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"In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World" by Virginia Hamilton

This book is a compilation of various stories from around the world that describe creation in very different forms. It describes how various religions and cultures think and more importantly, why they think the way that they do about life and what created it.

Throughout the story,it is very easy to see that various cultures and religions have very similar thoughts on creation.

The Pea-Pod Man (Raven Creator)

Raven the creator,the first story of the collection explains the creation of the earth through the eye of one lone person. The Raven gave the person the will to come to life. Through the creation of this lone person, the world was brought to life around him. As the world began to flourish, "women had husbands,men had wives". Women were cretaed in order to accompany man on this earth and ravens were there to assure that it would happen.

An Endless Sea of Mud (Death the Creator)

As death created the world, it started with the abuse of trust by god to Sa. Sa created a world for him and his family but god left with Sa's only daughter to marry her. Through this misuse of trust on gods part, Sa made it so God and his wife could not understand their children. In order to pay for marrying, god proclaimed that when Sa wanted one of gods children, he would take them;this is what is known as death.

Finding the Night (Quat the creator)

Quat was born along with eleven other brothers that were names Tangoro that all represented various characteristics of humans. One was quat the wise, the other was quat the fool. The others represented various leafs such as Breadfruit leaf, coconut leaf,bamboo leaf, and so on. Quat created life by first created puppets from trees. These puppets soon came to life and these were an equal amount of women and men; wives for husbands,husbands for wives. Tangoro the fool created death by carving out puppets from another tree but then quickly burying them.

Bursting From the Hen's Egg (Phan Ku the Creator)

At the beginning of time there was a space where nothing existed which was called Phan Ku. What surrounded Phan Ku was a hens egg. The force that created life was Phan Ku escaping the hens egg. He created what is known as Yin and Yang( The space between the earth and the sky). He created all the land structures on earth such as mountains and rivers. He also created the moon. When the world was complete, Phan Ku died and each part part of his body became a part of the earth.

Traveling to Form the World (Old Man the Creator)

"Old Man" traveled the world creating elements of nature such as birds. He also created land structures such as prairies and mountains. He eventually decided to mold a mother and child out of clay and spoke to them. Death was decided by the women throwing a stone into a river and watching it sink,"The will be an end to people" is what the old man declared.

First Man Becomes the Devil (Ulgen the Creator)

Humans were made by Ulgen the god watching mud traveling down a body of water and noticing they resembled human faces. He added a spirit to those faces to give them life. The first man to be made was names Erlik. Erlik eventually created his own life and humans so Ulgen sent him down and he became known as the devil. Ulgen proceeded to create earth and created seven trees with seven humans. The eighth person he created, Maidere, created women because Ulgen realized that each of the men that were created could not develop without women. Dogs were created to protect women and not let the men come near but once the dogs failed to do that, Ulgen proclaimed that dogs shall forever be treated badly.

Turtle Dives to the Bottom of the Sea (Earth Starter the Creator)

The earth starter came down from above on to a raft that had a turtle on it. The turtle wanted to walk on land so the earth starter lowered the turtle to the sea floor in order to create land for the turtle to walk on. After 6 years, the turtle came up with pieces of the floor under its nails. The earth starter took the pieces and created land. Once the land was created, the turtle walked on the land along with the earth starter. He proceeded to create animals and soon created humans. At the end, he said that as people grow older, they may go to the river and submerge themselves and in doing that, they will regain their youth. Soon after telling his people about the powers of the river, he rose back from where he came.

Moon and Sun (Mawu-Lisa the Creators)

Mana Buluku created the world and had a pair of twins, Mawu and Lisa. Mawu was the moon and Lisa was the sun. After an eclipse, the two had 14 offspring (7 pairs of twins). They all became gods of different aspects of life such as earth, storm, and iron. First twins were for earth and the second were for the sky. The third pair was for iron and the fourth was for the sea. The fifth were in charge of birds and beasts. The rest were made to take care of the space that lies between the earth and the sky.

Bandicoots Come From His Body (Korora the Creator)

At the beginning there was night. Korora slept at the bottom of the Ilbalintja while covered from head to toe in soil. Korora wished and dreamed for life and soon bandicoots escaped from his armpits and navel. Once they escaped from the grounmd, the sun rose and light appeared. Soon after, Korora escaped from the ground and ascended onto the land. He fell asleep after a long day and a bullroarer escaped from his armpit and became a human the lacked life. When Korora woke up, he gave this lifeless being ,life and this human was his son and Korora ordered him to eat all of the bandicoots. Each night that Korora would drift away into a slumber, he would have more and more sons. The number of bandicoots was not enough to support the number of sons that he had so they ended up running out. In the wake of this, he ordered his sons to venture out in order to get more food for themselves. While venturing they encountered a wallaby and proceeded to break its legs. After returning to their father, the descended underground and their father went back to being covered in soil.

