MYTHS  OF  CREATION

6.   From Creation
​      To Catastrophe

   6.1  
All mythopoeic cosmovisions   
of all ancient peoples, moreover  
universally promoted 
an overall view of nature
& humankind 
as being subject to 
an unfinished, open-ended succession 
of consecutive creations,
destructions,
& regenerative renewals
transpiring over extended eras
of cyclically recurring time:

​—  a sequential chain of WORLD AGES,
each related to, but likewise
separated from one another
by intervening catastrophes
& violently disruptive changes 
in the regular course of nature, 
which eventually brought
each ensuing new Age 
down crashing 
in a quickly collapsing
disastrous demise — 

— w/ successive sequels of this 
same series of occurrences
finally culminating in 
the creative destruction of the Age 
immediately preceding our own,
followed by the emergence of
the modern world order
of the present day.

                   ___________________
​

   6.2   (Demonstration:)
Like-minded parallels were once known
in every corner of the globe,
& were long held in common
by practically all early religious systems
everywhere, among primitive
& sophisticated societies alike.

The well-known Greek sequence of
World Ages & Generations of Man
characterized by four metals
of decreasing value 
(namely, Gold, Silver, Bronze & Iron)
was typical of many cosmogonic models
developed by the peoples of the ancient Near East,
— where we find it central also to:
the Hittite & Hurrian mythos,
the Egyptian & Babylonian (Akkadian)
accounts of Creation, 
as well as the theogonies of old (Ugaritic)
Canaan & Phoenicia.

​The concurrent presence of matching themes
among the older cosmogonies of  
early polytheistic Hebrew & Arabic peoples 
seems to have profoundly influenced 
the ‘sacred scriptures’ later
handed down by the legendary founders
of the modern monotheistic religions 
now typical of our era. 


​More or less identical motifs abounded in
the monuments, ceremonies and rituals 
of many antique peoples in pre-Christian Europe
— including the mythopoeic 
German, Scandinavian, 
Celtic & Etruscan peoples  
originally indigenous to their respective areas;

​​while further to the East, fit counterparts can be found
among the sacred books of the Hindu peoples,
which also spoke of four ages (or yugas) 
& the accompanying cataclysms (or pralayas)
that at different epochs wrecked the world
& destroyed much of the human race.

​
​The native American peoples
comparably looked back to
a series of ‘Sun Ages’
& the periodic upheavals
of land & sea that accompanied
the catastrophic extinguishing
of each successive Sun;

​— while further abroad we find echoes & traces
of corresponding elaborations
among the Chinese, Japanese, 
Southeast Asian & Polynesian populations;

w/ kindred traditions scattered as well as 
among the islands of Oceania,
the South Pacific, 
& the aboriginal populations of Australia.​​​

CONTINUE