Motifs In Creation Myths

In every creation myth there are motifs. Motifs are things that are repeated from one creation to another generally speaking it's something happening in one myth also happening in many other myths. All motifs are all equally important to their myths but there are three that stand out to me as important that I am prepared to tell you about. Those three are destruction, multiple attempts, and organic material. When I say destruction that means of course something being destroyed but the reason for the destructions are the same. Also the multiple attempts are geared toward people meaning multiple attempts at people. Then the organic material is also geared toward people because in many places and creation myths they were made from organic materials.
When learning about these I think about how far apart the people were and are and yet they can still believe the same things.
Lots of creation myths have destruction in them which is the reason it’s a motif.
The reason that destruction keeps coming up so much I think is because it can keep us in line. It keeps us from going crazy and unchecked to make sure we as humans are made sure we know we could be gone in the blink of an eye or a snap of a finger. Think about it if we weren’t scared that any moment we could be destroyed by a giant flood or hurricane or something horrific like that think about how we would all act we wouldn’t care. Way back when it help the creators keep their people in line a think and it still works today. Then also the nervousness of not knowing when it's coming. Earlier I said that the motif of destruction comes up in many creations and cultures and it would only be right if I tell you which ones. Mayans were one of them not of the first ones but there was destruction in their myth. The Mayans using a flood killed a race of man that was unfit in their eyes so they destroyed them. The Maori had destruction as well not the same way and same reason. One of the gods were angry at a outcome of something so he sent hurricanes, tornados, cyclones, tsunamis, and storms to destroy and let out his anger. Another creation is of the Jews and christians there's wasn’t was destructive as the Maori. In the genesis creation there was only a flood because the god was displeased again with the actions of his creations and people so he had them all but a few destroyed. The myth of Yoruba also had a flood this flood was to warn and scare people since they were taking the sea and water for granted. The Greek had lots of destruction in their myths they had many races of men and some came to an end in a destructive manner. One race was destructive themselves and killed themselves off and another just died away. The Navajo myth had many different worlds and some came to an end in fighting or in a flood and winds. Then there is also the Aztec. The Aztecs had a race of man that was
destroyed by a flood then there was a small fight amongst themselves. There are many other creation myths that surely had destruction in them not necessarily the same way in each ones and in different ways and there are also some was of destruction I forgot to mention but I've done enough that you get the point.
Organic materials as in Its name is organic they are natural materials. In many of the creation myths the creators made their creations out oc organic materials. The materials coming from the earth shows that we come from the earth and then return to the earth no escaping it. I think it would be weird to be made out of some unknown substance that can’t be found anywhere. Shows we all come from something and we are not higher than the earth we were put on to take care of. The many creations that have the organic material element in them are the Mayan, Egyptian, Chinese, Inuit, Inca, Norse, and Yoruba. In the Mayan creation they had many attempts at people. The first attempt the creators used clay. The clay people did not stay together and would fall apart. The next was wood they really didn’t have any feelings or hearts they weren't the brightest. The didn’t have the capacity to worship their creator like they were first made to do. The last and the race we are considered now was made of white corn ground into paste. When we were first made they could see everything little bits of their eyesight was taken away so they couldn’t see everything. All these materials are organic the mud comes from the earth, wood comes from the trees and white corn also comes from the earth they are all organic. The Egyptian believed that there creator cried tears of joy from his children returning to him so we come from tears of joy in their culture which is a really nice and comforting thought in contrast to some of the other myths. The Chinese used mud to make their people some were shaped by hand and they became the leaders and were stronger then there was some that were mud just flung to the ground to make people these people are the followers of the leaders. In the Inuit creation and culture they were made by accident they were not meant to be made but it was a happy mistake. They came from a pea pod that planted by the creator. Another culture believes they come from trees another believes they come from stone and another believes they come from clay also. All these different believers come to together and makes me come to the same conclusion that there is an important factor of all the creations since it shows up so much.
One of the other motifs that I think is important to the creations and their cultures are that in a lot of them they believe their was multiple attempts from the creator some of their creations explain simple things like deformities, people better at leading than others, and plain stupidity and many other things. Many of the these creations myths have brought up earlier in the paper but I am repeating them again because they are all so closely related and fall each on the categories that i have brought forward. The Mayans explain monkeys in a way. Their first attempt at people were of clay and that didn’t work at all they just fell apart couldn’t hold together. The next was wood the people made of would not and could not think for themselves and had no hearts and and no brains also. This race was either eaten by animals, washed away in a flood, or sent to the woods to turn into the animal we see today the monkey. The we have the people who are made of white corn but it's not just the white corn that we are made of the corn was made into a paste and then we were made from it. Chinese had 2 attempts sort of in my eyes it is they were both made of the same material and had mostly the same outcome beside the fact that one versions were good leaders and the other was good followers. The first group of people were made by hand using clay and were good leaders the second group after realizing making so many people this way would take forever they then began just flinging clay to the earth and they became people as well but they weren’t good leaders but were awesome followers. So yes in a way they are different attempts in my eyes. There is some contradictions going back and forth on whether it's true or not. In the creations myth of genesis there is the idea of Eve and Lilith. They believe Lilith was before Eve and refused to serve their god and Adam also. So Lilith was turned into a snake and then Eve was made as a second attempt. When Eve was made and she was willing to follow and serve god and Adam. The Yoruba culture explains deformities in people. The creator became drunk and started forming people and they were all deformed in the result of his actions. When we come out of drunkenness he realized what he did and took it apon himself to protect the deforemed and promised to never drink again. While thinking about and learning about it there is a explimation for why when women are pregnet and they drink there child also becomes deformed like in this creaton. Then in the greek culture there are a grand total of 5 attempts wich is the most attempst in all the cultures I have talked about. There was the gold, silver, bronze, heros, and iron. The golden age fought in a war and was all killed. The silver age was foolish and had no respect for there gods they were sent to the dark corners of the underworld. The next was the bronze age they were filled with hate and killed each other. Then there were the heros they as in their names were heros in themselves they slowly died of over time. Last but not least there was and is the iron race that is us. Make by the same creator yet so many differences.
Lots of the these cultures are so far apart and yet when you take the time to look at their creation myths like I did I notice all the similarities which is what make them motifs. And it's so amazing and i wonder how that it moved from one side of the world to the other and we continue to wonder how it got there when they don’t even talk to each other or are so far away that they can't talk to each other. All motifs are equally important to their creations but there are three that stand out to me as important destruction, organic material, and multiple attempts. They are all important motifs.