Spider Ananse Finds Something (Wulbari the Creator)

Wulbari was god and became angry because he did not feel like there was enough space between him and the man on earth. The man on earth was constantly bumping his head again Wulbari and it began to irritate him so he rose higher about the earth in order to give him more space. Though he continued to rise, he was still being bothered by the activities on earth. He continued to change his positioning soon realizing that the activities on earth would not change.

The Women Who Fell From the Sky (Divine Women the Creator)

When time began, there was a lone, solitary women. This women was rescued by the animals that inhabited the world around her and understood that she needed earth to live. Each animal took turns descending to the bottom of the water to retrieve pieces of earth so that they could create it for her. Some of the animals lost their lives in this pursuit but they all knew it had to be done in order for the women to flourish. Land was created by the women taking the land that was collected and spreading it around the shell of a turtle that was with her. As time went on, the women had twins and they were very different in nature. One was know as "good" and the other was known as "bad". The bad one escaped from his mothers side which killed her. The "good" brother created doves and symbols of goodness while the "bad" brother on the other hand created beasts such as huge toads that drank up all the water that earth has to offer. The "good" brother found this out from a bird and cut the toad open releasing all of the worlds water back out. The two brothers fought and the "bad" brother was defeated.

Man Copies God (Nyambi the Creator)

Nyambi was god and he created various animals to occupy his world. He created a different being known as "man". Once this man was created, he wanted to do everything that Nymabi did and it scared him greatly. His man soon began to kill everything in sight and in order to get away from his creation he rose to the heavens so that he knew for sure he wouldn't be bothered by him. Every time the sun rises now, his created praises his creator and identifies the sun to be Nyambi.

The Forest Giant (Imir the Creator)

There were two realms that were situatd in the north and in the south. In the middle, a giant was born named Imir. Other giants began to form in his armpit and soon a man came from his leg. Soon other humans began to arise and 3 sons were soon born, Odin,Vili and Ve. Through their hatred for Imir who was evil, the killed him and the world from each piece of his body. The last piece that was used was his head and that was used to make the sky. Odin,Vili and Ve created a man and women and each of them supplied the humans with different parts of themselves such as Ve providing them with hearing and sight. The two humans names were Ask and Embla and through them, the world expanded.

Owner of the Sky (Olorun the Creator)

Olorum and many other gods wanted to go to earth in order to play but realized that there was no solid land for them to stand on. He gave a shell to the great god that contained a piece of earth and asked him to create solid land for them to play on. In the shell there was also a pigeon and a hen. Th Great god released the earth from the shell along with the pigeon and hen and created the ground. Alarm sent down a chameleon to check the work the greta god had done. After changes that the chameleon requested be done were done, OLORUM started to create other aspects of life on earth such as the people that were sent down from heaven.

Aspu and Tiamat Creators(Marduk,God of Gods)

Aspu was the fresh water creator and Tiamat was the salt water creator. These two beings created the great gods. They first formed the two gods Lahmu and Lahamu. Then they created Anshar and Kishar and they grew much much taller than the previous two gods. These two gods brought Anu to life and he brought EA to life. Each god created various aspects of the world which allowed life to flourish.

Four Creations to Make Man(Maker and Feathered Serpent the Creators)

The world started with absolutely nothing except for swift bodies of water that was hoe for the maker and the serpent. These two creaures created the world around them. The made animals and land forms such as mountains and valleys as far as the eye could see. These animals spoke but in sound rather than in word. People were created from wood and they were able to procreate and navigate about the world. The last creation from the maker consisted of the moon, the sun, and the stars. The names of the first humans were Jaguar Quiche, Jaguar Night,Ma-hu-cutah and the fourth was Wind Jaguar.Seeing that people could see everything and became up to them, the maker made it so that humans could only see certain things that were good for them.

The Angry Gods (Ta-aroa the Creator)

Ta-aroa was by himself in an egg shaped shell that was all alone with absolutely nothing around it. He eventually escaped from his shell and he realized that he needed a someone to stay with him. He create Tu the god so he would not be by himself. The two gods created many more gods which filled up every space that existed. Through the creation of these gods, lands were created and various animals were created as well. The first human to be created was Ti-i and he was said to be perfect. The first women that was created was Hina which was both a goddess and a human. Ti-i eventually became evil and wished nothing but sadness and doom throughout the world. His wife did everything she could to reverse all of the bad he doing. At the end, Ti-i lost his life because he,himself could not escape the curse he spread around the world.

Sun,Life,Wind, and Death (God Lowa the Creator)

To start,there were only oceans on earth. The God Lowa came down and proclaimed that there would be land and land appeared. He returned from where he had come and sent down 4 men to go in different directions on earth. The man who went towards the east brought light to earth. The man who went to the west created life. The third man went towards the south and created wind. The last man was the creator of death and killed all things that were created. A god was eventually sent down to name all of the creatures such as fish. Now through the creation of fish,no man would go hungry on earth.

