas, fertilizes; which is why mares often turn their hind-quarters to the wind and breed foals without aid of a stallion. So Eurynome was likewise got with child.

b. Next, she assumes the form of a dove, brooding on the waves and, in due process of time, laid the universal egg. At her bidding, Ophion coiled seven times about this egg, until it hatched and split in two. Out tumbled all things that exist, her children: sun, moon, planets, stars, the earth with its mountains and rivers, its trees, herbs, and living creatures.

c. Eurynome and Ophion made their home upon Mount Olympus, where he vexed her by claiming to be the author of the universe. Forthwith she bruised his head with her heel, kicked out his teeth, and banished him to the dark caves below the earth.  

d. Next the goddess created the seven planetary powers setting a Titaness and a Titan over each. Theia and Hyperion for the sun; Phoebe and Atlas for the moon; Dione and Crius for the planet Mars; Metis and Coeus for the planet Mercury; Themis and Eurymedon for the planet Jupiter; Tethys and Oceanus for Venus; Rhea and Cronus for the planet Saturn. But the first man was Pelasgus, ancestor of the Pelasgians; he sprang from the soil of Arcadia, followed by certain others, whom he taught to make huts and feed upon acorns, and sew pig-skin tunics such as poor folk still wear in Euboea and Phocis. (Robert Graves, The Greek Myths – The Complete and Definitive Edition, p. 27, penguin books)

According to Graves was Pelasigians ‘ originally perhaps the Neolithic ‘Painted Ware’ people’ that came to the Greek  mainland from Palestine about 3500 b.c.. The early Hellads – immigrants from Asia Minor by way of the Cyklades – found them in occupation of the Peloponnese seven hundred years later.  But ‘pelasgians’ became loosely applied to all pre-Hellenic inhabitants of Greece.

Ophion, or Boreas, is the serpent demiurge of Hebrew and Egyptian myth – in early Mediterranean art, the goddess is constantly shown in his company.

2. The Homeric and The Orpic cration myths. Some say that all gods and all living creatures originated in the stream of Oceanus which girdles the world, and that Tethys was the mother of all his children.

But the Orphic say that black-winged Night, a goddess of whom even Zeus stands in awe, was courted by the Wind and laid a silver egg in the womb of Darkness; and that Eros, whom some call Panes, was hatched from this egg and set the universe in motion. Eros was double-sexed and golden- winged and, having four heads, sometimes roared like a bull or a lion sometimes hissed like a serpent or bleated like a ram. Night, who named him Ericepaius and Protogen Phaethon, lived in a cave with him, displaying herself in triad: Night, Order and Justice. Before this cave sat the inescapable mother Rhea, playing on a brazen drum, and compelling man’s attention to the oracles of the goddess. Phanes created earth, sky, sun, and moon, but the triple goddess ruled the universe, until her sceptre passed to Uranus.

1.      Homers myth is a version of the pelasgian myth 2.      Nights sceptre passed to Uranus with the advent of patriarchalism

3.   The Olympian Creation Myth  At the beginning of all things Mother Earth emerged from Chaos and bore her son Uranus as he slept. Gazing down fondly at her from the mountains, he showered fertile rain upon her secret clefts, and she bore grass, flowers, trees, with the beasts and birds proper to each. This same rain made the rivers flow and filled the hollow places with water, so that lakes and seas came into being.

Her first children of semi-human form were the hundred-handed giants Briareus, Gyges and Cottus. Next appeared the tree wild, one eyed cyclopes, builders of gigantic walls and master-smiths, formerly of Thrace, afterwards of Crete and Lycia, whose sons Odysseus encountered in Sicily. Their names were Brontes, Steropes, and Arges, and their ghosts have dwelt in the caverns of the volcano Aetna since Apollo killed them in revenge for the death of Asclepius.

The Libyans, however, claim that Garamas was born before the Hundred-handed Ones and that, when he rose from the plain, he offered Mother Earth a sacrifice of the sweet acorn.

According to Robert Graves “Athene was identified with the Libyan Godess Neith, who belonged to an epoch when fatherhood was not recognized “Virgin.priestesses of Neith engaged annually in armed combat (Herodotus: iv.180) for the position of High.priestess. Appollodorus’s account (iii.12. 3) of the fight between Athene and Pallas is a late patriarchal version: he says that Athene born of Zeus and brought up by the River – god Triton accidentally killed her foster-sister Pallas, the River Triton’s daughter because Zeus interposed his aegis when Pallas was about to strike Athene, and so distracted her attention. The aegis however, a magical goat-skin bag containing a serpent and protected by a gorgon mask, was Athene’s long before Zeus claimed to be her father. The Goat skin aprons were the habitual costume of Libyan girls, and Pallas merely means ‘maiden’ or ‘youth’. Heredotus writes (iv. 189) : Athenes garments aegis was borrowed by the Greeks from the Libyan women, who are dressed in exactly the same way, except that their leather garments are fringed with thongs, not serpents. Ethiopian girls still wear this costume, which is sometimes ornamented with cowries, a yonic symbol” Robert Graves p.44, kap 8 .1

“J.E Harrison rightly described the story of Athene’s birth from Zeus head as a desperate theological expedient to rid her of her matriarchal conditions’ It is also a dogmatic insistence on wisdom as a male prerogative; hitherto the goddess alone had been wise. Hesiod has, in fact, managed to reconcile three conflicting views in his story:

1 Athene, the Athenians city-godess, was the parthenogenous daughter of the immortal Metis, Titaness of the forth day and of the planet Mercury, who presided over all wisdom and knowledge.

2 Zeus swallowed Metis, but did not thereby lose wisdom (i.e. the Achaeans suppressed the Titan cult, and ascribed all wisdom to their god Zeus).

1. Athene was the daughter of Zeus (i.e. the Achaeans insisted that the Athenians must acknowledge Zeus patriarchal overlordship)” (Robert Graves p. 46, kap. 9)

4. Enuma Elish is the Babylon creation myth that bears strikingly similarities to the genesis narrative. “The Garden of Eden story is compared to the 5. Sumerian myth in which the goddess Ninhursag created a beautiful garden full of lush vegetation and fruit trees, called Edinu, in Dilmun, the Sumerian earthly Paradise, a place which the Sumerians believed to exist to the east of their own land, beyond the sea. Ninhursag charged Enki, her lover and half-brother, with controlling the wild animals and tending the garden, but Enki became curious about the garden, and his assistant, selected seven plants (eight in some versions) and offered them to Enki, who ate them. This enraged Ninhursag, and she caused Enki to fall ill. Enki felt pain in his rib, which is a pun in Sumerian, as the word "ti" means both "rib" and "life". The other deities persuaded Ninhursag to relent. Ninhursag then created a new goddess (seven or eight to heal his seven or eight ailing organs, including his rib), who was named Ninti, (a name composed of "Nin", or "lady", and "ti", and which may be translated both as "Lady of Living" and "Lady of the Rib"), to cure Enki. Some scholars suggest that this served as the basis for the story of Eve as "the mother of life" and lady of the rib, created from Adam’s rib in the Book of Genesis.”

“Both sources behind the Genesis creation narrative borrowed themes from Mesopotamian mythologhy but adapted them to their belief in one God, establishing a monotheistic creation in opposition to the polytheistic creation myth of ancient Israel’s neighbours.” (Wikipedia creation myth)

6. The first book of Moses: Genesis, Chapter 1-3. 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
2:10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
2:11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
2:12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
2:13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
2:14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
3:9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
3:11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
3:20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

7. Den poetiska Eddan