The Sun-God and the Dragon(God Ra the Creator)

Life started with Ra. His fathers name was Nun. In order for him to live, he created all of lives features because he was alone. Apophis,a dragon, lived under the sky and waited for the perfect chance to punish Ra. Each of the gods that Ra created came from his tears or he spat them out. Each of these gods played a key role in creating life on earth. These gods took down Apophis and Ra was victorious in getting rid of the evil that Apophis brought.

Separation of Earth and Sky(Sedi and Melo the Creators)

Sedi was earth and Melo was the sky. The two married but a fear lingered between them. They both feared that they would destroy what was between the two. On earth there were various creatures including men. Sedi-Diyor captured Melo and punished him. Due to this altercation, Melo fled and Sedi stayed behind and has 2 daughters. Sedi was so sad that her husband fled that she refused to care for her daughters so they were put in the care of a nurse. After the nurse died, the daughters were so distraught that they themselves lost their lives. The light hat had shinned so bright with their existence, ended and all there was was darkness. Two new girls were created through the pain for having darkness and they brought the light back. The only problem was that they brought too much light and it destroyed many things. The light became to much and a frog ended up killing one of the girls and the light became less intense which allowed things that had once died, to live again. The last living girl was so scared she would be the next one to be killed that a shadow started to loom over her and once again made the world dark. The girl refused to come back and bring light so a carpenter brought her sister back to life which brought the bright light back to the world again.

First Man,First Women(Yahweh the Creator)

Before Yaweh created all living things,the earth was bare. He created the garden of Eden and placed the first man there to care for it. He created the tree of life and of good and evil. Adam was the man created to care for the garden and Yaweh decided that another human must be created from the man. Eve was created as a women because was made from the rib of Adam.

The Coming of All Things (The Greek Creators)

There was absolutely nothing in the beginning. The first thing that was created was earth so that the gods would have somewhere to walk upon. The next thing that was created was tartarus which was the underworld. Through the creation of earth, heaven and the sea were created. Heaven was known as a place where the gods went to rest. Mt.Olympus was a home for all of the gods. Heaven brought many more gods and Titans. Kronos, the youngest titan was then created. Knowing that he betrayed his father, Kronos proceeded to eat his children as they were being born in order to avoid them betraying him. After Zeus was born to Kronos ad Rhea, Rhea took Zeus and hid him from his father. In order to trick him, Rhea wrapped a stone to look like a baby and Kronos swallowed him whole as well. Through this, Zeus became great and powerful and became the god of all gods.

The God Brings Fire to Man (Prometheus the Creator)

Prometheus was the grandson of the ocean and the sun of Lapetos which was Kronos's brother. During the first fight between the gods and the Titans, Prometheus helped to defeat the titans. Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus, can be translated to afterthought. He often swayed between being indecisive to not giving his choices a second thought. Unlike his brother, He could not decide whether or not he wanted to fight with Zeus so he did not fight with him but he also saved himself from having to hurt anyone. The two brothers were granted with the job to make all living things on earth. Epimetheus was supposed to make ever living thing and Prometheus was there to check that all of the living things were perfect. Epimetheus ran out of components to make humans out of so Prometheus took the job.

Zeus the creator(The God Brings Fire to Man)

Pandora was made in heaven. Thinking that she couldnt stop herself from opening it, zeus sent apollo with a gift feor pandora. Apollo warned her never to open this gift and she agreed. She was so curious about the contents of the box that she continuously asked the other box if she could just take a peek in the box but they all said no. knowing that zeus gave terrible gifts, Empimetheus offered to hide the gift to protect Pandora from opening it. Prometheus saw that Pandora herself was meant to be a terrible gift for him and his brother Empimetheus to fight over but she was so Perfect that she could never be something terrible. While waiting for Prometheus and Epimetheus to return, she spent time in the making shop. While examining the box, she fell and it accidently opened. All types of evil creatires escapedfrom the box and surrounded her. Hope was also in that box and quickly flew away to rescue the humans from the attrocities they were about to encounter such as poverty.

 Elohim the creator(In the Beginning)

Elohim created the world from nothing. He created light with one command "let there be light". He created every structure on earth in this fashion. He separated his creation into land and sea. Elohim continued to create both good and bad creatures on earth. When he was done creating earth and life, he rested and proclaimed that the seventh day of the creation of earth would be known as the holy day.

Illustrations

Each of the stories are accompanied by illustrations of deities that were drawn by Barry Moser.

Virginia Hamilton

Virginia Hamilton has one various notable awards such as the Edgar Allen Poe award.